A Trap in Paris Read online

  “Based on what we know,” Gideon interjected, “French companies have been relatively ‘flexible’ when it comes to regulations and prohibitions on security exports.”

  “The United States is aware of this change,” Bar-Oz continued confidently. “They’ve decided to involve the CIA and the FBI in an effort to thwart the Guardians’ procurement efforts. Israel has also agreed, at the Americans’ request, to participate in a joint task force with them and the French. Its work will focus on countering the new Iranian procurement effort that is currently underway in France.”

  What does all this have to do with me? Gideon wondered, although he refrained from asking this question directly.

  “We thought of you, Gideon,” explained Nahari, as if reading Gideon’s mind, “because of the role you played in exposing the Iranian spy ring in California, as well as your past work within the French defense industry and your command of the French language. Your relationship, in the more distant past, with Dr. Bull and his Space Research Corporation are also important.”

  “You should also know,” added Bar-Oz, “that you come highly recommended by an acquaintance at the FBI, as well as by the head of SRI at Stanford University—”

  “Gerald Deutsch?” Gideon interrupted, unable to help himself. “He’s also involved? Who’s involved from the FBI?”

  “John O’Connor,” Brigadier General Bar-Oz volunteered. “And he had only good things to say about you.”

  “John is a wise and resourceful man. But how is the California affair related to what’s happening in Europe?” Gideon asked.

  “The Guardians of the Revolution are as dominant as ever,” Bar-Oz explained. “They’re the ones who are running the entire procurement campaign in Europe, which they want to use to bring their activities on the continent to a whole new level. The tighter the sanctions, the more intent the Iranians are on evading them. They have no budgetary limitations. The Iranian people may be hungry, but members of the Guardians live lives that are lavish and self-indulgent. The information that has accumulated, thus far, from the joint intelligence bodies indicates that General Mohammed Ali Jamshidi, head of the Guardians’ missile system development division, is the man directing the professional side of the effort. We also know that Farid Madani is in Paris serving as the scientific attaché at the Iranian embassy.”

  Bar-Oz certainly knew his stuff. Gideon was glad to see that such a high-caliber professional had been assigned to the project. “I see you’ve done your homework,” Gideon said. “Are we to understand, then, that the Guardians of the Revolution are building a procurement center in Paris?”

  “Exactly,” Bar-Oz said. “But that doesn’t mean that they have completely abandoned the German track or their efforts in countries like Switzerland and Portugal.”

  “We should expect sleeper agents who have been integrated into French companies, academia, and society in undetectable ways. Do you have information on dummy corporations that are currently operating in Europe, particularly in France?” asked Gideon.

  “The Americans and the French have compiled an initial economic intelligence database,” Nahari interjected, “but we’re still feeling our way as we go.”

  Gideon finally understood the complexity of the situation. “Yitzhak, you weren’t kidding when you said the project was complicated. This is a call to serve my country that I simply cannot refuse. Nor would I want to.”

  “We’re happy to hear that,” Nahari said with a smile. “Binyamin will continue to be in contact with you, and you should schedule a detailed briefing with Brigadier General Bar-Oz.”

  Yitzhak rose from his seat, and the others around the table stood up with him. As they exchanged handshakes, Gideon had already begun working out the challenge of freeing himself up from his other pursuits and completely clearing his schedule.

  Chapter 3

  Head bowed, General Jamshidi entered the conference room in the palace of the Supreme Leader. In contrast to the splendor and majesty of the president’s palace, the décor reflected the modest choices passed down by the Imam Khomeini to his successors.

  “Come in and sit down.” The Supreme Leader spoke in a soft voice.

  Jamshidi sat down in the armchair beside the president, who shook his hand warmly and wished him a whispered good morning. Three other men were also seated in the room: Quds Force commander General Qasem Soleimani; General Ja’afari, commander of the Guardians, who sat beside the Supreme Leader; and the Supreme Leader’s personal assistant, who sat behind him, tense with readiness to write down the meeting’s main points of discussion and decisions. The president made eye contact with the Supreme Leader, who nodded his head.

  “Gentlemen,” the president began. “First, I would like to say a few words in honor of General Musawi, who died this morning, at Imam Khomeini Hospital, from the injuries inflicted by his contemptible assassins. The doctors at the hospital did their best to save him, but his head injury proved too devastating to overcome. We will not rest until we find those responsible and avenge the blood of Musawi, who died a martyr.”

  Now General Soleimani spoke. “We know that someone is targeting our best people in research and development. We all remember Professor Ardeshir Hosseinpour, our outstanding scientist from the uranium oxide plant in Isfahan, who was poisoned by enemy agents who are still at large. And what about Professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, who was killed by a bomb that was planted in his car? Will his murderers ever be found? And the explosion at our missile base, which killed Brigadier General Hassan Tehrani, a talented commander and officer, along with another sixteen of our best men? Was that truly a work accident?” Soleimani stopped and surveyed the faces of the others in the room.

