Serial Israeli Sanctions-Buster Again Guilty of Shipping Arms to Iran
Iranian F-4 fightersThe Israel Lobby and GOP have made a hugegeschrei about Iran sanctions. They’re the magic bullet that purportedly brought Iran to its knees. They advocate tightening the noose ever further. If only we took the sanctions regime to the end, Iran would completely acquiesce to western demands concerning its nuclear program. Or so the argument goes.
The U.S. screams bloody murder when it catches a foreign company violating the sanctions regime. U.S. media made sure to note that Pres. Obama lectured Francois Hollande when he was here about a French trade delegation that recently visited Iran.
How curious then, that Israel itself would be found to be in violation of U.S. sanctions law. Not once, not twice, but tens of times over the years. But did we hear about this latest incident from the NY Times or Washington Post? Did the administration hold a press conference to announce the Israeli violation as they would if it were a Pakistani, North Korean or Chinese company? Are you kidding. We had to learn about it in the pages of an obscure Greek media outlet, whichreported that an Israeli arms dealer sent spare parts for Iranian F-4 Phantom jets to Iran via Greece.
A U.S. Homeland Security investigation cooperated with Greek officials to foil the transaction:
…The operation was carried out in two phases – one in December 2012 and the second in April 2013…Officials traced containers packed with the F-4 parts on Greek territory. The cargo had been sent by courier from the Israeli town of Binyamina-Giv’at Ada and had been destined for Iran, which has a large fleet of F-4 aircraft, via a Greek company registered under the name Tassos Karras SA in Votanikos, near central Athens. SDOE officials established that the firm was a ghost company…
According to HSI memos, the cargo appears to have been sent by arms dealers based in Israel, seeking to supply Iran in contravention of an arms embargo, and using Greece as a transit nation.
Avichai Weinstein, serial Iran sanctions busterThe location of the Israeli company gave away the identity of the arms dealer to my Israeli source. This serial violator of the Iranian arms embargo is a devout Jew, Avichai Weinstein, whose companies QPS and PAD, have had numerous brushes with the law, both Israeli and U.S. I am the first media source revealing Weinstein’s involvement in this affair.
In 2003, Weinstein and his brother-in-law Eli Cohen were accused of procuring parts for Iranian F-4 jets and Hawk missiles using a U.S. Jewish arms dealer, Leib Kohn. In that case, the weapons systems were to be exported from the U.S. to Israel. There was no word on how Weinstein intended to get them to Iran, though it likely would’ve been through a third-party.
Yossi Melman reported here that the pair were also suspected of trying to ship armored personnel carriers to Iran in 2002. He noted in his article that this was the third time they were suspected of shipping illegal arms to Iran in the past decade.
In none of these cases were they even charged with a crime, let alone prosecuted. There can be no doubt that they are colluding with Israeli intelligence. Channel 2′s military reporter, who didn’t reveal Weinstein’s identity, said:
…Whoever did this, did not do so in opposition to Israeli interests.
How might such a scenario play out? For example, it’s known Iran was deliberately sold defective centrifuges which caused damage and delays to Iran’s nuclear program. Was Weinstein involved? Further, Israel needs to supply its MEK allies inside Iran with munitions and communications equipment for its sabotage campaign against that country’s nuclear and missile program. Was Weinstein involved? Israel is reported to be supplying Syrian rebels in the Golan with weapons in their fight against the Assad regime. They might want to do this via a third-party to conceal official involvement.
These are all speculative questions meant to suggest the type of shady dealings and relationships that might prove useful to Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus. They might explain how such dirty arms dealers could keep themselves out of prison despite supplying weapons to a sworn Israeli enemy.
If this was the only Israeli weapons dealer who’d done this, you could chalk it up to a single rotten apple. But there have been many other knowing and unknowing violations by Israeli arms merchants and defense contractors. Only a few months ago, the U.S. summoned the Israeli defense ministry official charged with monitoring arms exports for a dressing down. He’d approved the export of sophisticated cooling systems that can be used in Iranian nuclear facilities. The U.S. suspected that the equipment, which originated from the Israeli affiliate of Ricor, traveled via several European countries, then to China, and then to Iran.
Concerning the latest Weinstein arms deal, it was far more straight-forward. The F-4 parts went directly from Israel to Greece and from there were to go directly to Iran. One wonders whether the U.S. plans to take any action in this case. Clearly, Israel will not since this is at least the fourth time this pair have tried to sell weapons to Iran. You have to ask yourself: if Weinstein has been willing to sell arms to Iran which might be used to kill Israeli soldiers in a possible war, why wouldn’t Israel throw the book at them?
That brings us into the sordid underbelly of the Israeli defense industry in which billions are exchanged in bribes, in whichbrutal dictators are sold weapons systems used to maintain their blood-soaked rule, in which the shadiest of former Israeli intelligence agents and generals do favors for their former colleagues to advance Israeli intelligence interests. In fact, I have little doubt that even in this incident, Israeli intelligence would prefer us to believe that Weinstein was serving the interests of his country. How could anyone justify this swine unless he was doing you dirty favors? The question is what is he doing for them and where?
