atomic weapon , environmental activism , tidings agencies , and … lizard spy ?
An ex - senior military advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , Hassan Firuzabadi , of late justified the arrests of environmentalist by claiming that the Western spy agency used lizards to keep tabs on Iran ’s atomic program , AFPreports .
“ Several years ago , some someone came to Iran to collect aid for Palestine … We were leery of the route they chose , ” say Firuzabadi , accord toThe Times Of Israel .
" In their possession were a variety of reptilian desert species like lizards , chameleons … We found out that their skin attracts atomic wave and that they were nuclear spies who want to find out where inside the Islamic Republic of Iran we have U mines and where we are occupy in atomic activity , ” he allege .
gratuitous to say , this a flaky call .
Lizard skin is no more capable of “ draw in nuclear waves ” ( presumably a mistranslation of “ sop up da Gamma radiation ” ? ) than any other animal . Just like human skin , their scales are made of little more than ceratin proteins .
Then , you must consider that training a reptilian to infiltrate a atomic facility is no low chore . Simply hoard some lizards in the wild and assess their radiation wo n’t tell you much about the location of nuclear facility , either . Besides anything else , a U mine or the outside of a nuclear facility is not that radioactive .
“ The product of U minelaying is unremarkably uranium oxide concentrate – U3O8 – which is shipped from the mines in 200 - cubic decimetre drums . This is scarce radioactive , ” according to theWorld Nuclear Association .
Iran has mat under terror from undercover animal agents before . In 2008 , Iran also apprehended apair of " spy pigeons"near one of the Carry Nation ’s atomic processing plant .
It ’s safe to say that Firuzabadi ’s title have little substance behind them . However , the surreal claim plays into a much more serious subject present the country at the minute .
Over the past few years , Iran has been cracking down on prominent environmentalists , oftenunder the pretext of " espionage" . Kavous Seyed - Emami , the head of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation , was detained by Iranian constabulary on January 24 , 2018 . On February 10 , it was harbinger that he had committed self-annihilation in a Tehran prison ; however , his menage and human rights groupshave questionedthe official account statement of his death .
Human rights groupssay numerous other environmental activists and journalists – Amir - Hossein Khaleghi , Houman Jowkar , Morad Tahbaz , Niloufar Bayani , Sepideh Kashani , Taher Ghadirian , and Sam Rajabi – are still under arrest .
