Iran's top nuclear scientist assassinated

[mapuc]

I had forgotten all about Syria. Iran has military forces there.

So if Iran are going to revenge this killing some kind of attack may come from Syria.

Markus

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

Four other Iranian nuclear scientist have also been assassinated. that adds up to a total 375 virgins(72 per) in paradise for their martyrdom!

Originally Posted by mapuc

No doubt Iran will blame Israel for this.

Who did I don't know-There are a few countries and groups who could have done it.

Markus

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

If anything is going to happen I'd expect it to be over the forthcoming holiday period for maximum effect.

I would also reckon Israel would welcome the opportunity to retaliate should they be the target.

BIG time!! and Iran can't send missiles against Israel as with attack on the Saudi oil refinery this time without severe consequences. Five dead nuclear scientists??!: Ace!

 

Today's WSJ: Ruel Garecht editorial: Any American intelligence operative who’s worked on Iran has to tip his hat to Israel’s Mossad. The assassination Friday of Iran’s pre-eminent atomic-bomb scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and, even more impressively, the warehouse heist of the clerical regime’s nuclear archive in January 2018, shows a level of risk-taking and accomplishment that has no U.S. parallel. In June there were large, damaging explosions at the Natanz uranium enrichment site, which probably weren’t caused by shoddy maintenance.
The Central Intelligence Agency hasn’t been a particularly bold organization in decades (the aggressive interrogation of al Qaeda members may be an exception). It isn’t only the timidity of the CIA’s senior management and Washington’s political class that enfeebles Langley; it’s the absence of a mission against a state-threatening foe that focuses the mind and attracts real talent. An Iran with nukes would threaten Israel’s existence, not America’s.
Israel has been lethally penetrating the Islamic Republic for at least a decade. Mossad now appears to have stationary surveillance and hit teams positioned in the country. Given the level of internal dissent, which has spread even among children of the original Iranian revolutionaries, it’s possible Israel has acquired valuable agents in Iran’s armed forces and security services.
Though the assassinations of Fakhrizadeh and others, such as Daryoush Rezainejad in 2011, may be the work of Iranian assets in Jerusalem’s employ—Kurds may be the most accessible and motivated—the archival theft is more likely an intrusion in which Israeli officers were on the ground in command. By comparison, it’s doubtful that the CIA has ever deployed a single nonofficial-cover officer inside Iran to sustain either intelligence collection or covert action since the failed Operation Eagle Claw hostage rescue in 1980. Fakhrizadeh had probably been an Israeli target for some time; the assassination’s timing might have been coincidental, dictated by a fortuitous intercept or piece of human intelligence that convinced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go for it. But the Israeli achievements, which have continued despite the Iranian regime’s repeated attempts to thwart them, mean that Jerusalem can play havoc with the Biden administration’s hoped-for nuclear diplomacy. The signal to Democratic Washington is unmistakable: Jerusalem has the means, even without a conventional air attack against Iran’s nuclear sites, to challenge the supreme leader and his praetorians, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, who oversee both the nuclear and ballistic-missile programs, where it hurts most. If Israelis can kill Tehran’s most prized personnel and surreptitiously damage its guarded facilities, and Tehran can do little in response, then the clerical regime’s haybat, its unchallengeable awe, is degraded for all to see. For a regime that knows the extent of popular anger against it, that is a perilous situation.
Iran’s theocracy is deeply infected with conspiratorial anti-Semitism. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in particular has Jews on the brain, seeing concentric circles of enmity revolving around Zion. He has difficulty disconnecting Israeli actions from American consent. The Obama administration, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the lead, once spooked Israeli confidence about preventive military action against Iran’s nuclear program. This time, Jerusalem doesn’t have to be so ambitious.
American will to intervene in the Middle East is declining rapidly, and Israel’s position is significantly stronger than it was in 2012, when President Obama began secret negotiations with Tehran in Oman. Israel has Iran in a corner, and Ayatollah Khamenei is obviously scared to escalate. Beyond Mossad’s actions, the Israeli Air Force has been pummeling the Revolutionary Guards and their proxies in Syria, fundamentally challenging Iranian plans in the Levant. Tehran has done little about it.
Joe Biden’s people, who were Mr. Obama’s people, played down Israel’s concerns about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions and imperialism. Trying to get these officials to pay attention to the many unanswered questions about the regime’s militarization of nuclear research and gaping holes in the verification procedures of Mr. Obama’s atomic accord was a hapless task. American flirtations with “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif seemed to many Israelis a dance of naïfs.
Distance gives the U.S. the capacity to test theories about foreigners. Being a hegemon encouraged others to follow even when they had doubts. But the evident huge increase in Mossad operations inside Iran isn’t only a byproduct of President Trump’s sympathy. It is an early sign of a new post-American order. Mr. Biden and his officials may try to twist Jerusalem’s arm to go easier on Iran. Good luck. The president-elect’s looming defense cuts will be more telling. The Middle East is all about power politics, and Mossad has begun to show what a committed First World intelligence service can do against a Third World Islamist state whose own security apparatus is increasingly decrepit.

