Bomb Blast Kills Physics Professor in Tehran

By ALAN COWELL
Published: January 12, 2010

PARIS — A remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle killed an Iranian physics professor outside his home in northern Tehran on Tuesday, state media reported, blaming the United States and Israel for the attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. One state broadcaster, IRIB, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that “in the initial investigation, signs of the triangle of wickedness by the Zionist regime, America and their hired agents are visible in the terrorist act” against the scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi.

There was some dispute about his field of scientific specialization.

The English-language Press TV said he taught neutron physics at Tehran University, although it was not clear whether he was part of Iran’s contentious nuclear enrichment program.

The broadcaster called the professor a “staunch supporter of the Islamic Revolution” of 1979 that overthrew the Shah and initiated three decades of theocratic rule.

But two Iranian academics, who spoke in return for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said in telephone interviews that he was not a nuclear physicist and had specialized in particle and theoretical physics. The Web site of Tehran University lists him as a professor of elementary particle physics.

A spokesman for Iran’s atomic agency, Ali Shirzadian, told The Associated Press that Dr. Ali Mohammadi had no link with the agency responsible for Iran’s nuclear program.

Since flawed presidential elections last June, Iran has been gripped by its deepest political crisis since 1979, pitting supporters of the victorious President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against opponents who call his regime illegitimate. News reports said Dr. Ali Mohammadi’s name had been on a list of 240 university teachers published on reformist Web sites before the election and identified as supporters of the main opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi. But there was no formal confirmation from Tehran of his more recent political position.

After brutal crackdowns, the authorities late last year broadened efforts to stifle dissent to encompass the educational system, hinting that dissident professors would be purged. A number of hard-line clerics have called for the university humanities curriculums to be further Islamized. But it was not immediately known whether Tuesday’s killing was related to that dispute.

Analysts said the Iranian authorities seemed to have been quick to label Dr. Ali Mohammadi a loyalist, possibly as a precursor to renewed, harsh action against their opponents.

The reported bombing came just days after pro-government demonstrators shot at the armored car of the Iran’s most outspoken opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, last Thursday, his Saham News Web site reported.

That attack appeared to reflect growing frustration that the crackdown in recent months had failed to stop the opposition from lashing out at the country’s leaders and staging intermittent protests that have brought tens of thousands of demonstrators into the streets.

Press TV reported on Tuesday that Dr. Ali Mohammadi, 50, was killed close to his home in the Qeytariyeh neighborhood of northern Tehran when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near his car.

“Iran’s police and security bodies are investigating the terrorist case to identify those behind it,” Press TV reported and quoted Tehran’s prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, as saying no suspect had so far been arrested.

Iranian television showed cleaners sweeping up debris and hosing down the street after the blast shattered windows and smeared the sidewalk with blood and detritus. The video also showed what seemed to be a zippered body bag on a stretcher.

The Web site of Iran’s state television declared the bombing a “terrorist act by counterrevolutionaries and elements of arrogance,” a reference to the United States. Security forces are investigating, The A.P. quoted the report as saying.

The United States and western allies have been pressing Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program, which Tehran insists is solely for civilian purposes to produce electricity. But the West fears Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon that would threaten Israel and upset the regional power balance.

Last year, an Iranian nuclear scientist, Shahram Amiri, disappeared during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia; Iran accused the United States of helping to kidnap him.

After Tuesday’s explosion, the government’s supporters and opponents traded accusations and claims that the scientist had supported their camp.

The royalist Takavaran Tondar group denied involvement in the blast. On its Web site, the group accused government agents of being behind the explosion. It said an announcement earlier on another Web site that seemed to be linked to it and claimed responsibility for the explosion had long been hacked by the authorities. The explosion came at a time of growing tension between Iran and its Western adversaries.

Speaking Monday at the start of a nine-day trip across the Pacific, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States and its allies were discussing financial sanctions that would appear to be aimed at the Revolutionary Guards and other political players in the country if diplomacy fails to overcome the growing tensions with Iran.

“It is clear that there is a relatively small group of decision makers inside Iran,” she said. “They are in both political and commercial relationships, and if we can create a sanctions track that targets those who actually make the decisions, we think that is a smarter way to do sanctions.”

