What's past is prologue: Israel's covert campaign against Iran's nuclear program

proved futile, and Mossad agents killed him. Bull, by the way, had a colorful career: His efforts on behalf of the U.S. military in the 1970s earned him a U.S. citizenship. The end of the Vietnam war saw funding for his projects dwindle, and he turned more and more to rogue countries such as Iraq, South Africa, and North Korea for financial support. 

In addition to covert activities, Israel has also intervened more openly in the nuclear plans of its neighbors:

• On 7 June 1981, Israel sent eight F-16s, with six F-15s as escorts, to bomb and destroy Iraq’s Osiraq nuclear reactor.
• On 6 September 2007, a squadron of Israeli F-15s destroyed a suspected Syrian nuclear facility in north-east Syria. The sophisticated Syrian air defense system was paralyzed by a first-of-its-kind Israeli electronic warfare attack, allowing the Israeli planes to go in, attack, and come out of Syria unnoticed and unmolested. A Shaldag air force commando team was waiting near the nuclear site to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team arrived on foot from a neighboring country a couple of days before and hid near the site. Exploiting the Syrian radar blindness, the team was lifted by helicopters and taken back to Israel.

What’s past is prologue
The Telegraph’s Philip Sherwell writes that U.S. intelligence sources have revealed to him that Israel has launched covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Teheran’s nuclear program. Israel is using hit men, sabotage, front companies, and double agents to disrupt the regime’s illicit weapons project, the experts say. The most dramatic element of the “decapitation” program is the planned assassination of top figures involved in Iran’s atomic operations.

One reason for the Israeli emphasis on covert action is the awareness by Israeli officials of the change in mood in Washington since President Barack Obama took office. These officials privately acknowledge the new U.S. administration is unlikely to sanction an air attack on Iran’s nuclear installations and Obama’s offer to extend a hand of peace to Tehran puts any direct military action beyond reach for now.

The aim of the covert campaign is thus to slow down or interrupt Iran’s research program, without the gamble of a direct confrontation