This is a cross post from Potkin’s blog
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam’s article in the Guardian’s Comment is free section, which argues that the Islamic Republic was unlikely to be the culprit behind the assassination attempt on Israeli diplomats in Thailand, may appeal to most StWC members and other Western tyranophile readers of the Guardian newspaper, but anyone who has objectively been following Iran related news for the past three decades will have difficulty not falling off their chair with roaring laughter at the stupidity of this CASMII member and SOAS university lecturer.
To try to prove the Islamic Republic was the unlikely culprit for the attacks, Adib-Moghaddam in his opening paragraph asks the naive and ridiculous question “What would be the motive?”. Such an absurd question triggers the first chuckle. I mean Really? This SOAS lecturer genuinely doesn’t know what the motive could be? I wonder if he dared ask the Supreme Leader, “Oh the supremest of the supremests, what was your motive when in your recent sermon, you said your regime will back any nation that confronts Israel?” or whether he questioned numerous Islamic Republic officials who explicitly accused Israel of assassinating Iranian scientists and promised they would retaliate against the Israelis.
Certainly when official and semi-official Islamic Republic news agencies like Mehr, quoted Abdel Bari Atwan, Editor in chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, that “IRI will take revenge against Israel”, they never asked with such naivety “what would be our motive?”
In fact the Iranian officials have gone further than providing the motives that the SOAS lecturer, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is pretending to search for. Regime strategists and theoreticians like Rahimpour Azghadi have publicly gone on record saying “prepare for global operations”. Places like Thailand, Georgia and India are also part of our globe to this SOAS lecturer’s surprise.
Adib-Moghaddam then pathetically tries to argue that even if IR wanted to, it would not send its operatives to friendly countries. Hello?? Where have you been “Iran expert” SOAS lecturer/CASMII member? Have you not bothered to pop down the library and read about the assassinations of more than 100 dissidents and opponents of the regime all over the world? Assassinations that have happened not just in USA, England and France but in Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Cyprus, Dubai, Sweden, Italy, Spain, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. “Friendly” countries are actually more suitable because they do not require stringent visa requirements and for example in Thailand, until before this recent fiasco, Iranian nationals were issued with a visa at the airport.
Adib-Moghaddam’s last desperate attempt in scraping the bottom of the barrel to string up a worthy argument for his “unlikely culprit” scenario, is that the ‘highly trained and professional’ revolutionary guards would not be so clumsy and the regime in Iran would not be that stupid to alienate its friendly relations?
Lets start with looking at the later point. Actually the Islamic Republic can be and has been; extremely stupid. I have said time and time again that the Islamic Republic’s biggest enemy is itself and one should never underestimate its ability to shoot itself in the foot. While its best friend is the incompetent Iranian opposition abroad and the nonchalant majority of Iranian ex-pats who like to enjoy the benefits of living a comfortable life in Western democracies while still maintaining their ability to go back to Iran for cheap holidays.
What other than sheer stupidity can explain the holocaust denial speeches, the numerous outrageous inconsistent lies about Neda’s murder or the recent organised mob attack on the British embassy in Tehran, just to name a few? How else could you describe a regime, whose minister of ‘intelligence’ claims the US government has filtered Facebook and Twitter and slowed down the internet to crackdown on dissent?
As for the professionalism and efficiency of the Islamic Republic assassination operatives abroad, again their track record suggests other than what Adib-Moghaddam likes to advocate. The track record of the clumsy assassination attempts by the Islamic Republic abroad has mostly left plenty of clues that point the fingers to the Islamic Republic. Many of the assassins have either managed to flee to safety in Iran or have been given a hero’s welcome at Tehran airport after they have been released from European prisons. Some of the assassins like Anis Naqash, who carried out the first unsuccessful assassination on Shapur Bakhtiar that resulted in the killing and maiming of some French citizens have lived a lavish lifestyle in Iran ever since.
In May 1993, the German chief federal prosecutor submitted his indictment—in which Iran’s ministry of intelligence was implicated heavily in what became known as the Mykonos restaurant assassinations.
Shapur Bakhtiar’s second wave of assassins who managed to kill him in his Paris residence made a series of such clumsy errors that Arshin Adib-Moghaddam regards as unthinkable. For example, when two of the assassins, Azadi and Vakili-Rad boarded the wrong train at Lyon and made a series of traceable phone calls to other members of the terror network or when they stuck their phoney Swiss visa stamps into their phoney Turkish passports so late that the visa stamp was still moist, arousing the suspicion of a Swiss officer, who on closer examination determined that the visas, supposedly issued in Tehran, bore serial numbers of Swiss consulates in France. I won’t even mention how one of the assassins left a suitcase full of clues after visiting a French prostitute.
In denying the involvement by the Iranian regime in the recent attacks, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, intent on pulling the wool over the typical Guardian reader, has to then put the blame on someone else. He chooses to blame the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ and tries to induce the idea that there have been such reports that link the attacks to a group that is unrelated to Iran but oppose the relation between India and Israel.
I am not sure if Adib-Moghaddam, wrote this article before the identity of the attackers became known or he simply hadn’t been made aware of it, but the evidence speaks for itself.
Saeed Moradi, the man who was injured in the attack and Mohamamd Khazaei who was detained in the airport do not come across as ‘Indian Mujahideen’, nor does the third suspect Massoud Sedaghatzade and nor the female accomplice, Leila Rouhani who has managed to flee back to Tehran.
The picture which shows them all partying with two Thai prostitutes in Pattaya, the night before the attacks, also does not suggest they are ‘Indian Mujahideen’
The female accomplice, Leila Rouhani, who managed to flee back to Tehran and escape arrest by the Thai police, also does not come across as an ‘Indian Mujahideen’:
I think the evidence that the SOAS lecturer and CASMII member, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam is talking bollocks is overwhelming but the question is, have UK university lecturers really become that stupid or does Arshin Adib-Moghaddam have a vested interest? For example is it true that his father was the former head of the Islamic Republic mosque in Hamburg?
The sad thing however is that the mainstream media like the Guardian give space to such poppy cock articles by such dubious characters with hidden agendas and ulterior motives but they still refuse to publish the questions I have raised as to who is behind the assassination of the Iranian scientists.
