Who is responsible for the Iran nuclear scientists attacks?

[bemildred]

Mainly for Mr Baer's comments. FWIW, I don't have an opinion on the facts, but I think Baer is right as far as appearances. If not Israel, then who, and why? I don't buy the USA (see Mr Baer's comments on the laws), I'm willing to consider Iran's government, for the purpose of shoring up domestic support, but would not expect them to do it more than a time or two, when it happens a lot it looks incompetent, it's not the image one would be looking for to shore up support. I'd be interested if anybody has other ideas.

Wednesday's killing of Ahmadi-Roshan was a carbon copy of the November attacks on Shahriari and Abbasi-Davani: the masked helmeted assassins on their bikes, a limpet bomb shaped to do maximum damage inside the car, minimum damage outside. Even the victim's car was the same, a silver Peugeot 405.

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Israel certainly has a track record of assassinations, from the Palestinian perpetrators of the Munich Olympic attack of 1972, to the killing of senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room in early 2010. This week, Le Figaro reported that Mossad had been recruiting Iranian dissidents in the Kurdish region of neighbouring Iraq, to conduct operations in Iran.

"If you look at the choice of target it really could only be Israel," says Robert Baer, a former CIA agent in the Middle East, currently working on a book on assassination called The Perfect Kill. "If it was an internal group, like the MeK ([Mujahedin-e-Khalq] it would be security official or policeman who had been torturing their guys. If you look at the motivation, it must be Israel."

However, Baer adds that it is quite likely that Israel is acting in tandem with an Iranian dissident organisation. "To do this in the middle of the day, with a limpet charge and then getaway, you need a lot of people on the ground," he says. " You need an extensive network of the kind only someone like MeK can provide."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/12/iran-nuclear-scientists-attacks?newsfeed=true

[bemildred]

1. False Flag

Then there is this, stolen from Good Reads.

Buried deep in the archives of America's intelligence services are a series of memos, written during the last years of President George W. Bush's administration, that describe how Israeli Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to the terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as American agents. According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives -- what is commonly referred to as a "false flag" operation.

The memos, as described by the sources, one of whom has read them and another who is intimately familiar with the case, investigated and debunked reports from 2007 and 2008 accusing the CIA, at the direction of the White House, of covertly supporting Jundallah -- a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization. Jundallah, according to the U.S. government and published reports, is responsible for assassinating Iranian government officials and killing Iranian women and children.

But while the memos show that the United States had barred even the most incidental contact with Jundallah, according to both intelligence officers, the same was not true for Israel's Mossad. The memos also detail CIA field reports saying that Israel's recruiting activities occurred under the nose of U.S. intelligence officers, most notably in London, the capital of one of Israel's ostensible allies, where Mossad officers posing as CIA operatives met with Jundallah officials.

The officials did not know whether the Israeli program to recruit and use Jundallah is ongoing. Nevertheless, they were stunned by the brazenness of the Mossad's efforts.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/13/false_flag

[bemildred]

2. Jundallah: Profile Of A Sunni Extremist Group

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Since its emergence in 2003, Jundallah has taken credit for some 10 attacks, including three suicide bombing since last December and the mass kidnappings of Iranian soldiers and civilians.

Iran has responded by cracking down hard on Jundallah and its perceived supporters. Most of those arrested are summarily executed, according to human rights watchdogs.

Last year, Pakistan extradited Abdolhamid Rigi, a younger brother of Jundallah's leader, to Iran, where he now awaits execution.

Doshoki says that it is difficult to establish who, exactly, supports Jundallah because Tehran has never provided evidence to back its accusations that the group receives support from Washington, London, or Islamabad.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Jundallah_Profile_Of_A_Sunni_Extremist_Group/1856699.html

[Behind the Aegis]

3. The Iranian government (at least for this one).

I would have to look agains about the others, but in this case, I think this was to stop a leak and/or halt/compromise upcoming talks.

[Little Tich]

4. I think it was the Mossad.

The assassination was flawless as usual, but I have no idea why Israel would want to do it, and especially right now. It's simply not the right time.

[holdencaufield]

5. Just curious

When WOULD be the right time?

[Little Tich]

7. The “right” time would be anytime when the US isn't

actively trying to convince the Iranians to stop their nuclear program with nonviolent measures. It seems as if Obama almost had an aneurysm over the assassination, and he's now trying to control the damage. It's not a good idea to mess up the US efforts to avoid a war, and I think that for once, this will have consequences for Israel.

If I didn't know that the ultimate goal of the current Israeli government is to break the strategic alliance with the US, I wouldn't think that the Mossad did it. The timing is so wrong and the target is of so little worth, that it has to be Israel.

