Hafezi reports: "Iran said on Saturday it had evidence Washington was behind the latest killing of one of its nuclear scientists, state television reported, at a time when tensions over the country's nuclear program have escalated to their highest level ever."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressing the United Nations, 09/23/10. (photo: Jason DeCrow/AP)

Iran Sends Rare Letter to US Over Killed Scientist

By Parisa Hafezi, Reuters

15 January 12

ran said on Saturday it had evidence Washington was behind the latest killing of one of its nuclear scientists, state television reported, at a time when tensions over the country's nuclear program have escalated to their highest level ever.

In the fifth attack of its kind in two years, a magnetic bomb was attached to the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan's car during the Wednesday morning rush-hour in the capital. His driver was also killed.

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton denied responsibility and Israeli President Shimon Peres said Israel had no role in the attack, to the best of his knowledge.

"We have reliable documents and evidence that this terrorist act was planned, guided and supported by the CIA," the Iranian foreign ministry said in a letter handed to the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, state TV reported. The Swiss embassy represents U.S. interests in a country where Washington has no diplomatic ties.

The spokesman for Iran's Joint Armed Forces Staff, Massoud Jazayeri, said: "Our enemies, especially America , Britain and the Zionist regime (Israel), have to be held responsible for their actions."

Iran in the past has accused Israel of causing a series of spectacular and sometimes bloody mishaps to its nuclear programme. Israeli officials do not comment on any involvement in those events, although some have publicly expressed satisfaction at the setbacks.

Feeling the heat from unprecedented new sanctions, Iran's clerical establishment has brandished its sword by threatening to block the main Mid-East oil shipping route, starting to enrich uranium at an underground bunker and sentencing an Iranian-American citizen to death on spying charges.

State TV said a "letter of condemnation" had also been sent to Britain, saying the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists began after the head of Britain's MI6 spy service announced intelligence operations against states seeking nuclear weapons.

The West says Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at building a bomb. Tehran says it has the right to peaceful nuclear power.

Tehran has urged the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the latest killing.

After years of international sanctions that had little impact on Iran, U.S. President Barack Obama signed new measures on New Year's Eve that, if fully implemented, would make it impossible for most countries to pay for Iranian oil.

Washington is requiring that countries gradually reduce their purchases of Iranian oil in order to receive temporary waivers from the sanctions.

The European Union is expected to unveil similar measures next week, and announce a gradual oil embargo among its member states, who collectively buy about a fifth of Iran's exports.

The combined measures mean Iran may fail to sell all of the 2.6 million barrels a day of exports it relies on to feed its 74 million people. Even if it finds buyers, it will have to offer steep discounts, cutting into its desperately-needed revenue.

On Tuesday shipping sources told Reuters Iran was storing an increasing supply of oil at sea - as much as 8 million barrels - and was likely to store more as it struggles to sell it.

Iran denies it is having trouble: "There has been no disruption in Iran's crude exports through the Persian Gulf ... We have not stored oil in the Gulf because of sanctions as some foreign media reported," oil official Pirouz Mousavi told the semi-official Mehr news agency on Friday.

The sanctions are causing real hardship on the streets, where prices for basic imported goods are soaring, the rial currency has plummeted and Iranians have been flocking to sell rials to buy dollars to protect their savings.

The pain comes less than two months before a parliamentary election, Iran's first since a presidential vote in 2009 that was followed by eight months of street demonstrations.

Iran's authorities successfully put down that revolt by force, but since then the "Arab Spring" has shown the vulnerability of authoritarian governments in the region to protests fueled by anger over economic difficulty.

Clash Threat

Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz leading to the Gulf if sanctions are imposed on its oil exports, and has threatened to take unspecified action if Washington sails an aircraft carrier through the strait, an international waterway.

Military experts say Tehran can do little to fight the massive U.S.-led fleet that guards the strait, but the threats raise the chance of a miscalculation that could lead to a military clash and a global oil crisis.

The Pentagon said on Friday that small Iranian boats had approached close to U.S. vessels in the strait last week, although it said it did not believe there was "hostile intent."

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute. Iran says it would retaliate if attacked.

The tension has caused spikes in global oil prices in recent weeks, although prices eased at the close of last week's trading on the prospect of reduced demand in economically stricken European countries. Brent crude fell 82 cents to settle at $110.44 a barrel on Friday.

