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Feature Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 2015, Vol. 71(1) 46–52 ! The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: Ending the assassination and sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0096340214564140 oppression of Iranian nuclear http://thebulletin.sagepub.com scientists

Siegfried S. Hecker and Abbas Milani

Photo credit: SAJAD SAFARI/AFP/Getty Images.

Abstract Merely for working in their field of expertise, Iranian nuclear scientists face perils and pressures that are nothing less than Shakespearean. The question for them is, in a very real sense, Òto be or not to be.Ó In the course of the last four decades, these scientists have faced intimidation and severe punishment, including prison terms, at the hands of their own government. In recent years, at least five Iranian nuclear scientists have been the target of assassination attempts often attributed to Israeli intelligence. Regardless of their source, all such threats against scientists are morally indefensible. They offend the scientific spirit, working against the free exchange of ideas that is necessary for humanity to advance. And in the final analysis, the authors assert, these threats against scientists in Iran undermine global peace, targeting experts whose international collab- oration is required to deal effectively with the nuclear risks facing the world today. Simply put, killing nuclear scientists makes reducing the threat of nuclear war harder, not easier.

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Keywords assassination, Fereydoon Abbasi, Iranian nuclear scientists, Majid Shahriari, Omid Kokabee

arly one morning in November absolutely centralÑto deal effectively 2010, a scientist was driving to with the nuclear risks facing the world E work in Tehran, Iran. As he and today. In very practical terms, killing his wife waited in traffic, a motorcycle nuclear scientists makes reducing the pulled alongside their car. According to threat of nuclear war harder, rather an account by New York Times national than easier. security expert David E. Sanger, ÒThere was a faint ÔclickÕ as a magnet attached to The oppression and the driverÕs side door. The huge explo- assassination of Iran’s sion came a few seconds later, killing nuclear scientists him and injuring his wifeÓ (Sanger, 2011). The scientist was Majid Shahriari, IranÕs nuclear program began under who managed a major project for IranÕs Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi; its foun- Atomic Energy Organization, and his der was Akbar Etemad, a physicist who murder was no random event. led the Atomic Energy Organization of For Iranian nuclear scientists, in fact, Iran from 1974 to 1979. He was forced the perils and promises of working in into exile as the new Islamic regime their field are nothing less than Shake- came to power in 1979, because the coun- spearean. The question for them is, in a tryÕs new leaders believed that the very real sense, Òto be or not to be.Ó In the nuclear program was useless ÒjunkÓ course of the last four decades, these sci- imposed on the shah by the West, par- entists have faced intimidation and ticularly by the United States. As the severe punishment, including prison chief architect of the program, Etemad terms, at the hands of their own govern- was forced to leave Iran for France. ment. In recent years, at least five Iranian Only in recent years, after coming out nuclear scientists have been the target of in favor of IranÕs right to pursue its cur- assassination attempts (Raviv, 2014) rent nuclear program, has he apparently often attributed to Israeli intelligence. been allowed to revisit his homeland. Regardless of their source, all such If EtemadÕs ÒcrimeÓ was working in threats against scientistsÑin Iran or the nuclear program under the shah, the elsewhereÑare morally indefensible. young scientist Omid Kokabee has been They also offend the scientific spirit, languishing in prison now for many working against the free exchange of months because he refused to work in ideas that is necessary for science to the nuclear program that the new Islamic thrive and humanity to advance. And in regime restarted in the mid-1980s. As an the final analysis, we firmly believe, undergraduate, Kokabee was one of these threats against scientists in Iran IranÕs top engineering students, and he undermine global peace, because they went on to pursue graduate work in target experts whose international col- laser physics, first in Europe and then laboration is requiredÑis, in fact, in America. During a trip home to visit

