December 16, 2008: Israeli intelligence
organization Mossad has failed in its campaign to sabotage Iran's nuclear
weapons program. So far. Six years ago, Mossad said it would stop the Iranian
efforts to build nukes. Mossad admitted that it had devoted a substantial portion
of its resources to that effort since then. This included establishing
companies that appeared to be willing to supply Iran with essential equipment
they needed. This had some success in slipping specially modified gear into
Iranian nuclear weapons facilities.
For example, Iran recently revealed
that an Israeli spy they recently executed had allowed Israeli technicians to
install special electronic equipment in computer equipment the spy bought for
the Iranian government. The deceased spy, Ali Ashtari, procured legal, and
illegal (barred by one of the many export sanctions directed at Iran) computer
equipment for the Iranian government. But the Israelis paid more, and that
enabled the Israelis to, in effect, install special components that enabled
them to monitor what the Iranians were doing with some of the equipment that
Ashtari obtained. Apparently, Ashtari did not know all the details of just what
the Israelis installed in the imported computers and other electronic
equipment. The Israeli "additions" apparently enabled Iranian weapons
and technology developments to be monitored. The Iranians did not comment on
what they are doing to get rid of all the Israeli modified gear they are using.
This effort was apparently one of the
few successes in the Mossad effort. But Iran has, in the meantime, made steady
progress in developing nuclear weapons. Mossad is not, obviously, discussing
all of its efforts, and there may be other operations that have infiltrated the
Iranian nuclear program, but have not yet bore fruit. So the Mossad operation
may still succeed.
But in the meantime, Mossad has
apparently had another failure. Israel has been trying to prevent Russia from
delivering S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran. The S-300is similar to
the U.S. Patriot system, which makes an Israeli effort to bomb Iranian
facilities much more dangerous, and potentially impossible. Israel has
apparently delayed Russian efforts to sell the S-300 to Iran, but recent
reports indicate the deal is on again. It may be off again in another few
weeks.
It's just another challenge for Mossad,
in a battle that won't be over until Iran detonates its first nuke, and maybe
not even then (building a reliable missile warhead or air-dropped bomb is quite
an engineering feat.)
