Mossad op to retrieve Iran's nuclear files took a surprising turn

The Mossad agents who appropriated Iran’s nuclear secrets from a warehouse in Tehran in January knew they would be taking a large number of folders, but did not realize there would be a large volume of disks, Yediot Ahronot’s Ronen Bergman reported on Wednesday.

Cohen’s ad hoc call mid-operation ended up having important repercussions as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to break with precedent and publicly present the intelligence materials in a major press conference on April 30.

Many say that Netanyahu’s presentation moved US President Donald Trump the final mile toward deciding to exit the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Further, the report said that information contained on the disks proved a variety of additional points about Iran’s nuclear activities to a much greater degree than what was merely contained in the files.

According to his report, the Mossad agents involved were so surprised that they checked in with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen who was observing the mission from Israel.
Cohen quickly gave the order to take as many of the disks as they could get as well.

The report said that earlier on in preparing the operation there had even been a debate about whether to merely take photos of the files or to physically bring the files themselves – a more complex operation.

At all stages, including mid-operation, Cohen pressed for bringing back as much physical original evidence as possible in order to deflate any objections from Iran that the evidence was doctored.