An Expansive Tool Kit

A bunker-bombing series of attacks of Iran's nuclear installations, difficult as they are to reach, uncertain the outcome, does not represent the only action that can be taken by Iran's 'enemies', the Great Satan and the Little Satan. There are, obviously, other covert and highly successful activities, even a succession and a series of various types of incidents that can occur to disturb the belligerent determination of the Islamic Republic of Iran in its nuclear warhead-making activities.

In any event, if the world is to believe the account given by Tehran of an unfortunate accident that occurred this past week-end, Iran itself has been busy sabotaging itself. The report out of the country was that an accident occurred relating to ammunition being moved. These things happen; familiarity breeding contempt, those working with high explosives forget from time to time how incendiary they may be. Particularly if they're high-profile, very important scientists accustomed to handling them.

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Iranians carry a picture and coffin of Hassan Moghaddam, a Revolutionary guards commander, who was killed during a blast in a military base, in Tehran, Iran, Monday. Jamejam Online/Ebrahim Norouzi/Reuters

Which is the Iranian explanation for what happened to Brigadier-General Hassan Moghaddam, an elite member of the Revolutionary Guards, who was tasked with perfecting "armaments", as in missiles development, as a Persian patriot. He was indeed in charge of "industrial research aimed at ensuring self-sufficiency of the Revolutionary Guards' armaments." Which explains why he might have been present at a routine moving of explosives...?

His funeral was attended by quite a mourning crowd. Another sixteen members of the Revolutionary Guard were blown to smithereens at that unfortunate event. Of course rumours are circulating that the People's Mojaheddin of Iran, with the connivance of the Mossad were really being held responsible. And hard on the heels of that misfortune, the revelation that yet another lethal computer virus was troubling the country. First Stuxnet, then Stars, and now, what was the name? oh yes, Duqu.

"We are in the initial phase of fighting the Duqu virus. The final report which says which organizations the virus has spread to and what its impacts are has not been completed yet. All the organizations and centers that could be susceptible to being contaminated are being controlled", reported Gholamreza Jalali, Iran's civil defence organization head.

Now that's a relief, to hear they're ahead of the game and have a firm hold on matters. Symantec Corp. identified the virus with a code similar to Stuxnet. Now that's a surprise.

As for the late departed General Moghaddam, the founder of Iran's missile program, who outdid himself perfecting ballistic missiles with a range up to 1,500 miles, he has been fulsomely praised for his expertise and dedication to the development of artillery and missile units. Ayatollah Ali Khamanei himself attended the funeral for this great man whose life was consumed by his work. Whose work in fact consumed his life.

It is extremely unfortunate that Iran has developed such an unenviable reputation for stubborn deviousness, aided and abetted by its bellicose threats. Someone, or some group certainly seems to have become most unsettled by the Republic of Iran's covert nuclear activities meant for peaceful, civil uses. Oh yes, it's the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.

Bad luck for Iran too that a number of its high-profile nuclear scientists have been assassinated. Three in two years, now that's seriously disturbing. There was one near-miss, though and that one survived a "sticky bomb" that had been stuck on his car. Fereydoon Abbasi, nuclear scientist-who-survived-assassination now well recovered, was named director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

Remember that old adage: If at first you don't succeed....?

The devil made somebody do it.