Israeli spy executed in Iran: The war goes on

Another victim in the war

Execution of Iranian convicted of espionage another chapter in secret intelligence war

 

Ronen Bergman Published:  11.26.08, 01:56 / Israel Opinion 

 

The execution of Ali Ashtari, if we believe the Iranian publications on the affair, the indictment, and the confession, is yet another link in the endless chain of ongoing intelligence war pitting Israel against Iran. This war is not waged on the battlefield, and most of it is undertaken in secret, yet it is being waged every hour of every day, and at times it exacts casualties.

On Saturday, the person who paid with his life was someone who according to Iran's chief prosecutor was a "spy who caused immense damage to the defense and intelligence establishments in the country."

 

We can indeed characterize Ashtari's arrest was a failure. However, the fact that someone managed to recruit a person located at such important junction and used him to spy and cause damages to computerized systems attests to high capabilities and immense effort.

 

In the past five years, the Mossad has focused almost entirely on one objective. This objective is called Iran. All the rest has become marginal in the view of Mossad Director Meir Dagan. If Ashtari indeed worked for the Mossad, this is proof that the immense effort bore some fruit.

 

The plethora of information published by the Iranians shows that apparently this was not an attempt to get rid of someone after falsely accusing him of espionage. The information is commensurate with other operations undertaken by Western intelligence agencies using similar methods, including the planting of Trojan horses and tampering with advanced electronic equipment before it was used by the enemy's 
defense establishment.

 

 

According to the details that were published, Ashtari also tried to recruit figures involved in Iran's nuclear project on behalf of the Mossad. We can assume that if he managed to do so, these people are currently facing a big problem.

 

In the last three years, several reports were received from Iran regarding odd malfunctions at the army's computerized systems in respect to the nuclear project. Now all that is left is to identify the malfunction that led to the uncovering of poor Ashtari.