Alarming Escalation: Eminent Iranian Scientist Assassinated
‘Top scientist assassinated as Israel and US stage war provocations against Iran’, Bill Van Auken, 28 November 2020 (w/ permission; I’ll paste in most if it, add other bits)
“The brutal assassination Friday of top Iranian nuclear physicist Moshen Fakhrizadeh marks a major escalation of the US-Israeli campaign to provoke a war with Iran in the less than two months before the scheduled end of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The Iranian scientist was ambushed by a team of assassins Friday morning in Absard, an eastern suburb of Tehran. His vehicle was attacked with automatic weapons fire, and then a pickup truck loaded with lumber covering explosives blew up next to the scientist’s car.
Photographs of the scene posted online showed the damaged vehicle surrounded by shattered glass, bits of wood, car parts and a puddle of blood.
Three to four of the terrorists were reported killed in the incident. Fakhrizadeh and his wounded bodyguards were rushed to a nearby hospital, but doctors were unable to revive him.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif confirmed the killing, writing on Twitter:
“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today. This cowardice—with serious indications of Israeli role—shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators. Iran calls on the international community—and especially EU to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.”
While officials in Israel and the US refused to comment on the assassination, the response in both countries left little to the imagination as to the authorship of this extraordinary act of international lawlessness. Trump triumphantly retweeted a comment by an Israeli journalist that the murder represented “a major psychological and professional blow for Iran.”
Israel’s Jerusalem Post, reflecting the views of the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commented that the assassination was “a major signal that Israel and the United States will not give up on preventing the country from obtaining such weaponry. The message is clear: Remember, no nuclear scientist is safe.”
The New York Times, meanwhile, reported that “One American official—along with two other intelligence officials—said that Israel was behind the attack on the scientist.” It added that “It was unclear how much the United States may have known about the operation in advance, but the two nations are the closest of allies and have long shared intelligence regarding Iran.”
Fakhrizadeh, 63, was a professor of physics at the Imam Hussein University in Tehran and a former head of Iran’s Physics Research Center (PHRC). An expert on nuclear technology, as well as missile production, he led a previous Iranian nuclear program known as Amad (Hope), which was terminated in 2003. Israel and the US alleged that the program was directed at determining the feasibility of building an Iranian nuclear weapon. Tehran has insisted that the program, like all of its nuclear operations, was for civilian purposes only.
Iran’s Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami reported that Fakhrizadeh had, in addition to his work on nuclear and military technology, been the leader of the team that developed one of the first Iranian kits for diagnosis of coronavirus.
In 2018, in a presentation of alleged nuclear documents stolen from a Tehran warehouse, Netanyahu showed a slide bearing a photograph of Fakhrizadeh, while making the unsubstantiated allegation that the scientist was involved in a covert operation aimed at pursuing an Iranian nuclear weapon. In what amounted to a clear threat of assassination, Netanyahu declared that Fakhrizadeh’s was “a name to remember.”
Tehran had rebuffed requests by the (International Atomic Energy Agency) IAEA to interview Fakhrizadeh for fear that information would be passed on to Tel Aviv to assist in organizing his murder.
In the period preceding the signing of the nuclear accord between the major powers and Tehran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Tel Aviv organized a string of assassinations of prominent Iranian scientists, killing five and wounding several others.
The killings were combined with acts of sabotage, including the use by both the US and Israel in 2010 of the “Stuxnet” computer worm to destroy about 1,000 of Iran’s 5,000 centrifuges operating at the country’s main nuclear center at Natanz.
In July of this year, a major fire at Natanz caused extensive damage to the facility, in particular its workshops and laboratories dedicated to assembling and testing newly developed centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium. Israeli intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the fire had been caused by a bomb smuggled into the facility.
These attacks have been joined with the “maximum pressure” campaign launched by the Trump White House after it unilaterally abrogated the JCPOA in 2018. This regime of ever-tightening economic sanctions, tantamount to a state of war, has ravaged Iran’s economy, while condemning millions of Iranians to hunger and disease, choking off vital medicines and medical supplies in the midst of the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
The assassination of Fakhrizadeh is the highest-profile attack on Iran since the January 3 US drone missile murder of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, one of the country’s top officials, after he arrived at Baghdad’s international airport for an official state visit.
It comes less than a week after Prime Minister Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a semi-secret trip to the Saudi city of Neom for a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose principal topic was Iran. While bin Salman was reportedly less than enthusiastic about a military strike against Iran—no doubt fearing Saudi oil installations would be a likely target for retaliation—both the Netanyahu and Trump governments have been pushing relentlessly toward confrontation.