Downloaded from bos.sagepub.com at STANFORD UNIV MED CTR on January 7, 2015 48 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 71(1) his family, the Iranian government asked that science can be used to promote inter- him to work on the countryÕs nuclear national peaceÓ (Byer, 2012). program. When he refused, he was The Iranian government has claimed, arrested. In a letter he later wrote to the with some corroborating (if circumstan- head of IranÕs judiciary, he describes tial) evidence, that foreign countries pressures brought upon him, first push- were involved in these assassinationsÑ ing him to work for the government and and, almost needless to say, the Iranian then, after his refusal, trying to force him regime has pointed its finger at the Israeli to make false confessions of treason. In a and US governments. A book by an exp- sardonic tone, he writes that he had been erienced Israeli journalist and his Ameri- Òasked to cooperate with the most secret can colleague (Spies Against Armageddon: partsÓ of IranÕs nuclear program, but Inside IsraelÕs Secret Wars)seemstoall when he refused he was given a five- but confirm Iranian claims about year prison sentence for, allegedly, IsraelÕs role in this secret war (Raviv and working for a foreign government. Melman, 2012). Since his trial, Kokabee was awarded Of those scientists who have paid with the American Physical SocietyÕs presti- their lives for working with the Iranian gious Andrei Sakharov Prize for Òhis regime, Shahriari stands out because he courage in refusing to use his physics was, at least arguably, the most important knowledge to work on projects that he physicist killed in the secret war. Praised deemed harmful to humanityÓ (Ameri- by sources inside the regime as the man can Physical Society, 2013). In 2014, he most responsible for rapidly developing also received the Scientific Freedom IranÕs capacity to enrich uranium, Shah- and Responsibility Award from the riari is also said to have played a key role American Association for the Advance- in the regimeÕs eventual success in stop- ment of Science for Òhis courageous will- ping the highly sophisticated Stuxnet ingness to endure imprisonment rather virus that apparently destroyed some 20 than violate his moral stance that his sci- percent of all of IranÕs centrifuges. entific expertise not be used for destruc- In a drive-by bombing of his car in tive purposesÓ (Zambon, 2014). The November 2010, another scientist, Ferey- Rouhani regime has just granted him a doon Abbasi, was also injured. He was retrial after three years of incarceration. later rewarded for his suffering when he If Etemad and Kokabee paid with was named as the new head of the Atomic prison and banishment for their decisions Energy Organization of Iran, where he to work or not work on IranÕs nuclear pro- served from 2011 to 2013. During his gram, in recent years other scientists have tenure, he played an intransigent role in paid with their lives for cooperation with nuclear negotiations, and since being the program. To its credit, the American replaced by a new director he has Physical Society has not only praised become a fierce critic of the more concili- Kokabee for his resistance but also atory policies followed by the new admin- responded vigorously after the assassin- istration of President Hassan Rouhani. ations of multiple Iranian nuclear scien- Other top nuclear scientists assassinated tists in Tehran between 2010 and 2013. In during this secret war include the associ- an open letter, the group condemned the ate director of IranÕs Atomic Energy Orga- wave of killings and reaffirmed its Òbelief nization, Darius Rezainejad, killed in July

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2011, and the vice president of the Natanz Shahriari is the highest-ranking scien- uranium enrichment facility, Mustafa tist killed so far in a drive-by bombing. Ahmadi Roshan, killed in January 2012. But the murder of nuclear physics profes- Early in November 2014, several sor Massoud Ali Mohammadi shows just Syrian nuclear scientists were killed, how ambiguous the situation can become and a Syrian human rights group alleged when terror becomes a tool for intimidat- that an Iranian nuclear scientist working ing or eliminating scientists for working with them had also died in the attack. (or not working) on nuclear programs. Iran has denied the story. Mohammadi was killed in a motorcycle The Iranian government has taken bombing in January 2010. He had at one pains to publicize the confessions of al- time been involved with the Islamic leged assassins of scientists killed in Iran, Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and with Iranian media broadcasting clips IranÕs nuclear program, but the exact from secret security cameras spliced to- nature of his involvement has never gether with recreated scenes in Òdoc- been clear. At some point it appears he umentariesÓ that supposedly show how became a critic of the regime and seem- the killings took place. The assassins ingly severed his ties with the countryÕs claimed to be members of the Mujahedeen nuclear program. During the prelude to Khalgh (MEK)Ña group that has been the contested 2009 Iranian election, fighting the Islamic regime for almost Mohammadi was openly critical of the three decades and that has played a role status quo in his classes. Reports from in exposing some secret aspects of IranÕs family and friends suggest he had even nuclear program. The alleged assassins accepted a fellowship in the West and ÒconfessedÓ to having been trained by planned to leave Iran. andworkedinconjunctionwithIsraeli When he was killed, the Iranian gov- and American intelligence agencies. ernment immediately blamed foreign The Iranian regime has also omin- hands, but soon thereafter came whispers ously claimed that some international that the Islamic government had been scientific conferences and cooperative involved. It has been suggested that the effortsÑparticularly the SESAME (Syn- regime feared his departure from Iran or chrotron-light for Experimental Science his increasing alienation from the regime and Applications in the Middle East) and decided to kill him. A high-ranking project,1 dedicated to establishing a advisor to RouhaniÕs nominee for the Òmajor international research center in post of Minister of Science recently sug- the Middle East/Mediterranean region, gested that MohammadiÕs murder was promoting peace and understanding the work of the regime, the Farsi-language through scientific cooperationÓÑare website rajanews.com has reported. forums in which US and Israeli intelli- gence agencies do reconnaissance to dis- Why the assassination of Iranian cover IranÕs top scientists and either try nuclear scientists threatens world to enlist their cooperation or, failing that, science and peace pick them as targets for assassins. (After the end of the Ahmadinejad administra- The truth of who killed Massoud Ali tion, Iran resumed its cooperation with Mohammadi and other Iranian nuclear SESAME.) scientists might never be established to