But she added, “All that is yet to be decided upon.”

Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Toronto.

More likely:

This guy built his own bomb, but because he was a theorist, he didn't know what he was doing and he blew himself up.

Iran blames us? Get the hell outta here.

The elimination of the opposition. If you resist we will kill you, and blame the US and Israel in the process

Assassinated Iranian nuclear physicist was Mousavi supporter

A nuclear physics professor who publicly backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in the disputed June presidential election was killed Tuesday when a remote-controlled bomb rigged to a motorcycle blew up outside his home.


Iranian fire fighters wash the scene of a bombing in northern Teheran's Qeytariyeh neighborhood, Tuesday.
Photo: AP

World State media identified the victim as Masoud Ali Mohammadi, 50, a professor at Tehran University, which has been at the center of recent protests by student opposition supporters. Before the election, pro-reform Web sites published Ali Mohammadi's name among a list of 240 Tehran University teachers who supported Mousavi.

The government blamed the bombing on an armed Iranian opposition group that it said operated under the direction of Israel and the US. Iran often accuses both countries of meddling in its affairs - both when it comes to postelection unrest and its nuclear program. Israel's foreign ministry had no comment.

Reflecting the internal tension that grew out of election, hard-line government supporters called at recent street rallies for the execution of opposition leaders.

Iran's nuclear work has also put it under pressure from the United States and its European allies, which suspect Tehran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies that and insists its nuclear work only has peaceful aims, such as energy production.

Ali Mohammadi had just left his house on his way to work when the remote-controlled explosion went off, state TV said. The blast shattered the windows of his home in northern Tehran's Qeytariyeh neighborhood and left the pavement outside smeared with blood and strewn with debris. The semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as confirming the killing and saying no one has been arrested.


Ali Mohammadi, who wrote several articles on quantum and theoretical physics in scientific journals, was not a well-known figure in Iran.

He was also not an outspoken or visible supporter of Iran's opposition movement during the months of turmoil that have followed the election, though his name did appear on the list of professors who backed Mousavi before the vote. That list was published on several pro-reform Web sites in the weeks leading up to the vote.

Mousavi and his supporters claim he was true winner of the June election but fraud robbed him of his victory. His supporters staged massive street protests in the weeks after the election, which met with a harsh government crackdown.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted a Tehran University official as saying Ali Mohammadi was not involved in any political activity.

"The prominent professor was not a political figure and had no activity in the field of politics," Mehr quoted Ali Moqari, head of the university's science department, as saying.

A spokesman for Iran's atomic agency, Ali Shirzadian, told The Associated Press that Ali Mohammadi had no link with the agency.

"He was not involved in the country's nuclear program," Shirzadian said, adding that the professor was active only in the theoretical field at Tehran University.

Ali Mohammadi was a member of some academic associations focusing on experimental science, and a government news Web site called Borna described Ali Mohammadi as a senior nuclear scientist but gave no other details.

In 1992, he received the first doctorate in nuclear physics to be awarded in Iran, from Tehran's Sharif University of Technology.

Iran's Foreign Ministry accused Israel and the US of involvement, according to the Web site of state TV.

"In initial investigations, there are some indications of vices of the Zionist regime, the US and their mercenaries in Iran in the terrorist incident," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying in the report.

Mehmanparst, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the killing of nuclear scientists cannot thwart the country's scientific and technological progress.

Iran also directed suspicion at the exiled opposition group the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran. One conservative Iranian Web site close to the ruling establishment said the group carried out the attack under direction of Israeli agents.

The Tabnak site, which carried the report, is closely associated with Mohsen Rezaei, who serves on an advisory body to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rezaei was the only conservative candidate to challenge hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the election.

The People's Mujahedeen, however, denied any involvement in the killing.

Article Here

My guess is if the Israeli's want to kill you, it looks like a heart attack.

My guess is if the American's want to kill you, we'll tell your lawyer first.

(01-12-2010 01:27 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  My guess is if the Israeli's want to kill you, it looks like a heart attack.

My guess is if the American's want to kill you, we'll tell your lawyer first.