JJA:  Iranian martial arts athletes were used by the security forces,  to attack demonstrators in the streets, to kill specific people, and to train the regime thugs.  There’s a significant passage in a Wikileaks document from the American Embassy in Baku that gives some “information” on the phenomenon:

The source maintains that one of his acquaintances killed at least six intellectuals and young “pro-democracy activists” before he himself was eliminated.

OK?  So if the source is telling the truth, people like Fashi were first used to kill people, and then killed themselves.  Perhaps to make sure they didn’t talk. Fashi, in any event, was dangerous to the regime because, even though he was a big Ahmadinejad supporter, he traveled a lot outside the country to compete.

ML:  And if the source is truthful, people like Fashi were used to kill “intellectuals” as well as activists.  That fits your theory that the physicists were rubbed out by the regime.

JJA:  Kind of you to notice.

ML:  But isn’t it counterproductive to kill your own nuclear experts?

JJA:  It’s a hell of a lot easier to find another nuclear physicist than to replace a compromised program.  Iran has a well-educated group of scientists and technicians, a large talent pool.  They have also imported lots of foreign nuclear experts, so most likely they don’t worry much about losing one or two of them unless it’s a key figure.

ML:  And if they lost a key figure, we might not know about it, don’t you think?

JJA:  Agreed.  Why would they tell us?  The killings thus far haven’t involved the top level personnel…and they have been widely publicized.  By the regime itself.  Almost as if they were sending a warning to some others…meanwhile, as you say, the top guys are left untouched.

ML:  The very people you’d expect Israel to target.

JJA:  Yes, I would.  It’s the way they have targeted Hamas, for example.

ML:  So what do you think about Stuxnet, the sabotage of the Iranian uranium enrichment program?

JJA:  That looks more Israeli and/or American to me.  And maybe the Germans, too.  It was a German computer that was infected with the virus, or worm, after all.  They knew more than anyone else about its vulnerabilities.


ML:  Do you expect that sort of thing to continue?

JJA:  Of course.  It’s the smart way.  And (LOST SOME WORDS) people on the ground, better to kill the program than the scientists.

And he was gone.