Iran bragged about its ‘victory’ after the end of the 12 Day War, when the Israelis easily destroyed Iranian air defenses and the US all but destroyed their nuclear-weapons program. Generally speaking, however, the winning side of a war usually doesn’t have to engage in massive “mole hunts” and executions to excuse failures. And even when they do, they generally don’t do it while its enemies are still exposing their terror hierarchy and operations.
The mole hunt has ramped up in recent days, the New York Times reports, and has taken on elements of nose-cutting-to-spite-faces actions. Israel targeted Iran’s nuclear scientists in the war to ensure that they could not easily reconstitute their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran has given a boost to Israel’s efforts by executing one of its remaining nuclear experts, reports the New York Times:
Iran executed one of its nuclear scientists on Wednesday over allegations that he was a spy for Israel and had facilitated Israel’s assassination of another nuclear scientist during the two countries’ war in June, according to the judiciary’s news outlet, Mizan.
The judiciary said the scientist, Roozbeh Vadi, had worked at one of the country’s most sensitive and important nuclear sites and had access to the type of classified information sought by Iran’s enemies. Mr. Vadi was executed by hanging after he was found guilty of espionage and providing information to Israel, the judiciary said.
That raised eyebrows at the NYT, and rightly so:
But the arrest and execution of a nuclear scientist is extremely rare in a nation that takes great pride in its domestic nuclear program, with scientists hailed as national heroes. It is also an embarrassing admission of the possible extent to which the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, has infiltrated Iran.
Was Vadi a spy for Israel? Who knows, but that’s hardly the point for a regime that is reeling from its utter defeat in its first major direct military conflict in 37 years. The regime needs scapegoats for their incompetence, perhaps now even more than they need nuclear scientists with its facilities in utter ruin now. Regime survival for a theocratic tyranny relies on the perception of not just dominance but also divine authority. Having one’s ass kicked for twelve straight days without having any effective strategic wins from its vaunted offensive ballistic-missile campaign does not speak well about claims to either dominance or divine grants of authority. The only possible explanation that would avoid the obvious challenges to both claims is betrayal.
Vadi is not the only target of the hunt for scapegoats, and not just within Iran either. The Jerusalem Post reports that the regime has targeted hundreds more for potential execution, including dozens of journalists, also as Israeli spies and infiltrators:
London-based media outlet Iran International has filed an urgent appeal to the United Nations, revealing that 45 of its journalists and more than 300 of their relatives across eight countries have received explicit death threats from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS). The threats warn staff to stop reporting on Iran or face execution, including their immediate family members.
The Persian-language news network, headquartered in London with additional bureaus in Washington, DC, and other global locations, said the campaign is part of a coordinated effort by Iranian authorities to silence dissent and intimidate the press. The threats mark what Iran International calls an “alarming and unprecedented escalation” in Tehran’s long-running campaign against the outlet.
In its formal appeal filed Tuesday with five UN Special Rapporteurs, Iran International’s legal team outlined that the threats have come with specific deadlines, all of which expired last week. The letter was sent to UN experts on freedom of expression, extrajudicial executions, torture, counter-terrorism, and Iran.
“Iran International journalists, their families in Iran and their families outside Iran are being threatened and harassed as never before,” said Mahmood Enayat, General Manager of Iran International. “This is an unprecedented and concerted campaign to force them off air.”
The MOIS certainly doesn’t think that Iran won this war. Otherwise, they would welcome press coverage of a glorious victory. Instead, they are adopting gangster/terrorist methods to get journalists to shut up about the actual outcomes of the war, not to mention the nature of the regime itself.
Not that it these tactics or the mole hunt is doing the MOIS much good. The National Council of Resistance of Iran has also reported that the regime has executed two MEK figures as well, a group that is the most significant of the in-country resistance, although they had actually been arrested two years ago. The NCRI held a press conference this morning to discuss the MOIS and their terror operations in the region and in the West. Their sources within the regime have provided them a lot of detail about the secret structure of the MOIS, and the NCRI laid it all out today in Washington DC:
A classified document that the Iranian Resistance has received from within the regime includes the names of current Intelligence Ministry officials, which is extremely opaque within Iran. Included on the list is “Seyyed Yahya Hamidi” (aka Seyyed Yahya Hosseiny Panjaki), who currently serves as Deputy Minister of Intelligence and head of the Counterterrorism Directorate.
Additionally, cleric Hossein Safdari, is listed as the head of the Foreign Intelligence Organization within the Ministry of Intelligence, and plays a key role in terror operations. According to the organizational chart of MOIS officials, based on the aforementioned list, the regime’s extraterritorial terrorist operations are coordinated between these two directorates.
The Deputy Minister for Counterterrorism (Hosseiny Panjaki), utilizing all the Ministry’s resources, implements terrorist operations in coordination with relevant agencies. The Foreign Intelligence Directorate (headed by Safdari), through intelligence stations embedded in the regime’s embassies, provides information, resources, and cover for the activities of the regime’s terrorist-diplomats.
Both directorates were involved in the November 9, 2023, terrorist attack in Madrid against Prof. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former Vice President of the European Parliament and President of the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ). The operation was commanded by Hosseiny Panjaki as the head of the Counterterrorism Directorate. The macro-mafia network, linked to the IRGC Quds Force and under the control of the Foreign Intelligence Directorate, executed the attack.
The IRGC/MOIS mole hunt does not appear to have impacted the intelligence sources. The NCRI not only identified the top officers within the MOIS; they have a rather deep org chart of the MOIS, with at least two dozen names in its upper echelons. The regime seems thoroughly compromised, which does not mean that they are not dangerous — but that any operations carry much higher risk to their organization, especially operations outside of Iran.
The NCRI wants the West to take action to address the threat posed by the regime and the MOIS, laid out in a press release provided to me during their presser:
Some Essential Measures to Counter the Regime’s Terrorism:
- 1. All embassies, diplomatic missions, and affiliated cultural and religious centers of the regime must be closed.
- 2. The Ministry of Intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which are the regime’s main terrorist arms, should be designated as terrorist entities in Europe and other democratic countries, as has already been done in the United States.
- 3. All agents and operatives of the Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC, as well as the regime’s unofficial lobbyists, should be prosecuted, punished, and expelled. These lobbies facilitate terrorist activities
- 4. The Iranian regime must be held accountable for over four decades of terrorism. United Nations sanctions and those of member states should be imposed on the Iranian regime as the principal state sponsor of terrorism, and its Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
They also want the “snapback” of sanctions lifted by the now-defunct JCPOA, but that should go further. There should be a full embargo of Iranian oil on the markets, which would go much further to starve the regime of resources for rebuilding its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs. This mole hunt is a moment of extraordinary weakness for the regime, and it’s time to apply “maximum pressure” to allow the people to take back their country and put an end to the evil regime that has terrorized them for 46 years.
Here’s the presser itself, which is just wrapping up as I write this post. They cover the entire report, which may be made available later at NCRIUS.org. My question pops up at the end, and I appreciate that they took the time to answer it remotely.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s military. We need that more than ever to contain and degrade Iran’s terror operations as well as their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
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