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Purveyor

(29,876 posts)
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 07:07 PM Jan 2012

Clinton: US Had No Role In Killing Iran Scientist

BRADLEY KLAPPER,Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration denied any role in Wednesday's killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist, the latest in a series of events that have exacerbated tensions with Iran.

The assassination of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was the latest in a year that has already seen new U.S. economic sanctions, threats to bar American ships from the Persian Gulf, an Iranian death sentence to a jailed U.S. citizen and an escalation in Tehran's uranium enrichment program.

Iranian reports said two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to Roshan's car of, killing him and his driver. Roshan was a chemistry expert and director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran, and the slaying suggested a widening covert effort to set back the Islamic republic's atomic program.

But US officials said they had nothing to do with it.

"I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters. "We believe there has to be an understanding between Iran, its neighbors and the international community that finds a way forward for it to end its provocative behavior, end its search for nuclear weapons and rejoin the international community and be a productive member of it."

MORE...

http://www.wlfi.com/dpps/news/politics/whitehouse/clinton-us-had-no-role-in-killing-iran-scientist-nt12-jpe_4036949

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DCBob

(24,689 posts)
1. FarsNews: Israeli Source: Assassination of Iranian Scientist Joint Operation by Mossad, MKO
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 07:47 PM
Jan 2012

TEHRAN (FNA)- Israeli sources confirmed that the terrorist attack which killed a senior Iranian scientist in Tehran on Wednesday was a joint operation carried out by the agents of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, and the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

"My own confidential Israeli source confirms today's murder was the work of the Mossad and MKO, as have been a number of previous operations I've reported here," Richard Silverstein, a senior Jewish American journalist, said in his weblog named Tikun Olam.

"The method recalls another series of assassinations that occurred of Fereidoun Abbassi Davani (who was seriously wounded) and his colleague Majid Shahriari (who was killed)," Silverstein said in his weblog.

He downplayed the effects of such assassinations in Iran's scientific progress, and said, "I've said it before and I'll say it every time something like this happens: assassinations like the one today accomplish nothing. It doesn't fundamentally harm Iran's nuclear program. It doesn't deter Iran or its scientists from pursuing the research and whatever scientific goals they may have. These are shameful acts by a shameful Israeli government exploiting Iranian terrorists for their own ends. I find it disgusting that Israel can get away with such acts with impunity."

more: http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9010170807

Yes, it's Fars but it sounds right.

Response to Purveyor (Original post)

24601

(3,940 posts)
3. I disagree. If we had a role the Secretary of State would not have commented or would have said
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 08:36 PM
Jan 2012

that we neither confirm nor deny the allegations. On the other hand, she did deny that Bill had been doing anything with Monica - but to be fair, she probably didn't know at that point.

Response to 24601 (Reply #3)

24601

(3,940 posts)
6. That's OK by me. Given all that she's been through, I just that don't believe she would put her
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 11:50 PM
Jan 2012

reputation on the line by going public and being so forceful without the confidence she was telling the truth. And it's not a matter of nuanced ambiguity or right or wrong intelligence about a foreign power. Taking out a scientist would require a presidential finding and it's improbable that it would slip his mind.

 

unkachuck

(6,295 posts)
5. "I want to categorically deny any United States involvement..."
Wed Jan 11, 2012, 10:39 PM
Jan 2012

....sorry Hillary, I don't believe you....

....hmmm, who in the world could possibly have anything to gain by killing an Iranian nuclear scientist?

....I suppose it's better than all-out war....

fujiyama

(15,185 posts)
7. It's possible that even IF the US had something to do with it
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 12:39 AM
Jan 2012

she wouldn't know. Covert ops don't necessarily involve every member of the cabinet...

But then again, the US government doesn't know everything Israel's up to all the time and doesn't plan their covert ops for them. The Israelis are pretty damn secretive and that too considering the level of distrust between Netanyahu and Obama, the US may have been lucky to have even got a head's up on this.

It's very possible this is only between Mossad and the MK? group in Iran.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
8. I don't think we had a role in the killing, and I also bet that Israel had no role in the killing.
Thu Jan 12, 2012, 12:55 AM
Jan 2012

I wouldn't rule out someone friendly to us passing money to the Baluchis or the Iranian Kurds or some other group within the country that is conversant with urban customs, has operatives who are able to move in and out of Teheran and other urban centers without calling attention to themselves, and know how to ride a motorbike through dense traffic and attach a magnet bomb in the precise proper spot to ensure that the right guy is well and truly killed.

We--or an actor in the region earning their foreign military sales credits and other economic supports-- could throw some money at someone, make some suggestions, even provide materials, but we (or they) wouldn't have a "role in the killing."

The ones having a role in the killing were riding that motorbike.

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