  Jamshidi also watched the others’ responses carefully, particularly that of Ja’afari. Soleimani was not hiding his criticism of the personal security unit, which amounted to clear criticism of Ja’afari, both men’s direct superior.

  “What do we know about the identity of the assassins, General Ja’afari?” The Supreme Leader scrutinized the commander of the Guardians of the Revolution, who was looking increasingly uncomfortable with each passing moment. “Do we have any leads?”

  “At this point, sir,” the general said hesitantly, “we have two lines of investigation—”

  “Does that mean that you still have nothing to go on?!” the president cut in.

  “We know that General Musawi received a phone call just a few seconds before the attack,” Soleimani volunteered.

  “Who was it from?” the president asked.

  “We’re still checking and confirming.”

  Jamshidi was starting to feel the tension in the room but tried to avoid revealing his discomfort.

  Soleimani continued. “We have a few leads regarding the ongoing assassination activity of Mujahedeen e-Khalq. We all remember the last assassination of one of our nuclear and missile scientists. In that case, we ascertained the identity of the assailants, but they managed to slip out of the country before we could take them into custody. Indirect information we’ve received indicates that the Mujahedeen received training from the Israeli Mossad—”

  The Supreme Leader impatiently cut short Soleimani’s words. “And the second line of investigation?”

  “It’s a new direction that was only recently identified by our intelligence service,” Ja’afari explained. “We discovered a branch of al-Qaeda’s operation in Iraq, setting up cells on Iranian soil. We know quite a bit about their activity against Shiites in Iraq but very little about what they’re up to here. They regard their attacks as part of Sunni Islam’s struggle against the Shia. It seems me that they’re concerned about our successes in missile development and the nuclear program and our strategic buildup, which can be credited to you.”

  “General Ja’afari, my friend,” asked the president sweetly, “don’t you have a third suspect?”

  “What do you mean?” he sho
t back.

  “Something internal, perhaps in your ranks? Has an internal power struggle within the Guardians incited someone to settle a score? And we’ve still heard nothing from you about solving the assassination of Mujtaba Ahmadi, the commander of your cyberwar headquarters, near Karaj. Has it really been so difficult for you to find the murderers?”

  Jamshidi was relieved when the president, his ally, did not pursue the matter of his phone conversation with Musawi on the morning of the assassination. The Supreme Leader’s presence had the effect of restraining conversation. Nonetheless, Jamshidi anxiously prepared himself for a discussion of the assassination’s impact on his technological projects.

  “The lines of investigation explained by General Ja’afari are important and require action. They focus on groups located outside our borders.” The Supreme Leader paused for a moment, and the others in the room tensed up. “General Soleimani, you are to take immediate measures to deal with these two threats. Find the assassins, whether they are in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even Europe, and behead the serpent. As for the activity within Iran, that’s your realm of responsibility, General Ja’afari. I trust you know what to do.”

  “Yes, Your Excellency,” replied Ja’afari and Soleimani quickly, almost in unison, bowing their heads one after the other.

  “One last thing,” added the Supreme Leader. “General Jamshidi will tend to the welfare and security of the widow of Musawi, the shahid, and the family as a whole.”

  Silence prevailed, broken only by the Supreme Leader’s assistant, who whispered something in his ear, prompting him to nod his head.

  “Your Holiness,” said the president. “With your permission, I’d like to move on to the second issue we wanted to discuss with you: the development of our major projects. General Jamshidi will present them for us.”

  The Supreme Leader nodded again, and Jamshidi began. “General Musawi was supposed to be with us here today to present a report on the development of the advanced warheads for the Shahab missiles. It was his project, and he will be sorely missed. We have many young, talented engineers, but the long years of experience of our senior people cannot be disregarded. I am certain that the young man who will replace Musawi will prove worthy of the trust we place in him, but he’ll need to learn the lay of the land, and that will take some time.

  “With regard to the threat of interception of our strategic missiles, we launched an emergency project following the failure of a test against interception missiles that the Russians so generously placed at our disposal. We realized we had to return to the drawing board and re-plan the Shahab’s evasion mechanism. Everything was moving forward according to schedule until three weeks ago, when we discovered a serious problem with our computer system—”

  “I had a bad feeling during the test against the Russian missiles,” the president said, unable to restrain himself. “Tell us, Jamshidi, what happened to the computer system, which has been working so flawlessly until now?”

  “The computer system crashed with no advance warning, sir. Our computer experts suspected a worm, and we started analyzing the source of the problem. General Ahmadi promised to have his team work day and night to find the worm and get the system up and running properly again. But a few days later, he disappeared…”

  Jamshidi noted the solemn faces of his superiors and considered how to go about presenting the rest of the bad news. A stolen glance in the direction of the Supreme Leader, who looked calm, encouraged him to continue.

  “We still can’t be sure that the attack on our computer system has been completely resolved. We’ve also encountered another problem: we’ve been unable to acquire inert components for the Shahab’s navigation system because of their inclusion on the special schedule of the Missile Technology Control Regime.”