Downloaded from bos.sagepub.com at STANFORD UNIV MED CTR on January 7, 2015 50 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 71(1) a certainty. But the persecution and 1961 not to test the 100-megaton hydro- intimidation of Iranian scientistsÑfrom gen bomb Sakharov had helped to design. outside or inside that countryÑshould Sakharov became disillusioned and left serve to raise serious questions in the Sarov, the Russian Los Alamos, in 1968. international scientific community. Is it He was later banished, living in internal still safe for scientists to collaborate with exile under house arrest in Gorky (now others around the globe? Is it safe to Nizhny Novgorod) before Gorbachev travel for the sake of science, or is scien- released him in December 1986. He tific diplomacy simply too risky? then became the social conscience of These questions are of truly global the movement to end communist rule. import. Scientists often provide a bridge Other Soviet scientists worked on the between one intransigent government Soviet and then Russian nuclear pro- and another. Scientists throughout the grams their entire professional careers, world share the common language of sci- believing they were helping to make the ence and a respect for the work of scien- world safer by ensuring that no country tists. Respect builds trust; trust lies at the had a nuclear monopoly. They were core of working on difficult policy prob- essential to an orderly transition from lems, especially in the nuclear arena. the Soviet nuclear complex to the Russian Scientists in autocratic countries complex after the fall of the Iron Curtain. often constitute the very pockets of civil- In an upcoming book, one of the co- ity that must be reached to deal with authors of this article (Hecker) and two complex nuclear issues. Based on the former Russian nuclear weapons insti- experience of one of us (Hecker), the sci- tute directors describe how the scientific entists in the nuclear weapons establish- ties between US and Russian nuclear sci- ment of the Soviet Union and now Russia entists helped to mitigate the enormous have been such an island of civility. risks in RussiaÕs nuclear complex result- Just imagine if Andrei Sakharov, the ing from the breakup of the Soviet Union. father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, had The scientists were the first to reach been targeted for assassination early in his across the ideological divide to tackle remarkable career because he worked on these issues as the Cold War began to the Soviet nuclear program. In his mem- thaw. They collaborated over the next oirs he explained that he understood the 20 years to help keep RussiaÕs nuclear Òterrifying, inhuman nature of the weap- assets safe and secure and to keep their ons they were building,Ó but stated: nuclear weapon scientists at home, away from rogue countries bent on building I regarded myself as a soldier in this new sci- covert nuclear weapons capabilities. entific war....But above all, I felt myself com- Today, unfortunately, we find the US mitted to the goal, which I assumed was StalinÕs as well: after a devastating war, to make the and Russian governments once again country strong enough to ensure peace. (Sakh- driving the two sides toward isolation. arov, 1990: 97, 164) Targeting and killing scientific lea- ders has not been effective in ending or Sakharov was a scientist, a patriot, and greatly inhibiting the Iranian nuclear a humanist. He became a voice of caution program. Much of IranÕs progress in cen- in the Soviet nuclear program, trying to trifuge technology and facilities has been convince Premier Nikita Khrushchev in made since the assassinations began.

