Title: Top Iranian nuke scientist 'assassinated by Mossad' Post by: Soldier4Christ on February 03, 2007, 10:31:29 PM Top Iranian nuke scientist 'assassinated by Mossad'
U.S. intelligence company says Israel making good on threat to stop bomb The mysterious death last month of a top Iranian nuclear physicist involved with the Islamic Republic's current effort to enrich uranium was the work of Mossad, the Israeli security service, a leading U.S. intelligence company claims. The death of Ardeshir Hassanpour, 44, a nuclear scientist, was not announced until Jan. 21, six days after his death, according to Radio Farda. The official cause of death was reported as "gas poisoning," but Iranian authorities did not disclose how or where Hassanpour was poisoned. The announcement, reports said, came at a conference on nuclear safety. Hassanpour claimed Iran's most prestigious military-research prize in 2004 and received the top award at an international science event in Iran in 2006. According to the London Times, Stratfor, a U.S. security company, reported on Friday that its sources within Israel identified Hassanpour as a Mossad target and said "very strong intelligence" suggested the security service had assassinated the scientist. As WND reported, Israel has warned Tehran it would not be permitted to threaten the Jewish state with annihilation. Hassanpour worked at the Isfahan plant that produces uranium-hexafluoride gas, a raw material for the enrichment of uranium at the Natanz facility which has become the focus of concerns over Iran's development of nuclear weapons. There is precedent for Mossad using assassination to interfere with efforts of its neighbors to acquire nuclear weapons. It is believed by intelligence experts that three top scientists in Iraq's nuclear program were killed by Mossad before Israel launched the successful 1981 air strike that crippled the Osirak nuclear reactor. In 1980, Yahya al-Meshad was found stabbed and bludgeoned to death in his Paris hotel room after arriving in France to test fuel for the reactor. Over the next several months, two other Iraqi nuclear scientists died after being poisoned. |