Israel Matzav

Could the government of Iran be knocking off its own nuclear traitors?

Michael Ledeen has at least as good a theory as anyone else as to who is killing people related to the Iranian nuclear threat and why.

Where does that leave us? Let’s go back to basics: who could operate in the midst of the armed camp that is Tehran, and might also have a motive for killing these five unfortunate souls? There’s a lot of killing in Iran, and the overwhelming majority of murders are carried out by the regime, and the victims are Iranian citizens from all walks of life. From this standpoint, the regime is the most likely perpetrator. Regime killers could also operate freely throughout the capital, and that also “explains” why there were never calls for information about the assassins. Why ask, when you know their identities, and approved the operation?

What about motive? Look at the last case. What does the regime say about the victim? That he spoke to IAEA investigators (I’m told that the conversation took place outside Iran). The regime doesn’t like that at all, they are very suspicious of their own people (and rightly so!), put very stringent limitations on foreign travel, and monitor the communications of everyone involved in important activities like weapons programs. In the padded cell of paranoiacs around the supreme leader, strong suspicion of disloyalty is probably enough to get a person on one hit list or another, and the regime has every reason to “send a message” to others involved in such activities: one false step and you’re dead.

Again, I don’t know who did it, but the rush to judgment by so many pundits smacks of political passion rather than cool analysis. And I’m struck by the uncritical expertise that would have us believe the Jews can do anything, even operate at will in the center of their most formidable enemy’s capital city. That one’s right out of the old antisemitic scrolls: whenever anything happens — anytime, anywhere — that upsets you, just blame the Jews. They can do anything, anywhere.

Read it all.

For those of us who are threatened by a nuclear Iran, there is a major downside to Ledeen's theory. If Ledeen is correct, those who are being killed are not crucial cogs in Iran's nuclear program (as they have been portrayed by other media in the West), and the killings are doing nothing to slow Iran down. In fact, by creating the illusion that something is being done to stop Iran, the killings may even be helping Iran to forge ahead with its nuclear threat.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Iranian nuclear threat, sabotage

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:41 AM