TEL AVIV

ISRAEL’S INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, Mossad, will not deny that it has deliberately arranged for key Iranian leaders to be targeted for assassination multiple times only to be closely missed, to sow seeds of suspicion about their loyalty.

“This is Lesson 1 in planting paranoia in your enemy,” says Philby Burgess, a former MI6 agent and James Bond actor, who insists that he convinced three Bosnian Serbs to kill one other in 1994, by telling them individually that Manchester United had lost a game, but with three different scorelines. “Just a little mistrust has a habit of snowballing in conflict zones. You do something that causes someone to pause and think about a comrade; then you do it again. A third time and the paranoia takes over. It’s easier to kill the guy than wait to find out he’s a traitor. The Israelis are probably doing it to the Iranians. Rumors are that at least one senior general who has been a little too lucky, is under arrest already. Logically, if you look at it, making one fake attack on a genuine agent has merit, but several, that just flashes lights. But the Iranians aren’t thinking logically now. They are paranoid.”