Dead Iranian Scientist: Not Buying It
I found a direct link to the Stratfor report I was talking about below. Here's the relevant section:
The death of a high-level Iranian nuclear scientist, Ardeshir Hassanpour, was announced by Radio Farda and Iranian state television Jan. 25 -- a week after his death occurred. The Radio Farda report implicitly related the cause for Hassanpour's death to exposure to radioactive rays, though the details were murky. Stratfor sources close to Israeli intelligence have revealed, however, that Hassanpour was in fact a Mossad target.Note that this Stratfor report suggests two things: Hassanpour was killed by radiation (not "gas poisoning" as the Times of London and supposedly Radio Farda reported), and he was on a Mossad target list.
That's not the same as saying the Mossad killed him. In fact the rather bizarre M.O. suggests otherwise. I could see perhaps an assassin getting in and shooting him, but arranging some sort of accident inside a nuclear plant, or transporting some radioactive chemical to expose him?
Hey, it's happened, I guess. But why bother?
Occam's Razor suggests my original theory is much more plausible: There was a screwup at Isfahan, and their top scientist got exposed to some radiation and died, but rather than admit their nuclear program is third-rate, Iran concocts a story about Israeli skullduggery and their nefarious Ju-Ray technology.
Although maybe somebody in Israel heard about this death on Radio Farda, and decided to sow a little discord and fear into the Isfahan water-cooler discussion, and picked up the phone and called a reporter at Stratfor...