There is no doubt that the latest assassination was discussed with and approved by Pompeo and the Trump administration. It is the latest and most serious in a series of provocations being carried out by both the US and Israeli governments with the objective of igniting a war.
In addition to the latest assassination, Tel Aviv has carried out increasingly aggressive and openly declared airstrikes against Iranian and Iranian-connected targets in Syria, including three in the last week alone. The latest, on Friday, reportedly killed at least 19 people in Syria’s embattled eastern region of Deir Ezzor.
For its part, the Trump administration has vowed to introduce new sanctions aimed against Iran on at least a weekly basis over the next two months to tighten the economic stranglehold over the country.
At the same time, the Pentagon has steadily built up offensive forces in the Persian Gulf, dispatching B-52s and a squadron of F-16s to the region, while deploying the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in the Gulf.
According to both the New York Times and Reuters, Trump met with his national security cabinet on November 12 to discuss a proposal to conduct airstrikes against Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, a war crime that could claim the lives of thousands. While Trump’s top aides reportedly talked him out of launching such an attack, there are still mounting fears that military action is being prepared, with Pompeo and his aides insisting during the secretary of state’s Mideast tour that the option remains “on the table.”
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, in an article on Axios, cited unnamed Israeli officials as saying, “The Israel Defense Forces have in recent weeks been instructed to prepare for the possibility that the U.S. will conduct a military strike against Iran before President Trump leaves office.” Such preparations no doubt include an escalation of Israel’s own plans to attack Iran.
Why would the Trump administration launch a military attack on Iran, unleashing a potentially world catastrophic war in the Persian Gulf, in what are ostensibly its last few weeks in office?
Bourgeois foreign policy analysts have suggested that the aim is to sabotage any attempt by an incoming Biden administration to rejoin the JCPOA and lift sanctions against Iran.
While Biden’s statements along these lines are highly conditional, indicating that he would demand significant new concessions from and continue military aggression against Iran, there are elements within the US ruling establishment that see an immediate war as the only means of achieving US hegemony over the Middle East and denying its strategic energy resources to American capitalism’s chief rival, China.”
In his ‘Iran’s Top Nuclear Scientist Assassinated As Israel Tries To Provoke War’, Nov. 27, 2020, moonoflabama.org, b adds:
“According to the IAEA Iran did not and does not have a nuclear weapons program. More than 20 years back some Iranian scientists did an organizational study about what they would have to do to create a nuclear weapons program. But politics intervened and the program was never launched.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has since its establishment rejected all weapons of mass destruction out of religious reasons. Its leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a fatwa the prohibits any attempts to develop, produce or otherwise introduce such weapons.
While a terror attack against its top nuclear scientist can be seen as an act of war Iran is unlikely to openly take revenge for it. Doing such would only play into Netanyahoo’s hands as he attempts to goad the U.S. into an attack on Iran.
The assassination of Mohsen Fahrizade does not aim at Iran’s nuclear program. Its purpose is to assassinate the nuclear deal with Iran before president elect Joe Biden comes into office.
There are expectations, which I don’t have, that Biden will rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran. The Trump administration had left the deal and had re-introduced severe sanctions against the country.” […]
If Biden really wants to revive the deal he should immediately condemn today’s assassination. Obama did similar when the other scientist were killed.
There are still 55 days until Trump leaves the office. Netanyahoo will use that time to launch more provocation.”
I checked with Biden on Twitter yesterday; so far he’s maintained radio silence.
This morning: ‘Israeli weapon used in killing of top Iranian nuclear scientist – Iran’s state media’, 30 Nov, 2020, RT.com
“The weapon used in the killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, on Friday was made in Israel, Iranian state media claims. Tehran had previously accused Israel of being behind the assassination.
The “remains of the weapon” from the site of the attack outside Tehran bear “the logo and specifications of the Israeli military industry,” an informed source told Iranian English-language broadcaster, Press-TV.
On Sunday, Iran’s Defense Ministry said that it “had a lead” on the identity of the perpetrators and promised an official announcement with details “soon.”
Top Iranian officials blamed Israel for masterminding Fakhrizadeh’s killing and promised “hard revenge.”
Press-TV didn’t specify the type of weapons used to target the scientist, only saying that the attack involved “at least one explosion and machinegun fire.”
Press-TV had added:
“The history of Tel Aviv’s sabotage targeting Iran’s nuclear energy program is as old as the program itself.
Many observers believe Israel is not able to carry out such dangerous operations without the prior information and support of the United States which left a landmark nuclear deal with Iran in 2015.
