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IN-DEPTH / How Israel managed to hinder Iran nuclear plans
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: nuclear, Iran, Israel News

Mossad chief Meir Dagan promised to block Iran's nuclear program, shortly after taking the job more than six years ago. He promised to do so in a letter he sent to Mossad department and unit heads, and to the heads of Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet security services.

Veteran and senior Mossad officials tried to prevent him from doing so. Talk about interference, postponement, interruption, they said - don't promise. Those same senior officials first attributed Dagan's ambition and pretensions to his inexperience, but later came to understand that the promise was a product of overconfidence.

Since Dagan joined the Mossad, he has behaved like a bull in a china shop. He has closed departments, made structural changes, alienated veterans, insulted senior officials and made promises he didn't keep - including his promise to block Iran's nuclear program, which continues advancing at a steady pace. At the Natanz uranium-enrichment complex 3,800 centrifuges are enriching uranium at a low level. Another 3,000 centrifuges are about to undergo a trial run. Iran continues to build a nuclear reactor in Arak designed to produce plutonium, and will soon cross the technological threshold enabling it to assemble a bomb.
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But Dagan has chalked up quite a number of achievements. He adamantly insisted that Iran be a preferred information-gathering target and placed it higher on the order of "essential" intelligence priorities.

The fact is that this process began during the term of Shabtai Shavit and gained momentum under Ephraim Halevy, but Dagan was the one who focused the intelligence spotlight on the ayatollahs' nuclear ambitions, allocating substantial resources and reorganizing departments, units and branches to do so. Under Dagan, intelligence cooperation with other nations increased. One could cautiously say that a substantial percentage of Israeli intelligence's operational budget is devoted to this issue.

Dagan's changes and emphases have begun to show results. Various foreign governments (Spain, Belgium, Austria, Tanzania, Azerbaijan and others) have prevented Iran from receiving important technological equipment for its nuclear program. More audacious examples of international cooperation include the establishment of straw companies that sold defective equipment to Iran, thus "poisoning" its nuclear program. We were afforded a glimpse of this method when it was revealed that some Swiss businessmen who played a major role in the smuggling network led by Dr. Abdul Khader Khan, the Pakistani who sold Iran the centrifuge diagrams, were actually CIA agents.

Another advantage the straw companies hold is that they can also sell Iran proper equipment to establish trust, and then supply equipment fitted with listening devices or Trojan horses. That was the reason why Ali Ashtari, who supplied equipment to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (which is in charge of the nuclear program), was hanged last week. A revolutionary court in Tehran determined he was a Mossad agent.

Naturally, increased intelligence activity involves underlying risks that may expose agents, collaborators, leaders and liaisons. Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Intelligence Ministry and prosecutor general have "exposed" several Mossad spies in recent weeks.

In addition to Ashtari, another three agents were supposedly exposed, "reservists" of the Basij, the popular militia subordinate to the Revolutionary Guards. The Iranian media reported they were recruited to the Mossad and learned to use weapons, explosives and sophisticated communications equipment in Herzliya and Caesarea. Prior to that, it was reported that a well-known Iranian-Canadian blogger who visited Israel was also arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel.

Iran is in a sensitive period. It will hold presidential elections in May 2009, and the status of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is not especially popular among the Iranian public, is unclear. Dropping oil prices are exacerbating the economic crisis in Iran, and the election campaign is increasing personal and organizational rivalries.

The military, political and religious leadership in Iran are afraid Israel will attack its nuclear sites in the twilight period before the Bush administration leaves office and Barack Obama is inducted in January. Many of them believe Bush and Israel have already come to an agreement about such an attack, even though this is unlikely. Obama has made it clear that he prefers dialogue with Tehran before heading down the military path, and Israel will not act contrary to America's wishes, certainly not on such a fraught and sensitive issue.

All this is creating psychosis in Iran. We can nevertheless assume that there is no smoke without fire, and it is certainly possible that the captured men really are Mossad agents. In any case, what we do know is only the tip of the iceberg of Israeli and western efforts to block Iran's nuclear program, as well as Iran's attempts to expose and neutralize them.


Related articles:
  • Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran?
  • Is Mossad responsible for delaying Iran's attainment of nuclear capability?
  • Mossad chief: Iran will not get nuclear bomb before 2009
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      1.   IN-DEPTH/How Israel managedcto hinder Iran nuclear plans 08:26  |  martin list, m.d. 30/11/08
      2.   hasn`t this article been posted before ? 09:49  |  Dave 30/11/08
      3.   It is intended to make us realise Iran will now obtain them...... 12:28  |  Uncle Sam 30/11/08
      4.   It was Israeli braggards that expoused Israeli network in Iran 14:29  |  Absolute Sweden 30/11/08
      5.   Israel makes the price of oil go up 15:20  |  Jack 30/11/08
      6.   The best that Israel can now hope for..... 15:21  |  Clickfool 30/11/08
      7.   Who really thinks Israel will attack Iran? 17:17  |  Manny Goldstein 30/11/08
      8.   maybe clickfool should move to the safe zone 18:16  |  rob 30/11/08
      9.   Clickfool _ Israel Has To Do The Best With What It Has 18:24  |  Eli 30/11/08
      10.   Pakistan Nuclear Plans 18:39  |  Kiran 30/11/08
      11.   Iran and the Bomb 19:17  |  Scott L. Havsy 30/11/08
      12.   For Eli in Berkeley # 9 20:58  |  Clickfool 30/11/08
      13.   #10 Kiran 20:59  |  vildechaye 30/11/08
      14.   Haaretz comes through again 21:10  |  Arie 30/11/08
      15.   To Jack in bloomfield 21:22  |  Arie 30/11/08
      16.   Clickfool - the game aint over 22:18  |  Jewboy 30/11/08
      17.   Indian Nuclear Plans 22:23  |  To Kiran 30/11/08
      18.   "Clickfool" - disappointed....... 23:29  |  Hafiz 30/11/08
      19.   Meir Dagan and other a bulls in a china shop. 23:40  |  Fortuna Benmayor 30/11/08
      20.   Khomeini has been right in all cases. 01:39  |  John 01/12/08
      21.   #2 haven`t I seen your lies re: Iran + two-state solution before? 03:34  |  McQueen 01/12/08
      22.   Lack of concern for Ashtari and other non-Jewish operatives 04:11  |  Galuteus Maximus 01/12/08
      23.   Iran will be allowed to have nuclear weapons 09:45  |  MiddleStanian 01/12/08
      24.   Fortunately for the World the Zios like to boast. 09:50  |  Andreas 01/12/08
      25.   #16, JEWBOY, living in denial 12:11  |  VIPER 01/12/08
      26.   israel has not hindered iran`s program! 23:13  |  steven S. 01/12/08
      27.   Meir Huberman-dagan 20:54  |  df 11/12/08
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