The chances for an imminent easing of tension look even more remote as the nuclear deadlock continues because of Iran's refusal to halt the sensitive nuclear work.

Last week Iran began enriching uranium underground - the most controversial part of its nuclear programme - at a bunker deep below a mountain near the Shi'ite holy city of Qom.

Nuclear talks with major powers collapsed a year ago. Iran says it wants the talks to resume, but the West says there is no point unless it is willing to discuss a halt to uranium enrichment, which can be used to make material for a bomb.

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+11 # Activista 2012-01-15 17:27

"Shimon Peres said Israel had no role in the attack, to the best of his knowledge"

"Shimon Peres said Israel had a role in the sale of nuclear arms to South African apartheid, to the best of his knowledge."

BBC News - Israel's Peres denies South Africa nuclear weapons deal
www.bbc.co.uk/news/10146075
May 24, 2010 – Israel's President Shimon Peres denies a report that he made a deal with apartheid South Africa to sell them nuclear warheads in 1975.

+34 # RMDC 2012-01-15 18:27

This is a really poorly written and misleading article. No wonder Americans are so confused on this issue.

"The chances for an imminent easing of tension look even more remote as the nuclear deadlock continues" -- there is no nuclear deadlock. The US and Israel want to start a war against Iran. If nuclear energy was not the issue, something else would be. Iran is perfectly legal in its nuclear programs. The US/Israel need to just butt out.

In the 80s when the US said it had evidence of Libyan guilt in bombing a disco in West Berlin that killed two US soldiers, Reagan ordered a bombing strike to Libya. Forty f-111 dropped hundreds of bombs on three Libyan cities, killing more than 100 people. Would Iran be justified in taking the same response? I say, NO. And I'm sure Iran won't try a stupid Reagan stunt.

I'm sure the CIA was behind this and other murders. That is what they do. They did the same thing in 1952-53 in Iran and at other times in very many countries. It is tragic that most people in the world know this is what the CIA does. But most Americans have no idea their government runs something that might be called "Murder, Inc."

+4 # William Bjornson 2012-01-16 10:25

The whole case against al Queda is actually based on the African embassy bombings (not 9/11 for which there is no evidence) in which al Queda has consistently denied being involved. In fact, the al Queda 'faction' supposedly involved has, to my knowledge, never resurfaced. The smell of red herring, false flag, is strong here, and is a stench over 9/11. As far as Americans "not knowing" the role of the CIA, alas, they do and applaud it. Go to any of the major news story comment pages, such as the recent Marine Corps disgrace, and see what the large majority of commenters has to say. The propagandists have a fertile field here because basic American values have been traditionally of the 'only good Indian is a ...' and making us even more sociopathic has not been difficult. We have become a nation of cowardly bullies and that will be hard to remedy. We even justify the wanton murder of our own children by the police as you might also see on the 'comments' pages. I, myself, still have hope for us which only means that 1) I am highly irrational relative to the general irrationality and 2) I will die sooner than otherwise of a broken heart. I suspect RMDC may also die of the same condition albeit he is much more rational than I am.

+17 # RMDC 2012-01-15 19:21

This is not a "rare letter." Achmadinejad has in fact sent a letter to US presidents on several occasions, far more letters from him than from Bush or Obama. It used to be that his letters were re-printed in the papers. I have not seen this one but I'll look for it. Achmadinejad is a very thoughtful and decent man, something that cannot be said about Bush or Obama who don't really seem capable of expressing any uplifting sentiments for the human race. All they know is threats of violence and insults.

Most of the world sees Achmadinejad as a good national leader. He faces huge obstacles, but he tries to make life better not just for Iranians but for all the world. He has never threatened Israelis. That's just another American/Israeli lie.

It is very sad that the US has such crappy leaders. They are real scum. Think of them -- Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama. I've omitted Carter and Johnson because they were the best of the lot but they were even not very good. They could not control the Pentagon or CIA which committed horrible crimes while they were president. They may not have liked it, but they did nothing to stop it.

