PHYSICISTS DON'T SHOOT OTHER PHYSICISTS, BUT LAME DUCKS MAY SHOOT WHOM THEY PLEASE

IN 1943,  DUTCH PHYSICIST  SAM GOUDSMIT DECLINED TO KILL GERMAN NUCLEAR RESEARCHER WERNER HEISENBERG BECAUSE "PHYSICISTS DON'T SHOOT OTHER PHYSICISTS." 

THE OSS STATION CHIEF IN ZURICH, ALLAN DULLES, THEN OFFERED SCIENCY BASEBALL PRO MOE BERG A PISTOL TO TAKE TO A SEMINAR THE NAZI NOBELIST WAS TO DELIVER IN NEUTRAL SWITZERLAND.   BERG TOOK THE GUN, WENT, AND HAVING LISTENED, DECIDED NOT TO SHOOT HIM ANYWAY. THE GUARDIAN  REPORTS  ON HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED:

Iran scientist's assassination appears intended to undermine nuclear deal

The entrance of the nuclear power plant in Natanz, south of Tehran. Photograph: Atomic Energy Organization of Ir/AFP/Getty Images

Julian Borger in Washington

Fri 27 Nov 2020 14.52 EST

The assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh may not much have impact on the Iranian nuclear programme he helped build, but it will certainly make it harder to salvage the deal intended to restrict that programme, and that is – so far - the most plausible motive.

Israel is widely agreed to be the most likely perpetrator. Mossad is reported to have been behind a string of assassinations of other Iranian nuclear scientists – reports Israeli officials have occasionally hinted were true.

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According to former officials, the Obama administration leaned on Israel to discontinue those assassinations in 2013, as it started talks with Tehran that led two years later to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by which Iran accepted constraints on its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief...

If Mossad was indeed behind the assassination, Israel had a closing window of opportunity in which to carry it out with a green light from an American president, and there seems little doubt that Trump, seeking to play a spoiler role in his last weeks in office, would have given approval, if not active assistance. He is reported to have asked for military options in Iran, in the aftermath 

“I think they would have had to get a green light from Washington. I don’t think they would do it without,” Dina Esfandiary, a fellow at the Century Foundation, said. “In terms of motive, I think it’s just pushing Iran to do something stupid to ensure that the Biden administration’s hands are tied when they come in to pursue negotiations and de-escalation.’

Killing Fakhrizadeh would serve other ends, though arguably with less effect. When the nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote up its final assessment of the military side of the Iranian programme, he was the only scientist mentioned by name, as being the mastermind behind the Amad plan to develop at least the capability of building a bomb.

The IAEA found that Amad was wound up in 2003 but Fakhrizadeh remained at the hub of a network of scientists with knowledge and experience of nuclear weapons work; that work did not continue after 2003 as a “coordinated effort”.

Ariane Tabatabai, Middle East fellow at the German Marshall Fund and author of a book on Iran’s national security strategy, compared the killing of Fakhrizadeh to the US assassination of the Revolutionary Guards general Qassem Suleimani at the beginning of the year.

“The objective behind the killing wasn’t to hinder the nuclear programme but to undermine diplomacy.”

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