by Gordon Thomas*
Deep-cover
Mossad agents in Iran have discovered the regime is rushing to complete
the development of a giant missile. It has a range of 2,200 miles that
would bring London and other European cities in range and a 1.2 ton
nuclear payload that would leave any city a wasteland. The missile is
an updated version of the North Korean Taepodong-1 rocket.
Based on Russian technology and sold to North Korea in 2003 in a secret
arms deal that MI6 uncovered last month, the rocket’s ballistic
technology is among the most sophisticated in the world.
Nuclear proliferation expert Al Venter said: “This confirms why Tony
Blair issued his blunt warning of possible military action. The stakes
are growing in the confrontation between Iran’s Islamic regime and the
West. Britain and Europe are now in the firing line”.
Last week the Mossad agents discovered that only days before President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel “must be wiped off the map”, a fleet of
giant flying tankers from North Korea arrived in Iran carrying liquid
propellant to drive its 8 Shahab-3 missiles. The fuel came from North
Korea’s state-owned Chongchengong Arms Corporation.
Each rocket has a range of 800 miles, capable of hitting Tel Aviv and
other Israeli cities. The Mossad agents have obtained an Iranian
target-selection map that shows the prime target would be Dimona,
Israel’s own nuclear arsenal in the Negev desert. It stores over 200
nuclear weapons.
The target map, along with details of the sites where the long range
Taepodong rocket is being rushed into operation, was passed to MI6.
They will form a briefing paper by John Scarlett for Tony Blair this
week.
Until now the Iranian sites have remained secret. But the threat they
pose to Britain and Europe is so serious that Mossad has revealed the
details.
• Darkhovin. South of the city of Ahvaz, the facility is heavily
fortified with two battalions of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. It
employs 3,000 scientists and engineers. Most of their work is
underground building rocket motors.
• Mu-allimn Kalayeh. Sited in the mountains near Qasvin, its uranium
enrichment gas centrifuges produce the enriched weapons-grade material
for warheads.
• Saghand is in the remote desert east of Tehran. It employs 800 technicians building the casings for the Taepodong rockets.
• Nekka, near the Caspian Sea. Buried underground, the complex employs
over a thousand scientists. Its facilities include a Neutron Source
Reactor purchased from North Korea.
• Busher. Situated on the Persian Gulf and severely damaged in Iran’s
war with Iraq, the site has been updated under the guidance of 150
Russian technicians. It has a staff of 1,500 and is now a key part of
the country’s rocket-building programme.
• Esfahan. Once the city of carpet weavers, it now houses a facility
producing uranium hexaflouride (UF6) needed for centrifuges in order to
create a nuclear weapon. Over 2,000 scientists and technicians are
employed there.
Last Thursday, hours after Iran’s president had made his inflammatory
demand to see Israel destroyed, the heads of its defence forces met
under the chair of the Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, to review plans to
deal with the threat. Before them they had the Mossad reports from Iran.
Israel’s navy chief said the country’s three Dolphin-class nuclear
submarines already on standby in the Straits of Hormuz had been brought
to one level below launch to fire their guided missiles into
predetermined Iranian rocket sites. The air force was at “take-off
readiness” to launch air strikes. The Sholdag unit, modelled on the
SAS, was ready to launch an aerial assault on the prime nuclear target
of Natanz where the Taepodong-1 rockets were being assembled.
A replica of the site had been constructed in the Negev Desert on which
the commandoes had trained. The commandoes would be accompanied by
Alsatian dogs from the Oketz unit. Each dog would, in the minutes
before the attack, have packs of explosives strapped to their bodies.
Trained to locate underground tunnels, the dogs would enter them and
their explosives would be detonated by remote control by their
handlers. Simultaneously F-15 bombers would drop bunker-busting bombs.
Even while the smoke was clearing, the commandoes would carry out a
“kill or be killed” room by room assault on all surviving buildings in
Natanz.
* Gordon Thomas is the author of Gideon’s Spies: Mossad’s Secret Warriors.