Israel possesses the Middle East’s sole nuclear arsenal estimated to contain at least 200 warheads. The occupying regime maintains a policy of ambiguity concerning its nuclear weapons, neither confirming nor denying publicly that it has the capability.
Unlike Iran, it also refuses to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not allow any international inspection of its nuclear weapons program.”
On the hubris from the US and Tel Aviv! I’ve long thought that Tel Aviv would have provided the KSA with the tools to create their own nuclear weapons at the very least.
The #PompeoDoctrine 101:
- Put Bibi's interest above that of even Americans who put him in office;
- Formalize Israel's occupation & whitewash Israeli crimes- no matter what;
- Silence criticism with bogus 'anti-Semitism label';
- Waste US taxpayers money on private family tours pic.twitter.com/vCRuy4rBvA— Saeed Khatibzadeh (@SKhatibzadeh) November 20, 2020
The @realDonaldTrump Administration has built out real coalitions– the coalition that crushed the caliphate in Syria, the coalition that’s pushed back on the Chinese Communist Party, a coalition that refused to appease Iran's regime. The list of what we’ve done is great. pic.twitter.com/Y4f7qy2eCM
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 28, 2020
(cross-posted from Café Babylon)
Forgive me if I'm unable to come back today, as I'm an almost total train-wreck, but as no one here seemed to have reported any of this, I'd thought I'd cobble something together.
Comments
I don't think the religious zealots who rule Iran --
are terribly interested in using nuclear weapons. Everyone knows, on the other hand, that Netanyahu has his finger on a nuclear button.
“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris
iran IS a theocracy,
but a Shi'ite one, not a Sunni one as the Empire prefers. an no, they want no part of nuclear weapons, and b had reminded readers:
i suppose that's part of the reason that they'd agreed to the terms of the JCPOA in the first place, and once el Trumpeter pulled out of, began to enrich uranium just a little bit higher that the treaty specified, in order for the EU and other counterparties to pressure the US to rejoin.
toni cartallucci (land destroyer website) has always claimed that it was designed to fail, but of course...i've totally forgotten his reasoning. ; )
"We lied, we cheated, we stole" - he laughed on national TV
I know someone who's on my hit-list...where the fuck is a class-act operator like the Zodiac Killer when you need one???
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
#What.A.Psychopathic.Thug
he is. but you'll howl when you read this (remembering how much he hated trump, loves biden's impending 'responsible leaderhip' now):
and no, still radio silence from dementia joe....he's busy announcing his New Team, Just Like the Old Team...or worse.
Anti-Iran Republicans
Surely they still aren't worked up about the nearly fifty year old embassy violation and hostage taking.
What's their real interest in making war with Iran?
I was happy with the treaty and happy with Russian inspections. Not that I trust Putin, but because Russia has more to fear from Muslim religious fanatics with nuclear weapons than the USA does. But not as much as Israel does.
Israeli security doesn't make sense either. Israel is safer with the treaty and US/Russia compliance monitoring than open war with Iran. I smell the CIA here. They need a Demon.
What's the REAL reason for this lust to fight Iran?
EDIT: They don't even have that much oil compared to KSA.
Every Iranian that I met in this country was a decent person. And we have our own crop of religious fanatics, just as bad as the Muslim fanatics. THIS IS SENSELESS. We have more reason to shun Vietnam, but now they manufacture goods for import to the USA and no one dreams of bombing them or overthrowing the Communist Party.
Biden's morons want to fight with CHINA! Over the strait of Formosa. Why get involved in someone else's civil war? It's not like Chiang Kai-shek had a clean and democratic government.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Iran and Qatar
share the world's largest undeveloped oil field in the waters between them. The Persian gulf I think it's called.
Israel and the UAE had a blockade looking to starve Qatar until somebody told our know-nothing President that a giant US force was stationed in Qatar---large airbase iirc called El Alamein.
So, that's what this is all about.
OIL.
And our plans to capture as much of the world's supply as we can.
NYCVG
The world is drowning in oil.
Russia and KSA have been having a pumping war. Then add the USA. Poor Venezuela is starving because oil prices are so low. Wanting more oil is like a fish in the Pacific Ocean wanting more water.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I bet they want the power to keep China from easy access to oil
“Full Spectrum Dominance” means thinking like a sociopath and sabotaging everyone’s development unless they submit to the control of the people with the money.