Israel of course has a long history of supplying Iran with weapons, going back to the era of the Shah. Even after he was toppled, Israel sold the Islamic Republic spare parts for U.S.-made planes when we imposed an arms embargo on the new Islamist regime. Infamously, Israel shipped U.S. missiles to Iran in return for freeing the Lebanese hostages. Israeli arms dealers don’t care about international arms embargos when there’s a profit to be made–even if the target country is Israel’s arch-enemy.
I also reported that Israeli oil companies were transshiping oil to Iran. The U.S. also penalized the Ofer shipping conglomerate for selling its tankers to Iran. In fact, Ofer had carried Israeli secret agents to Iran on some of these ships.
All this is incredibly ironic in light of Bibi’s shameful performance before the Conference of Presidents today in which he thundered that the west must not give an inch in Iran negotiations; and that the only path is relentless pressure, punishment and ostracism. How does Israel’s leader get off telling the world to up the pressure when he refuses to prosecute a citizen who’s attempted multiple times to violate precisely the same sanctions regime? His motto must be: do as I say, not as I do.
Mossad Plants Disinformation about Sanctions-Busting Arms Dealer
Yesterday, I reported that Israeli arms dealer, Avichai Weinstein, had been caught red-handed by Department of Homeland Security and Greek security officials trying to ship spare parts for F-4 fighter jets to Iran. My post yesterday noted that Weinstein had been caught in such banned transactions at least three times prior to 2004 and his latest one makes at least four. I also noted that he’d never been charged with any crime, let alone convicted or jailed. In contrast, the one U.S. co-conspirator we know about from one of his previous failed attempts, Leib Cohn, was charged by the FBI and went to prison.
I argued that this was prima facie proof of an ongoing relationship between Weinstein and the Mossad. But another argument further supports this view. Channel 10′s military reporter told his audience (Hebrew) that in this transaction, the arms dealer was actually doing a service for his country, since the spare parts he was attempting to send to Iran were deliberately flawed. He compared it to the sabotaged centrifuges western companies shipped to Iran some years ago, which hindered its nuclear program for a time.
But this claim is a fraud. First, the F-4 is an ancient plane. Iran’s air force is completely outclassed by its Gulf neighbors who have the latest U.S. military craft, and Israel. If someone wanted to sabotage any Iranian technology they’d target something much more advanced and critical to its military posture. Second, if the spare parts were bogus why did the U.S. and Greece seize the shipment and commence an investigation? Presumably, the U.S. would want such equipment to reach Iran and be installed in the planes so they wouldn’t be able to fly.
Third, as readers will know, I’ve been the target of similar disinformation attempts by the Mossad myself in the past. Though I can’t say my record is perfect in resisting these blandishments, in this case I could smell deception a mile away. There is one final reason why this particular claim stinks: it’s meant to cover up both the security forces’ previous collaboration with a dirty Israeli arms merchant; and the fact that Israeli officials played no role in stopping Weinstein. In other words, they’re up to their eyeballs in it. The optics of Mossad collusion with such questionable characters especially in light of Israel’s official position demanding ever-fiercer sanctions against Iran, is terrible for Israel. One of the ways to freshen this stinky episode up is to claim that Weinstein was actually a patriot doing his duty on behalf of his country. The whole thing stinks to high heaven.
As far as I know, Israeli media have still not reported Weinstein’s name associated with this story. A shameful lack of fortitude.
In a related matter, Yossi Melman published a damning portrait of the Mossad’s campaign of sabotage against Iran’s nuclear program, which included a massive cyber-sabotage campaign using worms like Stuxnet and Flame, destruction of an entire missile complex, and the assassination of five nuclear scientists. He wrote:
We can assume that the assassinations stopped because they didn’t lead to the cessation of Iran’s military nuclear program [sic]. Their purpose had been twofold: psychological and practical. To assassinate key scientists in the program and so to disrupt for a period of time the work, until such time as suitable substitutes could be found [to replace them]. Similarly, to send a message to Iran’s scientific community that it wasn’t ‘helpful’ for them to involve themselves in this project, since it could cost them their lives.
But two things are clear: when the assassination campaign began Iran had between 2,000-3,000 centrifuges. To date, Iran has 20,000 centrifuges. This week it even announced the development of an advanced model which can spin 15 times faster than the one in current use. It can enrich substantially more uranium at an even faster rate.
Another thing which is clear: Iran’s counter-terror security services, who were embarrassed by Israel’s successes and whose pride was damaged, learned their lesson. They learned the methods used in the killings and sharpened their vigilance, briefed the most important scientists and gave them bodyguards. Surveillance of suspected conspirators was also increased.
As a result of all this, it became clear to those responsible for the sabotage policy that the next time they might not be as lucky, and the agents might be captured. Their fate, after severe torture and interrogation, would be guaranteed: hanging from a construction crane in an Iranian central square. Also, there is a new international reality in the aftermath of the preliminary accord that was signed with western powers and Iran. This decreased the chance that we will see such sabotage in future.
From its inception, I argued strenuously that this entire policy was stupid and useless. The fact that the NSA had cooperated in creating some of these cyber-war tools was not only embarrassing, but dangerous. Unfortunately, the assassinations went on far too long. But if they have stopped, it can only be a good thing. The damage they’ve done to the lives of Iranian victims and survivors and to Israel’s standing, is deep and almost irreparable. Chalk it up to yet another Mossad failure in Israel’s covert war against Iran.