Bottom line: in another 'proxy war' against a third rate Islamic dictatorship we have a first rate nuclear armed ally...

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I had forgotten all about Syria. Iran has military forces there.

So if Iran are going to revenge this killing some kind of attack may come from Syria.

Markus

Something else to consider. Apparently Iranian exiles are being sheltered and trained to fight the current Iranian regime in Europe by NATO who is supported by the European Union. Do you think maybe that some of the terror attacks in Europe are Iranian backed 'revenge attacks' because of the E.U.'s support of the M.E.K.?

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Something else to consider. Apparently Iranian exiles are being sheltered and trained to fight the current Iranian regime in Europe by NATO who is supported by the European Union. Do you think maybe that some of the terror attacks in Europe are Iranian backed 'revenge attacks' because of the E.U.'s support of the M.E.K.?

This is new to me I didn't knew EU/NATO trained Iranian exiles. I know USA did it under Reagan.

It's a mess in this region. who's friends with who, who's enemy with who.....

In todays primetime news they had a longer issue about this crisis and this expert on Middle east said.

They fear that Trump may give order to a military strike on military and important buildings before he leave the White House or give Israel the go ahead to do the same.

Markus

[Rockstar]

Trump does seem to be a great distraction for you all over there. But I would have thought it should be common knowledge that Iranian exiles are being sheltered in Albania, a NATO member of which is supported by the European Union. The Mujahedeen Khalq the ones fighting the Ayatollahs and thought to be responsible for the death Mohsen Fakhrizadeh are among those exiles. What better way to get back at Europe to continue acts of terror against it?


Also keep in mind when your media says its a Trump war. It's actually all of us the E.U. Europe, NATO and U.S. involved.

[Skybird]

I must admit Rockstar's claims on Albania caught me on the wrong foot. But indeed:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...-idUSKBN1X22CZ

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...dents-albania/


No Rockstar, this is not wellknown over here. I for exmaple heard it for the first time. Media presence of the story: nill.

[Aktungbby]

Forget agents from wherever; this was death by remote control!

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was travelling in convoy north of Tehran on Friday when an object struck his car, sources said, forcing it to stop as he got out to investigate. A remote-controlled machine gun mounted in a Nissan parked beside the road then opened fire, Iranian media reported, fatally shooting the scientist before the gun self-destructed. Fakhrizadeh then got out of the car(zig??!!) to check what was happening before the remote-controlled gun opened fire, Fars said. The nuclear scientist was shot twice in the side and once in the spine, killing him. A bodyguard who tried to shield Fakhrizadeh's body was also shot and wounded before the parked car exploded...Investigators also claimed to have identified the owner of the Nissan, who they said left the country on Sunday, two days after the attack took place...Iran has been caught in a quandary over how to respond to the assassination, with some urging immediate action while others - including President Hassan Rouhnai - urged patience. Iran is thought to fear that any tit-for-tat attack could force incoming President Joe Biden to backtrack on a pledge to renegotiate a nuclear deal with the country that Trump tore up. For Iran, the deal would mean the lifting of $anction$ which have crippled the country's economy and led to domestic unrest.

Politic$ a$ u$ual imho https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-revenge.html

[Rockstar]

Media says therefore the masses thinks when Joe gets in office it equals the lifting of sanctions and a Western and Iranian bromance getting sloppy drunk and singing kumbaya together until the wee hours of the morning. However I still think the goal is regime change in Iran, forcing China's Silkroad to dead end and the west's control of both sides of the Straights of Hormuz. The way Carter saw it the middle east oil supply lines must be guarded, the flow uninterrupted and that's perfect because it gives our military industrial complex and U.S. largest employer a full time job.

[Mr Quatro]

This was just a warning shot from Israel to Iran to leave them alone.

These Jews are not going to sit around and wait for Iran to put a nuclear warhead on a missile programed to wipe out Israel.

Tit for tit and tat for tat will results in even more sabotaging of Iran's desires to wipe Israel off of the map.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Mr Quatro

This was just a warning shot from Israel to Iran to leave them alone.

These Jews are not going to sit around and wait for Iran to put a nuclear warhead on a missile programed to wipe out Israel.

Tit for tit and tat for tat will results in even more sabotaging of Iran's desires to wipe Israel off of the map.

Pretty much how I see it

[Hartroff]

Originally Posted by mapuc

What about Turkey ?

They are Iran's closes allied.

I guess they will stay calm behind the political scene.

Markus

Ally? They are not ally. They are neighbors. Turkey has to live with them. There is a border between them. Turkey can not assume they are not there. Turkey's biggest problem is its geography and Erdogan

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's followers are still very crowded and "peace at home, peace in the world" is still their view. But it seems it is not possible in the world's current state.

Turkey has seen better days and worst before. Iran was not like this once upon a time. They followed Ataturk's steps. Until...They both had to live under a very unsteady light/shadow of the Great Powers. If you have a leader like Ataturk it becomes light.