Source: RIRRakesh Krishnan Simha
Target Iran: The morality of killing nuclear scientists
The serial murder of Iranian nuclear scientists is a pointer to the
West’s moral compass. It is also a sign of desperation and double
standards.
“Physics is an unhealthy line of work in today’s Iran,” begins an
editorial in the Australian newspaper “The Age”. The jibe follows the
murder of an Iranian nuclear scientist by a motorcycle riding assassin.
“I shall not shed any tears whenever one of these scientists encounters
the unforgiving men on motorbikes, men who live in the real world rather
than a laboratory or philosophy seminar,” the morally challenged writer
continues.
What kind of dystopian world is the writer living in? When did
scientists become legitimate targets and hired killers turn heroic? For
several decades now Australia, in lockstep with its Western allies, has
parroted the drivel that terrorism in all forms must be condemned. But
because the dead scientists all worked for Iran, it’s okay to gloat.
Five strikes
Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been attacked in the past two
years. In the latest job on January 11, a magnetic bomb was attached to
the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan’s car during morning
rush-hour in the capital, Tehran. His driver was also killed and two
others seriously injured.
Last year among the four scientists attacked, the most spectacular –
and tragic – incident was on July 23 when Darioush Rezaeinejad was shot
through the throat outside his daughter’s kindergarten.
The official, and expected, response to these murders is the “we
condemn” line from Western governments. However, the unofficial
statements are a stark pointer to the West’s moral compass.
“On occasion,” gloated Republican presidential hopeful and
gay-bashing, Christian fundamentalist Rick Santorum, “scientists working
on the nuclear programme in Iran turn up dead. I think that’s a
wonderful thing, candidly.”
And smiling for the cameras in a televised press conference Israel
Defence Forces (IDF) chief Benny Gantz spoke about “unnatural events”
that were delaying Iran’s nuclear push.
The gloating didn’t end there. “I don’t know who settled the score
with the Iranian scientist, but I certainly am not shedding a tear,” the
IDF’s Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai said on Facebook.
Settling scores with scientists? Aren’t scientists middle class folk
who are simply doing a professional job their government has ordered
them to do? Even at the height of the Second World War when Nazi Germany
was developing nuclear technology, German scientists were not targeted.
If Iranian scientists are murdered in this macabre manner, does it
then give Tehran the right to murder American, British and Israeli
scientists? Indeed, the boffins conjuring up new weapons that might one
day rain death over Iranian cities are legitimate assassinations
targets.
Coming unstuck
The attacks, however, do not seem to be reversing Iran’s efforts. On
the other hand, the spate of murders could force the Iranians to step up
the pace of their bomb programme because they’re under such critical
threat.
Iran’s nuclear programme is an enormous project employing hundreds of
scientists and thousands of technicians. Taking out the odd scientist,
however skilled and high-ranking, is extremely unlikely to delay the
project. Indeed, the project has long since passed the point where the
fate of any one individual could affect it.
It is in this backdrop that the Associated Press image of Roshan and
his baby is so poignant – and loaded with portent. Thanks to the West’s
elimination programme, his son will grow up fatherless in a country that
is being economically strangled by sanctions.
And knowing the Iranian record of retribution, tit-for-tat murders of
Western scientists or their families might yet happen. (The bombing of
the PanAm Boeing 747 over Lockerbie was in retaliation for the US Navy’s
downing in 1988 over the Straits of Hormuz of an Iran Air airliner
carrying 290 civilians, including 10 Indians.)
At any rate, the murders are a sign of desperation. The fall of the
Shah in 1979 was the biggest geopolitical setback for the Anglo-American
axis. The Iranians attacked thousands of British and US expatriates,
forcing them to leave the country.
American and British agents are finding it difficult to engineer a
coup like they did in 1953 (when the democratically elected Mossadegh
was deposed in a CIA-British coup) because the entire country is united.
Except for the Balochs, none of the major ethnic groups has shown any
interest in betraying their country.
Another sore point is that Iraq, where the US expended over $3
trillion and 4,500 soldiers’ lives, has passed under Iranian influence.
It must be frustrating to see Western-style democracy transfer power to
Iraq’s Shia majority, which has close links with predominantly Shiite
Iran.
It is for these reasons that Iran is being demonised?
Dealing in double standards
In a December 14, 2009 article in the Los Angeles Times titled “Hit
Iran Where it Hurts”, US lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen accused Iran of
being a state sponsor of terrorists.
Really? And what is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s record? According to the
Los Angeles Times, in February 1988, Orlando Bosch was arrested in Miami
and implicated in the 1976 plot to blow up Cubana Flight 455, a
terrorist act that killed 73 passengers. That’s right, 73 innocent air
passengers.
The American associate attorney general called Bosch “a terrorist,
unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence
without regard to the identity of his victims”. Bosch, however, had the
advantage of having Ros-Lehtinen advocating for his release one of the
cornerstones of her 1989 congressional campaign. Interestingly,
Ros-Lehtinen’s campaign manager was Jeb Bush, President George H. Bush’s
son. In 1990, after lobbying by Jeb Bush and Ros-Lehtinen, the Bush
administration went against the Justice Department’s recommendation to
deport Bosch and authorised his release.
Bosch was also a key figure in the assassination of former Chilean
foreign minister and economist Orlando Letelier. It was Bosch who
approved the attack and supplied the operatives who actually planted the
bomb that American undercover agents built. Letelier was killed on the
streets of Washington DC.
Since then, Bosch has become a permanent resident of the United States.
Clearly, hypocrisy is the West’s standing policy on foreign affairs.
Rakesh Krishnan Simha is a New Zealand-based writer. He has
previously worked with leading Indian publications like Businessworld,
India Today and Hindustan Times.