  Again, he stopped speaking and nervously studied the expressionless faces of his superiors. “We built a work-around route using a German company that was working with our own company, Sapemir, but the German tax authorities discovered the arrangement and stopped a shipment of parts for one hundred components that was on its way to Russia. There, the plan was for engineers of a Russian company to perform the final assembly of the components, covering our tracks even further—”

  “That’s a serious slip-up!” shouted General Ja’afari. “The delay in the Shahab warhead development program may be troubling, but much more serious, in my view, is the exposure of the procurement apparatus we worked so hard to build. Someone was disgracefully negligent. We must identify the parties responsible and punish them!”

  “Perhaps, General Jamshidi,” interjected the president reassuringly, “you could provide us with some more details about the procurement route and how you suggest going about continuing to advance the missile development program.”

  “The only way to keep on schedule is to procure a number of technologically advanced components in Western countries. To do so, we’ll need to reorganize ourselves and set up a different kind of procurement system than what we’ve been using until now.”

  “Is there any way to receive assistance from friendly countries? The North Koreans were generous with the secrets of long-range missiles when we first started out. Could they be of assistance?” General Soleimani asked. “We have a good relationship with their leadership, as well as intelligence ties. Another option is Pakistan. They covered a lot of ground in the development of missiles and nuclear weapons without outside assistance.”

  “As for the maneuverable warheads,” Jamshidi said, “neither Pakistan nor North Korea has the technology we need. We’ve also taken measures to accelerate the development of a scientific and technological infrastructure that will eventually make us independent, although we must have no illusions—this is a process that will take years. In the nuclear realm, on the other hand, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan supplied us with all the relevant information pertaining to the production of centrifuges for uranium enrichment.”

  “So what’s the bottom line?” The president raised his head and locked eyes with Jamshidi. “What exactly do you need?”

  “We need new secure sources in the European arena, with which we are extremely familiar. It may be worthwhile to try intensifying our work with French companies. Even if they are part of an all-European partnership, they know how to work under the table, unlike the German companies, which are much less flexible and play only by the rules. It may also be necessary to clear the playing field of individuals working for the sanctions supervision apparatus…which is breathing down our necks. I am certain,” Jamshidi concluded, looking knowingly at General Soleimani, “that the Quds Force is capable of taking care of such human obstacles.”

  Now the Supreme Leader spoke. “We are currently at a difficult crossroads with regard to the assassination of our people, cyberthreats, and our ability to deal with the embargo, which continues to intensify,” he said, beginning to sum up the meeting. “The Shahab missile is an important basis of our strategic power, and its development must continue. In the nuclear realm, we cannot limit ourselves to Pakistani knowledge and must build ourselves an independent capability. These programs must not be allowed to lag behind! General Jamshidi, in the past you have demonstrated resourcefulness and the ability to get out of difficult situations. The Iranian nation believes in your ability to overcome all these obstacles.

  “As for you, General Ja’afari…” The Supreme Leader trained his gaze on the commander of the Guardians of the Revolution. “You will need to appoint a suitable person to direct the campaign against the cyberthreat. It is a threat that will continue to grow, and to which we cannot afford to remain exposed even one more day.

  “And you, General Soleimani…” The Supreme Leader’s eyes focused on the Quds Force commander. “You need to identify those responsible for assassinating our scientists and those who are helping them. Assassinations pose a genuine threat to our country. We all know that. Under no circumstances can it be all
owed to continue. And as for those attempting to interfere with procurement in Europe—as noted by General Jamshidi—you know what needs to be done.”

  The Supreme Leader cast a penetrating gaze on the men around the table, who stood up in silence, bowed their heads, and left the room.

  Chapter 4

  During the days following the meeting in Nahari’s office, Gideon threw himself into an in-depth study of the material for the project, poring over defense exports to Iran in which European companies had taken part. The file contained material on projects for marketing advanced weapon systems and spare parts to Saudi Arabia and two oil emirates in the Persian Gulf, reflecting the considerable intelligence gathering and research that had evidently gone into preparing it.

  Binyamin knocked on the door and opened it slightly. “Good morning, Gideon. I see you’re already here.”

  “It’s what needs to be done,” replied Gideon, still looking down at the material. “By the way, I think that Haim Bar-Oz will be a good source of information and experience. And that will be important, considering the substantial amount of material involved.”

  “Now that you’ve looked over the material a bit, do you think Dr. Bull is relevant here?” Binyamin asked, walking into the office.

  “Bull’s special assistance to Iraq under Saddam Hussein enabled them to double the range of their old Scud B missiles and is, therefore, extremely relevant here. In my opinion, this is what motivated Iran to begin its obsessive development of an array of missiles with ranges reaching up to thousands of kilometers and artillery rockets with double-digit ranges. It’s an unusual development effort that appears to have been wasteful. Their compulsion did not stop with long-range missiles and heavy rockets. There’s also concern about the development of nuclear weapons. All this clearly needs to be on the agenda of the international task force that will be operating in Europe. But Iran’s strategic power has another important goal.”