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The nuclear programs of other countries is, in Iran and elsewhere, the sine qua have also survived the loss of key lea- non of a peaceful nuclear program. ders. For example, J. Robert Oppen- heimer left the Manhattan Project and returned to academia shortly after the Funding end of World War II, as did many of the This research received no specific grant from any other scientific giants who worked on funding agency in the public, commercial, or not- the bomb at Los Alamos. The Russian for-profit sectors. program saw the departures of Igor Tamm, Yakov Zeldovich, and Andrei Sakharov, three giants of Soviet science. Notes Yet both nuclear programs continued 1. See http://www.sesame.org.jo/sesame. unabated, until political leaders prac- 2. See https://zm08.pobox.stanford.edu/service/ ticed restraint and ended the Cold War. home//?auth¼co&loc¼en_US&id¼367141& In 2014, the Iranian scientist Omid part¼10. Kokabee sent a letter from prison to Maryam Mirzakhani, a Stanford profes- References sor who, like Kokabee, was a graduate of American Physical Society (2013) Imprisoned Iranian Sharif University in Iran and went on to Physics student awarded APS Human Rights graduate work in America. Kokabee Prize. Press release, September 23. Available at: wrote what is tantamount to his mani- http://www.aps.org/about/pressreleases/ festo, expressing hope for a world impris.cfm. where all scientists, particularly young Byer R (2012) Condemning Iranian physicist assassin- ations. American Physical Society, February. scholars, can use their talent and science Available at: http://www.aps.org/about/govern- Òfree from intimidation and intellectual ance/letters/assassins2012.cfm. pressureÓ in the service of Òpeace and of Raviv D (2014) US Pushing Israel to stop assassinating a world bereft of fear and terror.Ó2 Iranian nuclear scientists. CBS News, March 1. Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us- We share his noble sentiments and pushing-israel-to-stop-assassinating-iranian- hope that one day scientists in IranÑno nuclear-scientists. less than in other parts of the worldÑcan Raviv D and Melman Y (2012) Spies against Armaged- conduct research and exchange ideas in an don: Inside IsraelÕs Secret Wars. Sea Cliff, NY: atmosphere free from terror and intimida- Levant Books. Sakharov A (1990) Memoirs. New York: Alfred A. tion. The assassinations of Iranian scien- Knopf, Inc. tists were likely intended both to decimate Sanger D (2011) AmericaÕs Deadly Dynamics with that countryÕs nuclear leadership and to Iran. New York Times, November 5. Available intimidate other scientists. But fear and at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/sunday- review/the-secret-war-with-iran.html?scp¼4& bullets do not stop nuclear programs; sq¼IranþANDþSanger&st¼nyt. they beget ever more secrets and ever Zambon K (2014) 2014 AAAS Scientific Freedom and more hidden nuclear sites. It is the light Responsibility Award Goes to Omid Kokabee, of reason and exchanged ideas that will Iranian Physicist and Prisoner of Conscience. AAAS, October 27. Available at: http://www.aaas. help save the world from the most poten- org/news/2014-aaas-scientific-freedom-and- tially perilous consequences of nuclear responsibility-award-goes-omid-kokabee-ira- power and create the transparency that nian-physicist-and.

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Author biographies director from 1986 to 1997 and as senior fellow Siegfried S. Hecker is a senior fellow and until July 2005. affiliated faculty member at Stanford Uni- versityÕs Center for International Security and Abbas Milani is the Hamid and Christina Cooperation (CISAC) and the Freeman Spogli Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stan- Institute for International Studies. He is also a ford University and a co-director of the Iran research professor in the Department of Man- Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. agement Science and Engineering at Stanford. Till 1986 he taught at Tehran UniversityÕs He is director emeritus of the Los Alamos Faculty of Law and Political Science. His latest National Laboratory, where he served as book is The Shah (Palgrave).

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