[Jefferson23]

6. Western intelligence sources tell Time Magazine Israel's Mossad targeted Iranian scientist

On Saturday, Iran claimed it had information tying U.S. to the incident; Senior Israeli official tells Time Magazine he 'doesn't feel bad' for scientist killed.
By Haaretz and Reuters

Western intelligence sources told Time magazine on Friday that Israel's Mossad is responsible for the latest assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

A magnetic bomb was attached to the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan's car during the Wednesday morning rush-hour in Tehran. His driver was also killed. Sources tell the magazine Israel was behind three previous assassinations of scientists.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/western-intelligence-sources-tell-time-magazine-israel-s-mossad-targeted-iranian-scientist-1.407322

[shira]

12. Western "Intelligence"? More like Western crackpots! See post #10 below. n/t

[Scurrilous]

8. Sunday Times: Mossad agents behind Iran scientist assasination

Report reveals the step-by-step procedure behind the killing of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan as he was on his way to the Natanz uranium enrichment.

<snip>

"According to the Sunday Times, Roshan, 32, was monitored from a makeshift control room in a safe house nearby as he was preparing to leave for work. Israeli agents were also watching the entrance to Iranian intelligence headquarters in the city center, when they noticed a number of cars and people running, followed by police rushing into the nearby streets. Another agent monitoring radio traffic between the Tehran police and security forces confirmed unusual activity, said the paper.

The report states that as Roshan’s bodyguard was driving him to Natanz uranium enrichment site, where he served as director, a masked person on a motorbike weaved through traffic, planting a bomb on the car shaped to deliver its full force at the passenger.

The Sunday Times report stated that hundreds of regime supporters swore revenge at Roshan’s funeral on Friday. "Two targets were always in Mustafa's mind," Reza Najafi, a friend, said. "To fight Israel and to become a shaheed (martyr). He achieved both his targets."

The United States ruled out any connection with the assassination. "We were not involved in any way with regards to the assassination that took place there," said Secretarty of Defense Leon Panetta, although he did hint that he had "some idea" of who was."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/sunday-times-mossad-agents-behind-iran-scientist-assasination-1.407593

[shira]

13. And yet more totally unreliable, crackpot sources fishing for a clue. n/t

[hack89]

9. I think it was the People’s Mujahadeen Organization of Iran (MEK) with possible help from Israel. nt

[oberliner]

10. Report: Iran arrests several suspects in assassination of nuclear scientist

TEHRAN,Iran — An Iranian news website is reporting several suspects have been arrested over last week’s killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said the suspects are being interrogated, and the investigation is continuing. He talked to Iran’s state Arabic language TV channel Al-Alam, and his comments were carried on the Tabnak.ir site.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/report-iran-arrests-several-suspects-in-assassination-of-nuclear-scientist/2012/01/16/gIQAxVxz2P_story.html

[shira]

11. Go figure. The stories about Israel's Mossad are nothing but bullshit smoke and mirrors...

Who else here gets the feeling that WRT the Western Press on anything I/P and mideast related, it's 90% propaganda and stupid crackpot conspiracy theories?

Same dumb fucks writing the same stupid bullshit day after day for the same stupid useful idiot audience and they're never called to account for it.

Amazing.

[bemildred]

14. Iran says information gathered by UN may have played part in scientist killing

Various obviousnesses about this, but ...

Iran, at odds with Western governments over its nuclear program, has accuses U.S. and Israeli agents of being behind the killing.

Iran charged on Thursday that assassins who killed an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran last week may have used information obtained from the United Nations.

Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, was killed by a motorbike hitman who put a magnetic bomb on his car on a street during the morning rush hour on Jan. 11. Iran, at odds with Western governments over its nuclear program, has accused U.S. and Israeli agents of being behind the killing.

Iran's deputy UN ambassador Eshagh Al Habib said there was a "high suspicion that ... terrorist circles used the intelligence obtained from United Nations bodies, including the sanctions list of the Security Council and interviews carried out by IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) with our nuclear scientists, to identify and carry out their malicious acts."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/iran-says-information-gathered-by-un-may-have-played-part-in-scientist-killing-1.408290

[Scurrilous]

15. Israel's Mossad trained assassins of Iran nuclear scientists, report says

U.S. officials confirm link between clandestine Israeli operations and People’s Mujahedin of Iran activists, according to NBC News report.

<snip>

"Mossad officials are training Iranian dissident activists to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists, a NBC news report citing U.S. officials said on Thursday. The report noted, however, that Washington was not directly involvement in the alleged attacks.

The report by NBC news followed Iranian accusations that Israel and the U.S. had been orchestrating attacks against Iranian scientists and military officials associated with Iran's nuclear program.

These accusations resurfaced following the most recent alleged attack, as Iranian media reported last month that nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran.

According to the semi-official Fars news agency, Ahmadi Roshan, 32, supervised a department at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province.

The United States has denied involvement in the killing and condemned it. Israel has declined to comment."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-s-mossad-trained-assassins-of-iran-nuclear-scientists-report-says-1.411945