The buzz is out there that the Israeli intelligence force, Mossad, might have been responsible for assassinating an Iranian nuclear scientist. My own question to the Western world though is this — is it wrong that I’m applauding?
From the Sunday Times, AP via The Australian:
Mossad ‘hit’ on Iranian nuke scientist
* Sarah Baxter, Washington
* February 05, 2007THE Israeli spy agency Mossad is suspected of assassinating a prize-winning Iranian atomic scientist as Tehran snubs the West and comes close to realising its nuclear ambitions.
Radio Farda, which is funded bythe US State Department andbroadcasts to Iran, said thescientist, Ardeshire Hassanpour, had died in “mysterious circumstances”.An intelligence source suggested that Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear physicist, had been assassinated by Mossad. Hassanpour worked at a plant in Isfahan where uranium hexafluoride gas is produced. The gas is needed to enrich uranium in another plant at Natanz, which has become the focus of concerns that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.
According to Radio Farda, Iranian reports of Hassanpour’s death emerged on January 21 after a delay of six days, giving the cause as “gas poisoning”.
The Iranian reports did not say how or where Hassanpour was poisoned but his death was said to have been announced at a conference on nuclear safety.
Rheva Bhalla of US intelligence company Stratfor claimed at the weekend that Hassanpour had been targeted by Mossad and that there was “very strong intelligence” to suggest he had been assassinated by the Israelis, who have repeatedly threatened to prevent Iran acquiring the bomb.
Hassanpour won Iran’s leading military research prize in 2004 and was awarded top prize at the Kharazmi international science festival in Iran last year.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to announce next Sunday — the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution — that 3000 centrifuges have been installed at Natanz, enabling Iran to move closer to industrial-scale uranium enrichment.
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency say that hundreds of technicians and labourers have been “working feverishly” to assemble equipment at the plant.
The Israeli Government has been known to go to extreme steps to maintain its position as the only nuclear power in the region. In 1986 when a former technician in Israel’s nuclear reactor, Mordechai Vanunu, revealed to London’s The Sunday Times that Israel had about 200 nuclear warheads and provided photographs of the reactor, Mossad kidnapped him in Europe. He was convicted of treason and spent 18 years in prison in Israel.
Hit by UN Security Council sanctions over its atomic program and vehemently denying US allegations it is seeking a nuclear weapon, Iran is keen to prove its activities are clear and transparent. At the weekend, a delegation of Non-Aligned Movement and Group of 77 representatives arrived at the facility in the central city of Isfahan with foreign and Iranian journalists for a guided tour.
“They have the opportunity to see for themselves what is going on in the peaceful nuclear activities of Iran and have first-hand experience,” said Iran’s envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh.
“This is the maximum transparency you can imagine that a country can have, and shows the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran pays due attention to public opinion of the international community.”
Before being allowed into the heart of the conversion plant, journalists were told not to “overstep the boundaries” and observe a formal ban on taking pictures of the site’s exterior.
Mr Soltanieh, who guided diplomats and journalists around the site, showed the IAEA’s monitoring cameras installed in the heart of the plant where uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the feed gas for uranium enrichment is produced.
“Everything is recorded for the IAEA. Each gram of input is measured before and after going through the process.”
Mr Soltanieh said that Iran had produced “250 tonnes of UF6 in Isfahan”.
The UF6 is then enriched through cascades of centrifuges to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. In extended form, the same process can produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb.
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Let me cheer along with you.
Good for the Mossad. Olmert must have slept to let that happen.