NATO now sees China as its #2 enemy:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/new-nato-strategy-deems-china-2-e...
yes, jens;
"China is investing massively in new weapons. It is coming closer to us, from the Arctic to Africa. China does not share our values... and tries to intimidate other countries," according to statements at a Monday news conference.
as my ancient firefoxed don't support adblock any longer, the page bouncd around making it hard to read. sure, biden will 'pivot to china' like obomba....
but i wonder if they aren't collectively fearing the new asian trade alliance RCEP (mprphed from ASEAN, that pepe escobar says came into being just after the amerikan assassination of IIRG general quasem soleimani.
asia times hit a paywall for me part way thru, but the BBC says:
amerikan financial sites poo-pooh it of course, but here comes asian heartland geopolitics bursting through again.
and sure china's invested in sub-african nations, and s far as i can tell, unlike AFRICOM, doesn't de-stabilize nations (via CIA and special ops) to overthrow and install in USian puppets to rule.
O, for a memory! was it china or russia that just created a military base in sudan? china would make more sense.
'oil' is certainly part of the mix,
as secular mossadegg was overthrown in 1953 after nationalizing their oil. the CIA and MI6 couldn't have that (as w/ Rexxon's oil in VZ).
his wiki:
also, when iran sent convoys of oil to aid US-sanctioned-into-immiseration VZ, some convoys got through, other ships were boarded by the US while still at sea and the oil auctioned off.
when iran sold oil (often at discount prices) not only were inividuls in iran sanctioned by the US, but similarly those nations were as well. this was all about the Trump/pompeo maximim pressure on iran. you may remember pompeo's Tweets: 'send us your tales of oppression, imprisoment, and immiseration by the rogue dictatorship in Iran!
while all the time CIA and special ops were fomenting rebellion and/or civil insurrection on the streets.
this is a bit confusing, but i'd decided to look at elija magnier's twitter account, and yes, he has several new pieces up, although this one's too long to read 4 me 2 read in my sparse time...
'How will Iran answer the assassination of Fakhri Zadeh?'
but in comments under that Tweet:
@justiceyemen2
Nov 29
@justiceyemen2
@FourcadeMarcelo
·
Nov 30 Replying to @ejmalrai
i need to take care of some RL chores, then i'll be back as i'm able.
A better way
While I'm not opposed the the "...hit him hard" feeling, I am opposed to bombing any Trump property anywhere. You don't want to give him the possibility of a tax or insurance write-off. Let them all stand and watch him continue to fail to make the mortgage payments. He owes several train-loads of money to banks and has yet to pay a dime on the principle.
Hopefully, Melania will file for divorce on January 21 before he can declare bankruptcy once again, maybe getting half for Barron and her. Although, it is likely is that Trump made her sign a prenup agreement which leaves her in the gutter.
[Whisper to Melania: "Book royalties..."]
(smile)
yes, nice snark, and appropriate.
lord love a duck: this a.m.'s Big News (from insiders) at business insider and the daily beast is:
'Trump Tells Pompeo: Go Wild on Iran, Just Don’t Risk ‘World War III’, Dec. 1
but see, biden is the brilliant, but beleaguered victim:
gotta go make some brekkie...
All you have to do is look at Nutinyahoo
he's the reason for all of this, his hatred of Arabs/Muslims goes back to Entebbe when his brother was killed in the raid. Iran still has Jews living there so it's not like they want to kill Jews just for the hell of it, but on the other hand Nutinyahoo has no problem with killing whomever, something he has in common w/empty suit.
And from where I sit it does appear as if Nutz/Israel are pushing all the buttons. It looks to me as if they control ameriKKKan policy using the $38 bil's we send them to buy our politicians, crazy isn't it. I mean how else did Nutz get to speak before clowngress if this
wasn't the case
I'm ashamed to be a Jew/ameriKKKan and have been for quite some time. When did we the supposedly good guys become the evil bastards? How did the children/grandchildren of those
who survived the Holocaust become just like those that perpetrated the Holocaust?
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Somebody-or-other's syndrome
Don't recall the name.
That explains Israel, but I don't think Israel owns the USG, both parties. Heavy influence, yes. Able to force war? I don't think so. YMMV
"The international Jewish bankers" is too pat an answer.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
i'm pretty lost here...
are there no anti-iran democrats? i dunno what Russians have to do with [on edit: inspections] unless a few are part of the IAEA team...but this is quite baffling to me:
may i ask, then, if you believe that iran does have nuclear weapons ambitions? guess i'll stop before i wade in further in my confusion.
Russi a had offered to do the inspections
because the Iranians balked at letting the Americans inspect freely.
