RAISIS FALLED DOWN?
Why are there grounds
for suspicion in the alleged accidental crash of the helicopter carrying
Iranian President Ebraim Raisi and his entourage?
By Sidney Hey
The crash of the
helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebraim Raisi and his governmental
entourage has not only come as a surprise blow to the Islamic Republic of Iran,
but behind the grief and official condolences, a whirlwind of speculation has
been unleashed as to the true cause of the event.
The restraint with
which the media in the West have dealt with the event has cast suspicion on
this position as an ‘accident’, to say the least. In addition, the early
denials of any involvement from Tel Aviv add a further layer of opacity to the
matter.
Raisi's death does not
appear to be an event of chance or, if you like, predestination. There is no
such thing as chance. There is a very suspicious political circumstantiality
that gives this event a nuance that would reveal a customary tactic that, for
some time now, has been intended to be generalised against high dignitaries.
The assassination attempt against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico five days
before the death of the Iranian leader is -if you like- all too curious.
The timing and location
of the attack show a degree of planning that is more elaborate than one would
like to acknowledge.
Fico's great sin was to
criticise the policies of the Slovak state in favour of NATO's support for
Ukraine. The prime minister had been pointing out that the solution to the
Ukraine issue was not a military one, something that Washington and the Western
interests behind the war definitely did not like. To make matters worse, Fico
made no secret of his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who
represents the ‘bête noire’ for Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and their
Anglo-American backers. And as luck would have it, a 71-year-old ‘madman’
appeared and unleashed several shots at him with the clear intention of
assassinating him, but with no luck. Today this alleged improvised attacker is
in the hands of the justice system, but it cannot be ruled out that something
could happen to him.
The alleged crash of
Raisi's helicopter could be compared to the crash of the Yevgeny Prigozhin
plane in August 2023 or even to the mysterious crash of the plane carrying
Polish President Lech Kaczyński in April 2010 (similar to the death of his
counterpart Wladyskaw Sikorski in 1943). In all three cases, the aircraft
passed through isolated areas of dense fog and woodland, which made it easy for
the perpetrators to hide, and they would even have ascertained the outcome.
Regarding the crash of
the helicopter carrying Raisi and his officials, there are several factors that
should not be overlooked. First, the
downed helicopter was a rather old US-made ‘Bell 212’. Second, where the helicopter
landed for Raisi's visit. Third, the return route and the area where the
helicopter came down.
While the type of
helicopter is of considerable age, it has been noted that it is mechanically
very reliable and would not collapse from any failure. Even the weather factors
present at the time such as fog and drizzle would not explain any cause for
such sudden failures. Another peculiarity is that the other two helicopters
that went through the same conditions reached their destination without any
problems.
If we consider that it
was sabotage, let's look at the possible perpetrators, their motives and the
means employed. The first is the US, which does not like the intimate
military-commercial relations with Russia and its strategic support against
Ukraine. Another could be a NATO member as an outsourced agent for the
execution of the attack, as happened with the sabotage of the Baltic gas
pipelines. The one who undoubtedly takes first place is Israel since just a
month ago Iran launched an unprecedented attack that left Netanyahu and his
supporters with blood in their eyes. Recall that Tel Aviv had ordered a more
destructive retaliation that was carried out by an F-35 that was shot down over
Jordan. But in addition to revenge, the aim was to get out of the way of a
leader who had shown he would have no problem attacking again.
If either of these
hypotheses is correct, there is an unforgivable degree of negligence in Iranian
security and intelligence that could not have foreseen it.
The wooded setting
where the aircraft went down lends itself well to an ambush. A single,
well-concealed shooter with a semi-automatic rifle could have been the cause,
but how did that shooter identify the device Raisi was on, was it a single
shooter or a team?
The visit to the
inauguration of a dam on the Aras River in a province bordering Armenia and
Azerbaijan (where there is a known Israeli presence) is undoubtedly the most
important clue to follow in order to determine the possibility of a sabotage
operation on the aircraft or even marking it to be targeted remotely from a
ground location. While this would be a
possibility, (based on what the Iranians say) it would not have been carried
out by conventional means such as gunfire, an explosive placed on board or the
use of a portable missile.
If it was sabotage, the
saboteurs used a sophisticated remote means that exploited one of the
helicopter's electromagnetic vulnerabilities such as an electromagnetic brake.
It is possible that the helicopter suddenly lost control due to the external
induction of an electromagnetic force that simply dislocated the entire
electrical system on board, making it impossible to control.
The means to cause
these effects not only exist but have already been used on several occasions to
achieve the appearance of a simple accident.