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=> Israel wages cloak-and-dagger war on Iran

Israel wages cloak-and-dagger war on Iran

Posted by Tiglath (Guest) - Tuesday, February 17 2009, 23:31:58 (CET) from 202.168.50.40 - 40.50.168.202.static.comindico.com.au Australia - Windows XP - Internet Explorer Website: Website title:

Israel wages cloak-and-dagger war on Iran Philip Sherwell and Dina Kraft February 18, 2009 ISRAEL has launched an elaborate covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear program, US intelligence sources have told Britain's Daily Telegraph. According to the sources, Israel is using hitmen, sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the regime's weapons project. One element of the "decapitation" program is said to be the planned assassination of figures involved in the country's atomic industry. Israeli officials are aware of Washington's change in mood and privately acknowledge that the Obama Administration is unlikely to sanction an air attack on Iran's nuclear installations. The aim is to slow or interrupt Iran's research program without a direct confrontation that could lead to a wider war. One former CIA operative said: "Disruption is designed to slow progress on the program, done in such a way they don't realise what's happening. "The goal is delay, delay, delay until you can come up with some other solution or approach. We certainly don't want the current Iranian Government to have those weapons. It's a good policy, short of taking them out militarily, which probably carries unacceptable risks." Reva Bhalla, a senior analyst with Stratfor, a US private intelligence company with strong government security connections, claimed the strategy was to target key people. "With cooperation from the United States, Israeli covert operations have focused both on eliminating key human assets involved in the nuclear program and in sabotaging the Iranian nuclear supply chain," she said. "As US-Israeli relations are bound to come under strain over the Obama Administration's outreach to Iran, and as the political atmosphere grows in complexity, an intensification of Israeli covert activity against Iran is likely to result." The Israeli spy agency Mossad was rumoured to be behind the death of Ardeshir Hosseinpour, a nuclear scientist at Iran's Isfahan uranium plant who died from reported gas poisoning in 2007. Other recent deaths of prominent figures in the procurement and enrichment process in Iran and Europe have been the result of Israeli "hits" intended to deprive Tehran of technical expertise, claim Western intelligence analysts. "Israel has shown no hesitation in assassinating weapons scientists for hostile regimes in the past," said a European intelligence official. "They did it with Iraq and they will do it with Iran when they can." Mossad's covert operations cover a range of activities. The former CIA operative said Israeli and US intelligence had co-operated with European companies working in Iran to obtain photographs and confidential material about Iranian nuclear and missile sites. Israel has also used front companies to infiltrate the purchasing network that Iran uses to circumvent United Nations sanctions. Iran has consistently claimed that it is pursuing a nuclear capability for civilian energy-generation purposes. The Iranian Government has become so concerned about penetration of its program that it has announced arrests of alleged spies in an attempt to discourage double agents. Israeli intelligence and government sources declined to comment. TELEGRAPH --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

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