Bestseller as smoke screen

by Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively for VK

Israeli and Iranian media have been discussing the “Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars” book by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, describing Israel’s actions against the Iranian nuclear program. There seems to be no paper that has not mentioned the book.

The idea is that the murders of Iranian nuclear specialists in the last few years have been organized by Mossad. Melman and Raviv say that ordinary “Iranian dissidents” could not have accomplished such a goal.

The authors say that a few dozen Iranians arrested for murdering scientists on Israel’s orders have most likely nothing to do with the murders. The methods and advanced equipment used, they explain, could not have been shipped by Mossad to freelancers.

Raviv and Melman note that there are no problems for Israeli spies entering Iran. They know about secret asylums for Israeli agents in Iran.

Special attention is paid to joint operations of Mossad and the CIA to combat Iran's nuclear and missile programs. The authors insist that the cyber war against Iran is being carried out together by Israel and the US, mentioning such viruses as Stuxnet and Flame. Raviv and Melman are confident that the special division of Israel’s Aman intelligence, 8200, was the developer of the software.

But before taking the version for granted, it must be mentioned that Yossi Melman is not just a journalist. He is the author and a co-author of many books about Israeli special services, who has told about many secret operations of Mossad and Israel Security Agency and Aman. Melman is only declassifying what he was allowed to and writes only the things he was permitted. Thus, he is sort of a “royal writer” of the Defense Ministry and Israeli intelligence services, following their orders.

The question is: why has the book been published now and why does Mossad need it? A source told VK that “Spies Against Armageddon” was initially planned as disinformation, like a smoke screen against Iranian counter-espionage, to save people who were helping Israel slow down the realization of Iran's nuclear program. Raviv and Melman’s book contains no documents or official statements. It gives Iran no links to blame Israel for the murders of the nuclear specialists.

The source said that Israel is indeed concerned over the disappearance of Kurdistan’s resistance activists in Iraq. The Kurds say that the activists were kidnapped by the Iranians for cooperating with Israeli intelligence. In other words, Iranians might have been looking for the Kurds for murdering the scientists.

The missing Kurds include Malvuad Afand, Editor-in-Chief of the Israel-Kurd Magazine, started 5 years ago. Afand left Irvil and was on his way to Sulaymaniyah for “an important meeting”, he claimed. He has been missing ever since. Businessman Daud Bagistani, a founder of the magazine and a sponsor and leader of the Kurdish resistance in Iraq, has left Iraq and is hiding in Turkey at the moment. He said that a major center of the Iranian special services is operating in Sulaymaniyah.

Bagistani is a notable figure. A fighter by nature, he never denied his grandfather being a Jew and his sympathy for Israel. Bagistani believes that the Kurds may achieve their goals by cooperating with Israel. He has helped build ties between Iranian Kurds and leaders of the community of the 150,000 Jews of Kurdistan. Moreover, Professor Orfa Banjo assisted in forming the Kurdish Sub-Department at the Jewish University in Jerusalem. But Israeli academicians disapproved the idea.

Thus, the question is not whether Kurds are involved in Israel’s struggle with Iran. The answer is clear: they are. The question is whether they took part in the murders of Iranian nuclear specialists. Perhaps “Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars” was published to make the problem less clear.