Targeting The Scientists

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A pro-Mousavi physics professor is assassinated after his motorcycle is rigged with explosives. Michael Rubin says the killing "highlights just how vulnerable the regime is becoming":

There could be any number of motives, but it's reasonable to suspect that Professor [Massoud] Ali-Mohammadi was killed for his involvement in the nuclear issue. Some opposition groups may claim that they have penetrated the nuclear program. This is an exaggeration. Far more likely, Iranian officials even in sensitive organizations are becoming so corrupt that information can be bought. The hit will also send a chill down the spine of other scientists who must now consider whether they want to work for the losing side.

Naturally, the regime is blaming the US and Israel. And that is instructive. The one card the junta has to play is the Great Satan card. And Obama is refusing to give it to them. This is essential for the revolution to succeed. And it confirms every hope I had that Obama could be a pivot in our relations with the Muslim world. Of course, the neocons could still ruin things, but Obama's steadiness in foreign policy will, in my judgment, reap its greatest rewards in due course.

In Iraq and Iran right now, there is a real potential for a breakthrough in history. If Iraq can avoid sectarian warfare in the next two years (something I remain deeply dubious about), and if Iran's regime can be forced to change its vile domestic and international behavior, we will have two Muslim semi-democracies, one largely Arab and Kurdish, one largely Persian.

You want a game-changer in the war on Jihadist terrorism? That's a game-changer.

2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan