Nuclear scientist killed in Tehran was Iran's top Stuxnet expert

Debka File ^ | 11/29/2010 | Carl M. Cannon

[SeekAndFind]

Prof. Majid Shahriari, who died when his car was attacked in North Tehran Monday, Nov. 29, headed the team Iran established for combating the Stuxnet virus rampaging through its nuclear and military networks. His wife was injured. The scientist's death deals a major blow to Iran's herculean efforts to purge its nuclear and military control systems of the destructive worm since it went on the offensive six months ago. Only this month, Stuxnet shut down nuclear enrichment at Natanz for six days from Nov. 16-22 and curtailed an important air defense exercise.

Prof. Shahriari was the Iranian nuclear program's top expert on computer codes and cyber war.

Another Iranian nuclear scientist, Prof. Feredoun Abbassi-Davani, and his wife survived a second coordinated attack with serious injuries. He is Dean of Students, a key political post at the university .. Ali Salehi, Director of Iran's Nuclear Energy Commission, reacted bitterly that there is a limit to Iran's patience and whoever committed the murder is playing with fire. Tehran held US intelligence and the Israeli Mossad for responsible for the scientist's death.

Tehran's official account of the attacks is only half-correct, are sources report. There were indeed two motorcycle teams of two riders each who shadowed the scientists' vehicles on their way to their laboratories and offices at Beheshti Basij Forces University in North Teheran early Monday. It was initially reported that the motorcyclists sped past them, attached explosives to the targeted Peugeots and were gone before they exploded.

However, the first photos of the scientists' vehicles showed them to be riddled with bullet holes rather than explosive damage, meaning they were hit by drive-by shooters.

It is important to note that the attacks took place in the most secure district of Tehran, where the top-secret labs serving Iran's nuclear facilities are located. They must therefore have been set up after exhaustive and detailed surveillance.

debkafile reported earlier: The attacks occurred at 7.45 a.m. Iranian time, less than 12 hours after the WikiLeaks organization uncovered US diplomatic cables attesting to a proposal by Mossad director Meir Dagan to overthrow the Islamic regime as one of the ways of terminating its nuclear program. He proposed enlisting oppressed Iranian minority groups for the task, like the Baluchis and their liberation movement, Jundallah.

Our intelligence sources note that this was the fifth attack in two years on Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran. None of the perpetrators were ever apprehended. Some sources suggest that the latest double hit may have been the work of Jundallah, which recently began targeting nuclear scientists serving the hated regime and which two months ago reported abducting a scientist employed at the Isfahan nuclear facility.

Tehran played down that incident claiming the kidnapped man was a driver. But last week he appeared on the Saudi TV station Al Arabiya and described his nuclear work.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Stuxnet spooks are playing hardball.

[fremont_steve]

Note the source - Debka - dubious at best.

[null and void]

What a weird coinky-dink...

[Sam's Army]

It Stux to be Iran.

[SeekAndFind]

Related News :

Iranian nuclear scientists targeted in bomb attacks, one dead

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/29/iranian-nuclear-scientists-targeted-in-bomb-attacks-one-dead/

Fresh off the revelation that Iran’s Sunni neighbors urged the US to attack Iran and decapitate its regime, two bombs targeting scientists in Iran’s nuclear program killed one and wounded another today in separate but apparently linked blasts. These attacks follow earlier apparent assassinations that killed two other researchers in their nuclear program. The Iranians, however, have chosen not to blame its neighbors but instead put the blame on Israel:

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An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed and another injured in separate attacks in Tehran today.
The scientists were targeted in two different locations by men riding motorcycles who attached bombs to their car windows as they drove to work.

One device killed Dr Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at the Tehran University, and wounded his wife.

The second blast seriously wounded nuclear physicist Dr Fereidoun Abbasi. His wife was also injured. …

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State television swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks.

It certainly could have been Israel. It could also have been Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or perhaps even Iraq, which would find itself under the Iranian thumb more quickly than anyone if Tehran gets a nuke. For that matter, it could be an opposition group within Iran wanting to get out from under the mullah’s thumb now. The chances of the Obama administration doing it are probably microscopic, however, especially with the Executive Order forbidding assassinations still in effect.

In fact, this might be an Agatha Christie whodunit. I’d love to think that the climax would be similar to Murder on the Orient Express, but I suspect that the actual plotters aren’t sharing information or control of the plot.

Is this an effective way to stop the program? Stuxnet is probably more effective in the short run, especially since Iran likely has dozens or hundreds of researchers to replace those killed. In that sense, this seems a little desperate, a last-ditch option intended to not only create a gap in expertise but also to convince those on the bench to refrain from filling the shoes of the deceased. This option is less destructive than a military attack on nuclear sites, which has been the course apparently urged by Arab regimes in the area, with much less collateral damage and deaths, but it doesn’t strike at the real problem — the mullahs and their nuclear ambitions to control Southwest Asia and the oil resources it contains — at least not directly.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST

[SeekAndFind]

Related News :

Iranian nuclear scientists targeted in bomb attacks, one dead

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/29/iranian-nuclear-scientists-targeted-in-bomb-attacks-one-dead/

Fresh off the revelation that Iran’s Sunni neighbors urged the US to attack Iran and decapitate its regime, two bombs targeting scientists in Iran’s nuclear program killed one and wounded another today in separate but apparently linked blasts. These attacks follow earlier apparent assassinations that killed two other researchers in their nuclear program. The Iranians, however, have chosen not to blame its neighbors but instead put the blame on Israel:

---

An Iranian nuclear scientist has been killed and another injured in separate attacks in Tehran today.
The scientists were targeted in two different locations by men riding motorcycles who attached bombs to their car windows as they drove to work.

One device killed Dr Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at the Tehran University, and wounded his wife.

The second blast seriously wounded nuclear physicist Dr Fereidoun Abbasi. His wife was also injured. …

---

State television swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks.

It certainly could have been Israel. It could also have been Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or perhaps even Iraq, which would find itself under the Iranian thumb more quickly than anyone if Tehran gets a nuke. For that matter, it could be an opposition group within Iran wanting to get out from under the mullah’s thumb now. The chances of the Obama administration doing it are probably microscopic, however, especially with the Executive Order forbidding assassinations still in effect.

In fact, this might be an Agatha Christie whodunit. I’d love to think that the climax would be similar to Murder on the Orient Express, but I suspect that the actual plotters aren’t sharing information or control of the plot.

Is this an effective way to stop the program? Stuxnet is probably more effective in the short run, especially since Iran likely has dozens or hundreds of researchers to replace those killed. In that sense, this seems a little desperate, a last-ditch option intended to not only create a gap in expertise but also to convince those on the bench to refrain from filling the shoes of the deceased. This option is less destructive than a military attack on nuclear sites, which has been the course apparently urged by Arab regimes in the area, with much less collateral damage and deaths, but it doesn’t strike at the real problem — the mullahs and their nuclear ambitions to control Southwest Asia and the oil resources it contains — at least not directly.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST

[Slings and Arrows]

Silly Mahmoud, don’t try to play games with the Israelis - they play rough.

[InvisibleChurch]

Is there any verification that this worm is doing what it’s supposed to be doing? Could the worm story have been disinformation ?

[Sherman Logan]

I also suspect they have the best hackers in the world.

[KarlInOhio]

Tehran held US intelligence and the Israeli Mossad for responsible for the scientist's death.

Odds that Obama would order such an attack: zero.

Odds that a US intelligence agency would do this without Obama's orders: pretty close to zero.

Odds that Israel did this: pretty high.

Go Israel! Thanks for taking out the trash we have lost the courage to deal with. Oh, also a belated thanks for bombing Iraq's Osirak nuclear plant back in the 1980s.

[TomGuy]

I heard about 2 Iranian nuclear scientists being killed this morning, and the first thought I had was Mossad has been busy.

[TomGuy]

WikiLeaks: North Korea Shipped 19 Advanced Nuclear-Capable Missiles to Tehran

Monday, November 29, 2010 3:21:15 PM · by Reaganite Republican · 8 replies

Reaganite Republican ^ | November 29, 2010 | Reaganite Republican

Berlin and Moscow now within range of the vile, apocalyptic Iranian regime...Most defense experts had heard of individual advanced missile components supplied to Tehran by Pyongyang- but entire nuclear-capable North Korean missiles complete with their massive boosters are a bit of a shocker... and how did they get them there, anyway? Alas, the BM-25's were indeed serendipitously sent, and are already in Iran... where they are being studied, improved, while the technologies are applied to their space program and ongoing development of an ICBM that can reach the US mainland. They immediately increase the range Iran's arsenal to 2000 miles...

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Oh, also a belated thanks for bombing Iraq’s Osirak nuclear plant back in the 1980s.

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Their bombing of the Syrian Nuclear Facility just a few years ago was UNDER-REPORTED.

See here :

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2461421.ece

[Buckeye McFrog]

I’m happy to be a Friend of Israel (cause I sure as hell would never want to land on their enemies list!)

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

The top Iranian expert on combating the Stuxnet virus appears to have the same life expectancy as the Number 3 Man in Al-Q’aida.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Is there any verification that this worm is doing what it’s supposed to be doing? Could the worm story have been disinformation ?

---

See the discussion at another Free Republic’s thread here :

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2633904/posts

TITLE :

Stuxnet: The second-greatest story ever told (designed for Iranian program to never succeed)

[Truth is a Weapon]

Given it was a bomb that injured his wife, I would bet on the domestic opposition party or another Arab intelligence force. It could be Israel but they can usually take out the target alone unless they subcontracted to a local. I don’t really think the USA would be involved in a bomb unless it comes from a drone.

[Dave346]

As the article points out the pictures of the car all indicate gunshots, not a bomb. Why the Iranian regime feels a need to lie about it is an interesting question.

[Cicero]

Well, I can’t work up a lot of sympathy for Iranian nuclear scientists, who are trying to build bombs in order to kill as many infidels as possible.