Iran Policy Committee: NBC Deceived by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry and Anonymous U.S. Sources

Editor's Note:  It's entirely possible that the MEK may not be responsible for the murders of Iranian scientists.   We are expected to believe the United States when they state that Israel is working through the MEK to conduct these assassinations.  Then Alan Dershowitze takes the spotlight in his call to get the MEK removed from the U.S. State Department's handy list of terrorists.  The most dubious part of this story is the claim that the MEK is working with the MOSSAD.  Dershowitze is probably lying and Israel is working in concert with the United States to implicate the MEK.

USCCAR

On Wednesday, 8 February 2012, the NBC Rock Center TV program website ran a provocative story, “Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News.” The article claims, “Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.”

In conducting covert operations against Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers, the NBC story asserts that Israel’s intelligence service supposedly uses as a proxy the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MeK), an Iranian dissident group the State Department classifies as a terrorist organization.

According to Professor Raymond Tanter, former member of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush White House and now President of the Iran Policy Committee, “Left out of the NBC story is that the State Department categorizes the MeK as a terrorist group despite the law and facts.” Tanter added, “Tehran’s anti-MeK propaganda machine also routinely blames the MeK for terrorist actions, irrespective of evidence to the contrary.”

Consider an October 2011 criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department against Iranian agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force charged with involvement in a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. In discussing Tehran’s role in the plot, the former head of the Department of Justice 2007-2009, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, made an assessment of the law and facts concerning the MeK terrorist designation. General Mukasey said on 14 October 2011, “Continued listing [of the MeK] is totally unjustified as a legal matter. There are no facts that justify maintaining MeK on the terrorist list.”

And what is Tehran’s response when confronted with evidence of its own complicity in the Saudi assassination plot? Professor Tanter said, “The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security blames Israel and the United States and asserts MeK involvement. Even the State Department promptly denied MeK responsibility in the plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador and accused Tehran of fabricating news stories to exploit skepticism about the scheme.”

Tanter added, “A similar pattern is apparent in the accusation reported in the NBC story by Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, of alleged collusion between the MeK and Israel to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists. “Larijani simply fabricated a narrative associating Israel with the MeK to exploit uncertainty about the nature of those who are engaged in assassinating Iranian scientists,” according to Tanter.

The NBC story claiming to connect Israel to the MeK also alleges an association of the MeK to al Qaeda. Supposedly, the MeK cut a deal with Pakistani-born terrorist Ramzi Yousef a year after he masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. Yousef also built a bomb that MeK agents allegedly placed in a shrine in Mashad, Iran, in June 1994.

The IPC book, Terror Tagging authored by Professor Tanter with the Foreword by General Mukasey, refers to the bombing of the Mashad shrine mentioned in the NBC report implicating the MeK and linking it to one of the operatives in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing—Yousef. Tanter stated, “Contrary to the NBC anonymous U.S. government source, an open Pakistani source accuses a Pakistani militant not the MeK as having connections to Yousef to carry out the 1994 shrine bombing.”

Iran makes arrests in scientist assassination

Rianovosti

 

Iran has arrested several people in the killing of a nuclear scientist last week that Tehran blames on Israel and the United States, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani told state Al-Alam TV, Tehran Times daily said on Monday.

"We have discovered some clues and some arrests have been made," Larijani told the Arabic-language broadcaster.

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a deputy director of Iran’s largest uranium enrichment plant, died in a car bomb explosion in Tehran last week. Local police sources said a passing motorcyclist attached a magnetic mine to the car Roshan was riding in.

Larijani did not give any further details on the arrests but vowed his country would avenge the death using "non-terrorist" tactics.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused the U.S. and Israeli intelligence services of killing of the scientist.

The United States has already denied having anything to do with the Iranian scientist's murder. Israel has not commented on its alleged involvement in the assassination.
The attack was similar to several other attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists in the past two years.

In January 2010 Professor Mahsud Ali Mohamed of Tehran University was killed outside his home. Local police say he died when a motorcycle exploded next to his car as he got into the vehicle.

In November of that year, bomb attacks killed two atomic scientists, Majid Shakhriani, and his colleague Dr. Fereidoun Davani-Abbasi, and injured their wives. In both cases, their cars were attacked by unknown motorcyclists.

Western nations claim Iran’s nuclear energy research is a cover for atomic weapons production, which Tehran has consistently denied.

Iran recently began enrichment of uranium up to 20 percent at its Fordo facility as part of its nuclear program, the IAEA said on Monday. Russia said it was concerned by the move, which was condemned by the Western powers.

Analysts believe Iran scientist death was a foreign hit

Reuters

Jul (Reuters) - Western security agencies were most likely behind the killing of an Iranian scientist in an operation that underlines the myriad complications in the conflict over Iran's nuclear program, analysts say.

Darioush Rezaie, 35, a university lecturer, was shot dead by gunmen in eastern Tehran Saturday, the third murder of a scientist since 2009. One was killed in a car bomb, the second by a device detonated remotely.

The Iranian government's responses to past such incidents have appeared confused but the Rezaie case has surpassed previous levels, with the authorities speaking in strikingly different voices from the outset.

"Assassinations will continue to be a tool used in this covert war. While it's impossible to tell with certainty whether Rezaie was an active nuclear scientist, his death appears to be another episode in that war," said London-based analyst Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of Cornerstone Global Associates.

"The Iranian narrative has been confused about Rezaie's work and this adds credence to the speculation that he has been involved in the nuclear program."

When news of the shooting first came out, semi-official news agency Mehr published information on Rezaie's background which indicated involvement in Iranian nuclear activities that have brought international sanctions on the Tehran government.

"We have not found any trace of foreign spy services involvement in Rezaie's assassination case yet," state television quoted him as saying.

Other bodies involved in investigations would normally include the Revolutionary Guards and the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and possibly others.

Analysts believe that Iran might wish to play down the accusations of blame as the incident is embarrassing for its security agencies and could become an issue in domestic politics.

"I suspect, just based on what's known in the Iranian media reporting, that Rezaie was assassinated because of his relationship to Iran's nuclear program," said Afshon Ostovar, an Iran analyst based in Washington.

Iran Revolutionary Guards ready to escort Gaza ships

Reuters

TEHRAN, June 6 (Reuters) - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are ready to provide a military escort to cargo ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday. "Iran's Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities," Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency. Any intervention by the Iranian military would be considered highly provocative by Israel which accuses Iran of supplying weapons to Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza. The Guards, with their own navy, air force and command structure separate from the regular armed forces, are seen as fiercely loyal to the values of the Islamic Republic. "If the Supreme Leader issues an order for this then the Revolutionary Guard naval forces will do their best to secure the ships," Shirazi said. "It is Iran's duty to defend the innocent people of Gaza." Last Monday Israeli troops killed nine activists on board one ship in a convoy trying to deliver aid to Gaza, sparking international outrage, especially in Muslim countries. Another ship was boarded on Saturday and pro-Palestinian activists have promised more as they challenge the blockade imposed four years ago with the stated aim of stopping arms getting to Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue to stop ships reaching the shore and creating "an Iranian port in Gaza", a reference to Iran's support for Hamas. (Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Noah Barkin)