+8 # reiverpacific 2012-01-15 22:28

"Nuclear talks with major powers collapsed a year ago. Iran says it wants the talks to resume, but the West says there is no point unless it is willing to discuss a halt to uranium enrichment, which can be used to make material for a bomb" [Quote].
Better intent would be to "Discuss the unilateral, worldwide abandonment of Nuclear fuel and power completely and international cooperation in funding and developing alternatives into what should be normal" (my wording of course).
Our species survival depends on it.
All else is self-serving power-struggle and profiteering, wherever it resides! Think and plan wide, deep and long-term.

+7 # sandyboy 2012-01-15 22:33

Viva RMDC! And may I add our UK leaders to the list of scum? Thatcher, Blair, Brown, Cameron - and especially the Liberal Democrats, who jumped at the chance to join in a coalition govt with Conservatives, even though it meant reversing cast-iron (sic) guarantees made during the election? We all know Iran is dominated by clerics, but as RMDC says, the Iranian leader has acted more honorably than our goons in US/Europe. What would THEY do if Western scientists were murdered on the streets? The bombs would already be flying. We need to revive that slogan re Iraq: NOT in OUR name!!!!!!!

+13 # Byronator 2012-01-15 23:25

So we inflict pain and hardship on the Iranian people because we don't like their leaders and are, evidently, in dire need of another war after a decade of wasted lives and resources in Iraq ends. Sounds like we've developed a serial killer's mindset....

+3 # William Bjornson 2012-01-16 10:03

"Sounds like we've developed a serial killer's mindset...."

Naw. We've always had such a mindset. It's just that the intervals have been getting shorter. With smaller wars, we lose fewer people so we are ready for the next one right away. War, or threat of war, has become our only foreign policy because fascistic psychopathy disparages thought and imagination and a rational approach to issues. We are the dominant bully and our only thought is to stay that way even as we are enslaved to foreign interests. Read world history and you will see that we could be dropped down into a number of times/places in the past with nary a deviance from what is happening to us right now. I suspect the controllers are using the pre1917 Russian model on us leading to anomie and a complete takeover of power here. We'll see. They are way ahead of us in any case, whatever the plan is, and THERE IS a plan. You KNOW that.

+9 # abdullahiedward 2012-01-16 03:04

This is not a "rare" occurance. Ahmadenijad has sent letters before particularly to GW Bush who never bothered to answer any of them. What would be a "rare" occurance therefore would be for an American president to respond in a similar fashion thereby keeping this situation in the "Post Office" unstead of the War Room.

+4 # Kootenay Coyote 2012-01-16 07:39

The West is obviously angling for another Commodity War, cloaking itself in mock self-righteousness after almost a century of abuse of Persia - which it divided into Iraq & Iran - for its resources. Churchill weighed in about 1912, concerned for oil to fuel the British navy, & so it has gone ever since, especially with the outrageous foreign-engineered deposition of PM Mossadegh about the turn of the 1950’s. The vile Crusader spirit again, but with no religious excuse for the naive.

+2 # William Bjornson 2012-01-16 09:48

RMDC - good post! I first, somehow, listened to a speech President Achmadinejad gave at the U.N. and I was amazed because, as cynical as I think I am, I still had an American propagandoid image of him and listening to the speech was a personal revelation. Can politicians really sound like this? was my thought and I wanted to draft him as a candidate here. Whereas Iran (Persia?) has the clerics of allah, we have the clerics of gelt (Praise It from Which all blessings flow). Same people, except the geltics have a simpler moral code: Psychopathic greed. The parallels, oddly, are identical, self-centered benefit whether power and women, or heaven and (I'm told) women. He who lives by the testicle is enslaved by the testicle?

Yeah, Achmadinejad in 2012! Eloquence flowing from humanity in spirit and not from a paid ghost-writing political propagandist. I'd like to meet the guy at Starbucks and buy him and his translator a latte and just listen to what he has to say. BHO seems hardly as interesting and the others I'd be embarrassed to be seen with. Too bad our culture won't last long enough to develop leaders of his calibre who actually held the power to manage rationally. He has the Ayatollah and BHO has goldman sucks...

