Adiós a Nihil Obstat | Hola a The Catalán Analyst





Después de 13 años de escribir en este blog prácticamente sin interrupción, hoy lo doy por clausurado. Esto no quiere decir que me haya jubilado de la red, sino que he pasado el relevo a otro blog que sigue la misma línea de Nihil Obstat. Se trata del blog The Catalán Analyst y de la cuenta de Twitter del mismo nombre: @CatalanAnalyst . Os los recomiendo.



Muchas gracias a todos por haberme seguido con tanta fidelidad durante todos estos años.


jueves, 16 de febrero de 2012

El ataque de Israel contra Iran, cada dia más cerca

Ya casi nadie duda en Israel de la probabilidad de un ataque militar contra Irán. Aunque no se sepa, todo el mundo está convencido de que ya se ha fijado el alcance de la operación y el calendario. La única pregunta que queda por responder es si el estado de Israel se puede permitir el lujo de atacar las instalaciones nucleares de Irán sin la aceptación, al menos tácita, de Barack Obama. Para saberlo, el jefe del Mossad, Tamir Pardo, ha viajado a Washington para reunirse con Obama. Hace un mes, Pardo se reunió en secreto con varios altos funcionarios estadounidenses a cargo de la cuestión iraní, entre ellos del jefe de la CIA, David Petraeus. Después de esos encuentros, Israel ha dejado de compartir información con Washington sobre los preparativos militares en previsión de un ataque y Netanyahu ha ordenado a ministros y militares mantener el más absoluto silencio sobre Irán.

¿Está Irán detrás de la muerte de sus científicos?

El hecho de que los recientes atentados contra coches de personal diplomático israelí en Nueva Delhi y Tiflis se hayan hecho a través de un motorista, de manera similar a los atentados contra científicos iraníes, ha hecho volar las especulaciones. Aunque algunos medios atribuyen la coincidencia en un macabro sentido del humor de los terroristas, algunas voces plantean la posibilidad de que todos estos atentados tengan el mismo origen: el régimen iraní. Esta es la opinión de Potkin Azarmehr, un blogger brillante y periodista iraní con sede en el Reino Unido.

1. Professor Ali Mohammadi, killed in front of his home by a booby-trapped motorcycle parked outside, was a public supporter of the Green Movement and a member of a regional science project to which Israeli scientists also participated. He taught quantum physics: “It stretches the imagination to assume the Islamic Republic of Iran would include one of its key nuclear weapon/power scientists, who could be a possible target for assassination by Western agencies, on this SESAME project, where he would regularly meet in conferences with colleagues from other countries, including Israel.” An assassin, Jamal Fash, was paraded on TV, but the “TV confessions of Jamali Fash were full of contradictions and it later emerged that he was an ardent pro-Ahmadinejad devotee and a kickboxer member of the national team.”

2. Professor Majid Shahriari, killed on November 29, 2010, was a member of the same regional project alongside Ali Mohammadi. Potkin notes that “There was no appeal made by the state for the public to come forward as witnesses and until now no one has been arrested or charged with his murder. I have come across one eyewitness myself however. A former employee of the interior ministry, who saw the whole thing and told me it bore all the hallmarks of an Iranian regime hit squad.”

3. Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani survived an attempt a few minutes after Shahriari was killed and was later appointed as head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. This guy was clearly linked to the program but, as Potkin helpfully notes, “Footage of Abbassi Davani’s car shown afterwards, show a few bullet holes on the bonnet and windscreen and unlike Shahriari’s car, his car was not blown up. If these assassinations were the work of highly sophisticated Western/Israeli sent hit squads, how is it that a theoretical research physicist not on the sanctions list is eliminated so efficiently but the more obvious target who is clearly connected to the nuclear program and is on the sanctions list, is not even hurt?”

4. Dariush Rezaei Nejad was murdered as he waited for his daughter at kindergarten on July 23, 2011. He is the namesake of a nuclear scientist, but he himself was an electrical engineering master student. His Wikipedia entry tells us that “At the time of his killing he was described by officials as a ‘nuclear scientist’ and an academic associated with Iran’s atomic activities, but days later as a postgraduate electrical engineering masters student at Tehran’s K.N.Toosi University of Technology, who was waiting to defend his thesis.” Potkin weighed in on this by adding that “He even had a Facebook page and on his Facebook page, he had included the dissident Iranian singer, Shajarian, as one of his favorites. It is unthinkable that an Iranian scientist connected with Iran’s nuclear program would have a Facebook page which shared his friends and family and their photos.”