Israel, Iran, the Bomb and the US refusal to attack

February 17, 4:28 PMForeign Policy ExaminerAimee Kligman

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  Abdul Qadeer Khan (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

When Bush the decider said "no" to Israel while he was still president when they wanted to preemptively attack Iran, you knew that he had been advised very strongly against it.  At the time, our own intelligence revealed that Iran was not an imminent threat to the region, and the IAEA's Elbaradei was doing his regular shuttles to Iran to ascertain how far along they had come with the program.

Israel continues to see Iran as an existential threat, despite the fact that no army or air force in the Middle East can begin to measure up to its power. But as long as the US will not support an attack, Israel just has to restrain itself, doesn't it?

To complicate matters further, disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan (photo) was released from house arrest, with Pakistan assuring the world that the man who once confessed to passing nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya no longer posed a risk because his smuggling network had been dismantled. 

However, there are some other machinations that have been going on to compensate for the US lack of support for the "bomb Iran" idea. According to intelligence obtained from the CIA, and either leaked or obtained legitimately from the British Press, Israel has been sabotaging the Irani nuclear program using targeted assassinations, false information, kidnappings and double agents in efforts to slow down the process.

Though there have been no confirmation of deaths or kidnappings by the Iranian government, the Israeli press declared that the United States was acting in concert with Israel to disrupt by eliminating "key human assets" involved in the development of Iran's nuclear capabilities. In 2007, apparently the program did eliminate one target, Iranian nuclear scientist Ardeshire Hassanpour, who died of "gas poisoning".  There have been others who were also "taken out" according to the report in YNet News.

In a previous report on Examiner, we talked about the manner by which Iran circumvented US sanctions to shop for its nuclear arsenal by going through the British LLoyd's Bank. What we did not report at the time, was that Iran was being sold faulty parts, as alleged by the unnamed CIA source. Additionally, attempts at disrupting flow of electricity to a uranium enrichment facility in central Iran were part of this covert action.

The Reuters report also indicated that Israel and US intelligence agencies were not alone in these covert activities.

Meir Javendafar, director of MEEPAS (The Middle East Economic and Political Analysis Company) indicated that many European spy agencies were engaged in similar clandestine activities. Apparently, the psychological damage is just as potent as any measurable real damage.

One if left to wander if the US had not endorsed the Israeli campaign in Gaza last December, a similar type approach to targeted elements may have saved 1400 civilian lives.