COMMENTARY | One of the most endangered people to be is an Iranian nuclear scientist. This was illustrated recently when two men on a motorcycle drove up next to a car being driven by Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan and placed a magnetic object on it.
That magnetic object, according to MSNBC, was a bomb. As the two men on the motorcycle drove away, the bomb exploded and Iran was lighter of one more nuclear scientist.
Roshan was a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. He is the latest Iranian nuclear scientist to be assassinated in what appears to be a series of hits undertaken by persons unknown. The CIA and the Israeli Mossad have denied knowledge of the executions.
There is clearly a covert effort to delay the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon. Several other Iranian nuclear scientists have been liquidated in a similar manner as Roshan. A computer virus called Stuxnet was introduced, according to the New York Times, to wreck centrifuges at the Iranian nuclear facility at Bushehr.
The Iranians have denied seeking a nuclear weapon, a denial that is almost universally disbelieved. But according to the U.K. Telegraph, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez made jokes about nuclear bombs during a state visit of Iranian dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Someone is killing the nuclear scientists of Iran. The Mossad and the CIA have the means to do so, though understandably Israel has the most immediate motive. But the covert war being waged by someone in Iran constitutes a delaying tactic. Inevitably, sterner measures would have to be undertaken, involving bombers and cruise missiles. That will take place sooner or later unless regime change happens in Iran.
According to the Washington Post, that seems to be the goal of economic sanctions being promoted by the Obama administration. As Iran's economy continues to tank, popular discontent will rise, the theory goes, and then Iran's rulers will be forced to change their ways.
The problem is that a ruling elite that believes they are following the will of God is not likely to be responsive to popular will. Iran has proven quite adroit and brutal in crushing popular uprisings. That suggests that someone is going to have to start aiding Iranian dissidents in a big way, including with arms as necessary. That would ratchet the covert war to a new level.
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