It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle started way back in 2010 ::: Israel had built up "networks of agents" on ground capable of supplying human intelligence and carry out covert operations

"When you take out someone’s leader you don’t solve the problem. You just create a new one” -- does this quote make sense ??

“Sixty seconds. That’s all it took for this operation, but it is the product of years in the making,” said said Oded Ailam, a former head of the Mossad’s counterterrorism division. 

Israel has shown – flaunted even – the Mossad’s ability to operate with near impunity in Iran in the past, says CNN. 

Israel has a long history of conducting assassinations overseas, but has never before killed a head of state.  

Israel that had built up the networks of agents on the ground capable of supplying human intelligence and carrying out covert operations within Iran.  

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon tacitly acknowledged the targeted killings when he said in 2015 that Israel cannot be held responsible “for the life expectancy of Iran’s nuclear scientists.”

In 2010 first perhaps Iran accused Israel of carrying out a campaign of assassinations against the country’s nuclear scientists.

US officials try to argue the president had no choice but to authorize Operation Epic Fury. 

He did, but felt conditions were ripe for regime change — something only the Iranian people can effect. 

Some of the Mossad commando forces already were operating in the Iranian capital. 

The Mossad, an abbreviation of the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations in Hebrew, has been focussed on Iran for decades, and has built up deep networks of informants, agents and logistics there. 

Mossad had made a key change of strategy almost 20 years ago, deciding to recruit local agents within Iran who were given state-of-the-art equipment and high levels of training.

David Barnea, who has led the Mossad since 2021, built a special department for a “foreign legion” of agents who have been deployed across the Middle East on sensitive missions.

Mossad commandos deployed “precision-guided weapons systems” near Iranian missile air defense systems, which were activated at the same time as the Israeli air force began striking its targets. 

A second operation deployed sophisticated vehicle-mounted weaponry to target other Iranian defense systems.

This has allowed a series of operations including the assassination with a remote-controlled automatic machine gun of a top Iranian nuclear scientist travelling at speed in a car on a remote road. 

Israeli spies have been tracking Khamenei for many years, building a minutely detailed file on his daily routine and those of his family members, associates, allies and those charged with keeping him safe.

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israel’s military intelligence service, said the strike was “a tactical surprise, an operational surprise” because the general expectation was that Israel would attack in darkness, replicating the surprise strike which opened the 12-day war in June.

The timing of the assassination was determined by information the CIA gleaned about a meeting of top Iranian officials at a leadership compound in the heart of Tehran scheduled for Saturday morning. 

Most critically, the CIA was able to tell Israeli counterparts that Khamenei would be at the site and the timing of the meeting, according to the New York Times.

“It’s like a giant jigsaw puzzle. 

You are putting all these scraps of information together. Where you don’t have [reliable data] you look further into those. It will be everything: how do they get food, what happens to their trash … We all get up and go to bed, we all eat and drink,” said a former CIA veteran with decades of experience in tracking high-profile terrorist targets.  

Some experts and intelligence veterans, however, described a possible strategic error that could alienate potential supporters or open the way for more radical opponents in the future.

“The problem is that Israel is in love with assassinations … and we never learn that it is not the solution. We have killed all the leaders of Hamas. They are still there. It’s the same with Hezbollah. The leaders are always replaced,” said Yossi Melman, a respected Israeli analyst and author specialising in intelligence.  

Reuel Gerecht, a former CIA targeting officer who worked on Iran and an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the US would have been able to bring significant technological assets into play.

When Donald Trump said : “Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach" -- Trump as well as US-Israel as a combo knew they would lay down the foundation but the regime change had to be carried out by the people of Iran themselves.  

Hence Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu actually are betting on the Iranian people with the Operation Epic Fury.  

In the ultimate analysis, it could be stated that the Mossad has treated Iran like its playground for years.

From assassinating top nuclear scientists to sabotaging Iranian nuclear facilities, Israel has proved time and time again that it has always had the upper hand in this shadow war.  

"Khamenei was the father of the plan to destroy the State of Israel, the 'head of the Iranian octopus', who sent his arms throughout the Middle East and to the borders of the State of Israel, led by the terrorist organisation Hezbollah. The leader of the regime was responsible for terrorist attacks on the State of Israel and had the blood of many citizens from all over the world on his hands," the Israel Defence Force said. 

ends