IIRC, Russia also offered to do processing of the spent rods. Nutjobs locked in the 1950s didn't trust Russia to just turn a blind eye or actually deliver bomb grade materials to Iran.
My point was that containing Iranian nuclear ambitions is or should be a bigger priority for Russia than for the USA.
As for Israel dictating US foreign policy, it seems to me that KSA is the one we have been following blindly ever since Bush I. And KSA hates those Shiites.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
yes, russia is a signatory
to the JCPOA, as are China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany together with the European Union.
but the IAEA inspectors have been given free reign in iran. i do remember a bit of paranoid buzz when yukia amano had died in 2019 while being the Director General.
but you say that Israel has more to fear from iran having nuclear bombs, as in: similar to bibi and zionist likuud.
my guess is that it all began when pinhead iranian PM ahmedinejad was mistranslated as having said: 'israel should be wiped off the map', when othes said it was closer to 'israel should not exist', or 'the balfour declaration should have been illegal' or something.
It'a broader than that
There is also the "Gulf of Tonkin 2" at Vladivostok. (sp?) Expect the Trump fearmongers to claim that Trump is planning to start ww3 so that he can claim a "national emergency" to remain in office.
On to Biden since 1973
After this year's "emergency" orders from Dem governors
I'd believe anything.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
The play is already playing
I’m seeing orange libs saying that since we first learned of the killing. That and Putin is still controlling Trump and he wants Trump to start the war on Iran. Never mind that they are allies.
Hope you are feeling better, Wendy.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
love to know who 'orange libs'
are, but i will say that Trump Fearmonger bill van auken at the first article in the OP had written as doh had intuited:
it's one of the parts i'd left out, as it's so needlessly hyperbolic.
thank you so much for the 'feeling better' wishes. i'm marginally better, but still wishing i had the wherewithal to make it down our long driveway to road H and hitch-hike the monstrous Waste Management truck to let me aboard.
Grateful that you did this, Wendy
It's very worrying.
NYCVG
welcome,
and i agree that this new escalation is shiver-worthy.
i looked for this from aaron maté earlier, and found it; now it's from march, but still...
Biden has failed his first test, everything else will follow
He's worse than Obama. He should be condemning the executions, three now, of key individuals in Iran. He should also announce that he will go back to the JPCOA, as it was, and pay Iran compensation for the damage done by the sanctions. Instead he is going to demand more concessions from Iran. The JPCOA was the best that could be negotiated, Iran will have little incentive to sign yet another agreement that the US will walk away from. The phrase being used to describe America is that it is agreement incapable. Biden will not step away from that and his admin will be useless on the global stage.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
i agree with you;
well said. here's a bit of wry humor from iranian FM javad zarif on nov. 18. i had to read it several times until i'd twigged.
War seems to be the common denominator here
War over control. War over resources. War over whatever regime
is in place for current geopolitical reasons.
However the world media frames these acts of aggression
it is still a bunch of military bullies trying to get their oligarch
masters a leg-up during the next 'reset'.
No good outcome will come of this, unless someone figures out
how to disengage (perhaps by violent means) the coming administrative
change and those factions that control the largest MIC in the world.
Throw up a big diversion (as in a twin tower episode) and maybe the
scorched earth crowd can see victory? Wouldn't hurt to change congress.
The last twin towers episode caused a war
All evidence pointed to KSA so we attacked Iraq.
Makes as much sense as declaring war on China after Pearl Harbor would have.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
it's down to a dying empire
failing to cede to a multi-polar world, imo. it's forcing new alliances, including trade alliances, that will end up more powerful than the Western Hegemon, but they refuse to see it, the idiots.
Been reading lately about the late roman empire
and the military mistakes they made. Latest author (don't have his book handy) points out that most of the military successes were when they had citizen armies who reported to draft calls. The professional army had most of the loses. Lost battles, that is. The citizen armies of the Punic wars had terrible losses but just raised another army and kept fighting. Carthage had it's own navy. Of course, they were a maritime power. But their armies were foreign mercenaries (like the later Roman armies). I think it is claimed that in the Second Punic war, the one with Hannibal, Rome actually had significantly higher casualties than Carthage. Still Rome won that war. Plenty of Italian peasants where those came from. An interesting war. Rome lost most of the battles, except the final two.
There are just so many parallels between Rome and ourselves.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
as i haven't read any books
on the roman empire save for quoted excerpts, i'll take this as so, and thank you:
i'll add that the Chief Mob Boss is still after 'the madureo regime':
@SecPompeo Nov 30
Restrict internet access
like Google? and Yahoo?
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.