+2 # abdullahiedward 2012-01-16 14:29

He has made similar poignent speeches throughout his term as president of Iran. His talk at Columbia was rather good too, once you get past the boorish and insulting introduction by the schools president. Of particular note concerning his speeches is that they are often (nearly always) mis-reported. For example, again at Columbia, the press in the US made a lot of noise about him saying something like "we don't have homosexuals in Iran (or Tehran). He was laughed at, joked about and insulted severally by all forms of American media ranging from Jay Leno to the Wall Street Journal, all because they took his words completely out of context when they edited out his last four words "like you do here". As you can see, his finishing comment changes the whole nature of what he actually said and it certainly has no similarity to what he was quoted as saying. The same holds true for his comments about the Holacaust and the infamous mis-quote of them all about "wiping Israel off the map." Search for more of his speeches on YouTube, you'll be further amazed. I particuarly like the one entitled "What you don't know about President Ahmadenijad."

0 # abdullahiedward 2012-01-16 14:32

0 # abdullahiedward 2012-01-16 14:33

+2 # Huck Mucus 2012-01-16 10:17

I'm so confused. I only know what I read. And by that, I mean I only know what I read. I don't know it to be true on the merits, but, rather, only that I read it.

For all I know, Osama Bin Laden was a left wing liberal, feminist, environmentalis t who posed such a "John Conners" threat to the dominant paradigm that our distopian system conjured up a fake boogie man and some tragedies of his making.

I guess I'd have to actually hop a flight over there and ask the Iranians WTF? Maybe I'd end up like those hikers, of the Marine who allegedly just got jailed over there. Or maybe not.

All I know, is I now hear some shit that sounds awful familiar about nukes and threats to American security, etc. Last time, guys like Scott Ritter got "caught" with under age girls, ala Julian Assange. Wonder what the naysayers this time will be charged with? Will NSA slip some kiddie porn in their hard drives? Inquiring minds want to know.

I've got no truck with killing folks who stone adulterous women to death, or lop the heads off homosexuals, but I'm afraid our military is not that selective and, for all I know, our government is lying. Maybe I am in a vacuum. I'd get out more, but doesn't the whole world hate me?

0 # RMDC 2012-01-17 06:16

Huck -- I do have a truck with folks who stone adulterous women to death or lop the heads off of homosexuals. That's wrong and it should change. It is much worse in Saudi Arabia than in Iran. Iran is in fact developing and progressing. Almost half of all the college students are women. Women hold lots of positions in the professions like medicine and government.

The threat of war makes progress almost impossible. It brings out the most conservative and retrogressive forces in any society. The US has had sanctions against Iran since 1979. It does not recognize Iran as a nation. It has no embassy in Tehran. All of that gives license to the "hard liners" in Iran. If the US were to normalize relations with Iran, it would progress steadily. The Iranian people want that. But what they don't want is to be like Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and they will defend themselves as best they can.

+4 # John Locke 2012-01-16 10:39

Good posts all. Lets out those who are behind this war to come. these were all in Bushes administration and were all associated with PNAC...Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld , Paul Wolfowitz , Elliott Abrams, Richard Armitage, John R. Bolton, Seth Cropsey, Paula Dobriansky, Francis Fukuyama, Bruce Jackson, Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis Libby, Peter W. Rodman, Robert B. Zoellick, Dov S. Zakheim and Randy Scheunemann...there are others who are also promoting this coming war but these are the hawks... and wield trememdous influence on Obama right now, and also Hillery Clinton who is also a hawk...but has not been found to be involved directly with PNAC

Persons who were PNAC Project directors[as was listed on the PNAC website:] William Kristol, Co-founder and Chairman of Project for a New American Century...(The weekly Standard, Murdoch stooge financed entirely by Rupert Murdoch) Robert Kagan, Co-founder Bruce P. Jackson, Mark Gerson, and Randy Scheunemann and of course "Skull and Bones" Stephen Allen Schwarzman (S&K class of 1969), co-founder of The Blackstone Group

0 # tclose 2012-01-16 10:42

My feelings are conflicted over this and the comments on the article. Although the US and UK has been complicit in crimes against Iran over many decades (e.g. the 1954 coup of Prime Minister Mosaddegh), the idea of a religiously-led Iran possessing nuclear weapons is not very appealing. It should be straightforward for Achmadinejad and Khamenei to address the concerns of the Europe, the US, and the UN about its nuclear program and much of this conflict would be resolved. I think the US pressure on Iran through UN sanctions are warranted; assassination clearly is not, if that is in any way backed by the US - or Israel of course.

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