Former Mossad Chief Reveals Secrets of the Iranian Nuclear Archive Theft and the Assassination of Zadeh

SadaNews - Yossi Cohen, the former director of the Israeli Mossad, who left his position a few years ago, has revealed the secrets behind the theft of the Iranian nuclear archive from the heart of Tehran.

Cohen states in a book he recently published titled "Sword of Freedom: Israel, the Mossad, and the Secret War," that the decision to steal the nuclear archive was made in 2016, approximately ten years after operations began inside Iran.

He disclosed that a "Mossad" cell, consisting of both men and women, began operating on Iranian ground, growing gradually until they successfully infiltrated the ruling system in Tehran.

Cohen paints a hypothetical picture, saying: "Imagine you are a filmmaker wanting to create a scenario for a new film about this infiltration; what would you do?" He responds to the Iranian claim that Israel did not infiltrate Iran through agents, but rather through high technological capabilities, saying that technology and artificial intelligence were indeed used. However, he adds: "It is impossible for Israeli operations in Iran to succeed without the use of human elements." He emphasizes that the "nuclear scientist, who operated under extreme secrecy, was unaware that his enemy had planted agents even in the heart of the nuclear reactor in Natanz, which lies on a thousand square meters and eight meters underground."

He states that the unit belonging to the "Mossad" in Iran, after wrapping up preparations to storm and steal the archive, discovered that the authorities had transported the archive using three trucks to another building in the Shahrebad neighborhood of Tehran. This happened in January 2017, forcing Cohen to redraw the plan and establish a new observation base.

He clarified that such an operation requires hundreds of people, a team monitoring not just the archive's location but also the neighborhood it is located in, which needed to be surveilled for several months to understand the activities of its residents and distinguish them from outside forces threatening the operational team, another team hidden with trucks to serve the "Mossad," a professional team skilled in breaching fortified secret locations, a team to decode the locked safes, of which there were 32, a security team, a logistical management team to arrange the situation in case the operation was discovered, working tools, and transport and jamming devices.

Cohen reveals that one of the vehicles used by the "Mossad" in the operation was a 6-meter-tall crane. His team established a training field in Iran for all aspects of this operation. Some team members were discharged for not enduring the training.

According to Cohen, the team had to carry out this operation within a short period from ten o’clock at night on January 31 to five in the morning, requiring a quick escape because the next shift of guards would arrive at seven in the morning. Ultimately, the "Mossad" operatives completed their operation at 4:59 AM.

He reveals that the operation required more time, but information arrived indicating that the Iranian authorities decided to move the archive again to a third storehouse, prompting a rush to execute it. January 30 was set for this operation; however, the field commander requested additional time, so Cohen granted him only one more day. The operation indeed took place on January 31.

Cohen states he was kept informed about the execution of the operation from start to finish, as everything was filmed with live-streaming to Tel Aviv (similar to what later happened in the assassination of nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh).

Due to the vast amount of documents, the team filmed some to be examined by a team of experts in the operations room in Tel Aviv; if the documents were approved, they would be taken, otherwise, they would remain in place. For safety, the documents were filmed and scanned onto discs, and the "Mossad" agents carried the original versions to ensure there was documentation for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Cohen says the Iranians had classified the documents into colored folders, and he ordered the collection of all the red and black documents, knowing that their classification indicated the level of danger. The total haul amounted to 55,000 documents and 183 discs containing another 52,000 documents. He confirms that most of the significant papers were brought to Israel as they were, including proof that Iran had planned a complete nuclear weapons project, including the manufacture of nuclear warheads for missiles.

He recounts how the Iranians reacted after the operation, stating: "We continued to monitor the scene even after the unit left with the archive. We watched how they were shocked and fell into hysteria. They deployed tens of thousands of police, intelligence, and Revolutionary Guard members, searching for our force, which consisted of 25 individuals from various nationalities. They set up barriers and halted all traffic, both land and air. We later learned that the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, viewed the theft of the archive as a national catastrophe.

Cohen says the Israeli force exploited the two hours (from five to seven in the morning) to disappear. He reveals that the group dispersed to various areas in Tehran, some hiding in pre-prepared residential apartments, some leaving the country immediately, and others being smuggled later despite all the Iranian measures.

The former head of the "Mossad" indicates that just a minute after the operation, he informed Netanyahu, then called U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who once headed the CIA, commenting: "This is one of the boldest intelligence operations in history." Netanyahu then informed President Donald Trump about the theft of the Iranian nuclear archive. Subsequently, copies of the Iranian archive materials were provided to American, British, Russian, French, German, and Chinese intelligence, as well as to the International Atomic Energy Agency, along with a 36-page report detailing the contents of the documents which dispelled doubts some had regarding the reality of the Iranian nuclear project. On April 30, Netanyahu officially announced the operation in a press conference titled: "Iran Lies." Eight days after the conference, Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran.

Assassination of Zadeh

Cohen noted that he succeeded in recruiting several Iranian agents by posing as a Lebanese lawyer and businessman named "Oscar." One of those ensnared was a nuclear scientist who worked as an assistant to the scientist responsible for the nuclear project, Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was assassinated in 2020 in the heart of Iran. He confirms that Fakhrizadeh was considered a marginal figure in the West, but the archive stolen from Iran revealed he was the key person in the nuclear project.

Cohen refers to this assistant of Fakhrizadeh as "Fred." He states that he provided a report to him about the production of centrifuges for uranium enrichment, from which it became clear that the primary expertise came from Pakistan, not North Korea, contrary to what Western intelligence had believed.

Cohen discusses the "Mossad" unit operating in Iranian territory, emphasizing the vastness of its number and operations, almost not believing how it managed to work for years without being detected by Iranian intelligence, mentioning that it included senior employees, university lecturers, engineers, and professionals.

He narrates how Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in an operation that took months of preparation after confirming his role in managing the nuclear project, stating: "Weapons and equipment had to be gradually introduced into Iranian territory. Those were automated weapons that operate automatically. A remote-controlled machine gun, equipped with a computer operating on artificial intelligence weighing no less than a ton along with all necessary complementary tools. All this was smuggled piece by piece, through changing smuggling routes to avoid detection. After reassembly, it needed to be moved to the designated place for executing the operation, based on a truck, equipped with a self-destruction device to ensure concealment of traces."

Fakhrizadeh was accustomed to traveling in a long convoy of cars. However, on Fridays, his guards limited it to five cars. He stubbornly insisted on driving his car himself, a black family Nissan Teana, which was not armored, and its windows were not bulletproof.

The "Mossad" unit in Iran reported that the convoy was on the move. Its members, both Iranian and foreign, dispersed. The first guard car, as usual, sped ahead to scout the road. Then it slowed down for the convoy to catch up. Fakhrizadeh had to slow down to reach his destination without hindrance, exactly as the "Mossad" had anticipated. From afar, where the sniper sat observing everything with live streaming to Tel Aviv, the shots were fired. The car stopped, and the nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh exited to take cover behind the car door. The sniper continued firing. 15 bullets caused him severe injuries. He died. His wife, who was beside him in the car and suffered not even a scratch, ran towards him, cradling his head. The Israelis in Tel Aviv watched live how the guards appeared confused. They began shouting at each other, their voices silenced only by the explosion of the truck that was tens of meters away, part of the self-destruction plan. This triggered an internal war between the intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard: who was responsible for this security breach?