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Mossad trains its gun on Iran: UAE daily

Abu Dhabi, Mar. 7, 2007 (WAM) -- A major UAE Englishdaily today commented on the covert operation by the US and itsIsraeli ally for military showdown with Iran over the latter'scontroversial nuclear programme.

Commenting editorially in its issue of today, the Sharjah-based"The Gulf Today" said:"THE 'disappearance' of a former deputy defence minister of Iranwith detailed information about his country's military programmesadds to the intricacies of the Middle East. It comes at a timewhen speculation is rife over the shape and nature of a possibleAmerican/Israeli military action against Iran in the name ofthat country's controversial nuclear programme.

"Ali Reza Asgari, 63, went missing after checking into an Istanbulhotel on Feb.7 at the outset of a visit to Turkey. Accordingto Turkish officials, the Israeli secret service Mossad and theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) might have had a hand in thedisappearance.

"Some accounts claim Asgari, who was a commander in the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon before being deputy defence minister, 'defected' and is now somewhere in Europe with hisfamily and 'singing like a canary' about his country's militarysecrets.

"Other reports say that Mossad spirited him out of Turkey andnow he is in Israeli custody undergoing interrogation about hiscountry's nuclear programme and defence capabilities. Anotherspeculation is that Israelis are seeking information from himabout Ron Arad, an Israeli air force pilot who went missing inLebanon in the 80s when Asgari headed a Revolutionary Guardsunit there.

"Another theory, propagated mainly by Israeli intelligence, placesthe blame right at the American door. According to an Israeliintelligence report, Asgari was the officer in charge of Iranianundercover operations in central Iraq. He is believed to havebeen linked to -- or participated in -- the armed group whichstormed the US-Iraqi command centre in Karbala south of BaghdadJan. 20 and snatched five American officers. They were shot outsidethe Shiite city.

"The theory goes on to explain that the Americans could not letthis "premeditated outrage" go unanswered and had been huntingthe Iranian general ever since, and thus the alleged CIA connectionto his disappearance. Indeed, there could be a far simpler explanationas to how and why Asgari went missing, but the world at largeis not privy to that yet.

"The former Iranian minister's disappearance becomes all themore intriguing when seen coupled with the death under mysteriouscircumstances of an Iranian nuclear scientist in January. ProfessorArdashir Hosseinpour, 45, who was described as a world authorityon electromagnetism, was working on uranium enrichment at thefacility in Isfahan, one of the central processing sites in Iran'snuclear programme, when he died.

"According to the US website -- Stratfor.com -- which featuresintelligence and security analysis by former US intelligenceagents, Hosseinpour was killed by Mossad agents.

"A website of expatriate Iranian communists reported that severalother scientists were killed or injured in the operation to killHosseinpour at Isfahan, and were treated at nearby hospitals.

"The Stratfor.com report says that Hosseinpour died from "radioactivepoisoning" as part of a Mossad effort to halt the Iranian nuclearprogramme through 'secret operations'. That is indeed a tallclaim because it is difficult to accept that Iran's nuclear activitiesdepended solely on a scientist. Iranian reports of Hassanpour'sdeath gave the cause as 'gas poisoning', but did not say howor where he was poisoned.

"At the same time, the claims that he was murdered could notbe dismissed out of hand since Mossad does have a long recordof eliminating whoever is deemed to be instrumental in posinga challenge to Israel.

"It is a well-known secret that in the late 1970s and early 1980s,Mossad agents were behind the deaths of scientists involved withthe Iraqi nuclear programme. In 1980, Yahya Meshad was founddead in his Paris hotel room and two other Iraqi nuclear scientistswere also killed as a result of poisoning in the same year. Allkillings bore Mossad hallmarks.

"Indeed, Israel leaders have publicly vowed that they would stopat nothing to remove all potential threats to its ambitions inthe region, and what we are seeing today is yet another manifestationof those 'warnings'. And the world, it seems, is unable to preventIsrael from getting what it wants."