Jamalifash confessed in the television appearance to having planted the bomb that killed Masud Ali-Mohammadi January 12, 2010.
Ali-Mohammadi, 50 at his death, was a professor of elementary particle physics. The Islamic Republic says he was a major figure in Iran’s nuclear program and was targeted by Israel for that reason.
Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi spoke to reporters twice this week and said Iran had arrested “more than 10” Israeli spies, including Jamalifash. Moslehi did not say over what period of time they were arrested. And he declined to give the exact number of those arrested.
But he boasted a huge success in overcoming the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, not only through the mass of arrests but also by penetrating Mossad’s computer systems.
Jamalifash said he was trained at a military base located on the highway that links Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. He said he was trained in surveillance, counter-surveillance, vehicle pursuit and how to stick a bomb on a car.
“I entered a large warehouse with 10 containers in it,” he said. “The next day, we were back at the same place. They had two Iran-made motorcycles and told me where I should put the bomb-carrying motorcycle and how I should call a telephone number after that.”
Ali-Mohammadi was killed early in the morning as he emerged from his apartment house and walked to his car. A motorcycle laden with explosives was chained to a tree right next to his parked car. The bomb was presumably detonated by someone in a nearby building watching for Ali-Mohammadi to emerge. Jamalifash, however, said nothing about the detonation.
Jamalifash said his Israeli trainers showed him a “precise model of Dr. Ali-Mohammadi’s house and its surroundings—the same color, the same curb, the same street and even the same tree—so that I would be familiar with the area and the operational conditions of the assassination.”
In one of Moslehi’s meetings with reporters this week, he made a major point of warning Iran’s neighbors not to cooperate with Israel in any way, indicating a new fear within the Iranian establishment. In recent months there have been news reports, not confirmed, that Saudi Arabia would allow Israeli planes to cross Saudi Arabia to bomb Iran, as well as WikiLeaks documents showing that Saudi King Abdullah urged the United States to attack Iran and numerous reports saying Arab leaders now are far more concerned about Iran than about Israel.
Those reports seem to have made an impression on the establishment in Tehran, given Moslehi’s warning Tuesday to Iran’s neighbors.
Moslehi argued that Israel is not just opposed to Iran’s nuclear program. He said Israel’s real goal is to stop the scientific progress of the entire Islamic world. He said Israel is prepared to murder prominent scientists in any and all Muslim countries. “This [Zionist] regime is opposed to any achievement in the region and all distinguished scientists in the Middle East are in danger,” Moslehi said.
He then openly threatened other countries in the region. “Our neighbors and the regional countries that have ties with the Zionist regime should know that any assistance given to this regime would be viewed as a threat to Iran,” Moslehi said.
On November 29, a second nuclear scientist was killed and another injured when magnetized bombs were attached to their cars only minutes apart as they drove through Tehran traffic. Iran has not linked Jamalifash or any of the others arrested to those attacks, however.
That was surprising as it means the Intelligence Ministry is acknowledging it hasn’t broken up the organization attacking Iranian scientists. That will not be reassuring for the dozens of nuclear physicists working on Iran’s nuclear program.
After Ali-Mohammadi’s murder, the government provided more protection for nuclear scientists. Among those, the sci-entsists are now chauffeur-driven to and from work. For that reason, the November attacks could not replicate the January attack that killed Ali-Mohammadi. Not knowing what car would be used to carry the scientists, the attackers had to observe from a distance and then follow a chauffeur-driven car, pulling up beside it in traffic and sticking a magnetized bomb to it.
