MOSSAD And The Iranian Nuclear Threat

"The scientists’ motivations were all different."

"Mossad found out what they deeply wanted in their lives and offered it to them."

"There was an inner circle of scientists who knew more about the operation, and an outer circle who helped out but had less information."

"All of them are very safe today."

Unnamed source

 

"Unlike in the previous rounds of talks, Britain is currently holding the strongest line. This is very much appreciated by Israel, as there is a sense that the Americans are so desperate to return to the deal that they would be too soft." 

"However, it is quite clear that Britain and the rest of the international community still sees negotiation as the most effective track to rein in Iranian ambitions."

"Israel is not convinced that this will be enough, and also doubt that more problematic partners, like Russia and China, will be able to hold same line."

"Therefore, the credibility of the threat from Israel needs to be enhanced, reiterated and reimposed, as part of a dual effort to put real pressure on Iranians."

"In terms of geopolitics, that is the message that these operations are sending to the international community."

Richard Pater, Executive Director, Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (Bicom)

Blown up: Iran's Natanz nuclear plant, seen in 2007  (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

The Israeli secret service knows that you can have all the technological advantages in the world to enable the process of acquiring knowledge of the machinations of other countries relating to their military plans, to unlock the  secret blueprints they keep to themselves irrespective of the facade presented to the outside world, but there are no assets for recovery of inside realities quite like the effectiveness and efficiency of a core of insider recruits whose data delivery leaves no room for guesswork.

 

Humint -- human intelligence -- is the ultimate in revealing the plans of a country derived from its own inner circles of those in the know.

Insider assistance in carrying through plans of sabotage to set back the agenda of government agencies is another invaluable tool, made all that more approachable and successful with the willing aid of inside intelligence and cooperation. When the actions of insiders in working against the interests of the state are revealed, they pay a stiff penalty; their commitment to undermining the resources of their own country owes much to their dissatisfaction with the direction that country is heading in. Conscience and sympathy are great aids in deception.

It is a secret to no one that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been working toward attaining nuclear weapons. It is just that aspiration, linked to Tehran's Ayatollahs' support of Islamist terrorism fomenting disorder and violent atrocities on behalf of the Republic's determination to surmount resistance to its plans of Shi'ite conquest and Persian control in a Sunni-majority region of Arab states that drew the attention of the West to its malign purpose. The UN's IAEA's efforts at monitoring the Revolutionary Iranian Guard Corps' uranium enrichment program stems from the threat they pose to the region and the wider world.

 

But the one regional state that is indelibly in the crosshairs of the Republic's lethal weaponry of mass destruction is undeniably Israel. The message delivered time and again, publicly and with venomous intent is the promise to obliterate Israel's presence from the Middle East. When fundamentalist extremists are convinced that they have been selected by an all-powerful heavenly entity to furnish the means by which a perceived enemy can be extinguished, rational arguments based on human rights have no impact.

 

The Jewish state knows full well from historical events that it can rely on no other forces than its own for protection from extermination. Its secret services know how to convince others, vulnerable to uncertainty over the morals involved in human rights violations that they have an obligation and a part to play in overcoming the unconscionable plans of dictators. And because Iran is just such a theistic dictatorship, its people are restive and among them those in elite situations of command who are prepared to intervene.

 

The Mossad spy agency is renowned for its cultivated professionalism in intelligence gathering. And it relies upon the secretive collaboration of the dissatisfied to find purpose in aiding and abetting the downfall of their own governments who have failed abysmally the most basic tests of human decency.

A number of Iranian scientists working in the Republic's structures devoted to nuclear development acceded to requests for cooperation. They were, however, duped into believing that it was a collaboration on their part with Iranian dissident groups, not with an arm of a foreign government they would be working with.

 

In the process however, they were tasked with smuggling explosives into the secure and highly protected underground vaults of Iran's nuclear emplacements. In April, a blast destroyed the Natanz plant's independent internal power system meant to energize centrifuges enriching uranium in the protected underground reinforced concrete bunker. That blast represented the second time in a year the base was attacked, by what other countries' security officials identify as an Israeli project. 

It was not, after all, exiled Iranian dissidents with whom these collaborative insiders worked, but with Israel. In some instances the explosives were dropped into the facility by drones while allied components were smuggled through security in catering trucks, reported The Jewish Chronicle, which broke the story. Another July 2020 explosion was the work of explosives hidden in building materials that formed part of the building construction a year earlier.

A motorcycle-size quadcopter drone carried out a bombing raid on the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company in Karaj in June, north of Tehran. When the news was revealed to the public eye, Israel, with its policy of never claiming ownership of such events, made no comment. Attacks on the Natanz plant, according to Iran's acknowledgement, had the effect of setting its nuclear program back months. An ongoing search for the Iranians suspected of involvement in the operation, now fugitives, was foiled, since they are said to have been spirited to safety by Mossad agents.

Tehran, while spuriously claiming it has no interests in obtaining nuclear weapons, has been steadily increasing levels to which it enriches uranium far beyond the limit set by the Nuclear Agreement it signed in 2015, levels that outside nuclear scientists agree has only one application, and that would be a military application. "From a technical standpoint, the enemy's plan was rather beautiful", said head of the Iranian parliamentary energy committee, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani rashly.

A map of north Iran showing the location of Mossad’s first assaults on Natanz and quadcopter attack on Karaj (Photo: GETTY IMAGES, ASINGUARDS, YOUTUBE. Illustration: Sheree Fadil)