Israeli Intrigue On The High Seas

It's a yarn worthy of Ian Fleming.

The Times of London reports that the Arctic Sea, the freighter that disappeared from the English Channel in late July and was then rounded up by a powerful Russian naval force weeks later, was carrying arms bound for Iran.

The ship was loaded not with lumber but with state of the art Russian anti-aircraft rockets that had been sold to Iran by the Russian underworld. The Israeli Mossad uncovered the plot in Kaliningrad, a port notorious for gun runners. They duped a known criminal gang into hijacking the ship. Then they told the Kremlin. The hijacking gave the Russians an excuse to seize the ship and save face from allowing their high-tech weapons to fall into the hands of international arms black marketeers.

Sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons would make it much more difficult for Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear installations.

The Russians have steadfastly denied the Arctic Sea was carrying Russian weapons.