Dutch spies hid engineer’s role in paralysing Iran nuclear project
Erik van Sabben released a Stuxnet computer worm that compromised Tehran’s weapons programme. Weeks later, he was dead
The Natanz nuclear facility south of Tehran, where Erik van Sabben is said to have set back weapons development by several years
AFP
A Dutch engineer played the “crucial role” in a mission to sabotage Iran’s nuclear weapons programme with a sophisticated computer virus as part of a US and Israeli mission, without the knowledge of his country’s government.
Erik van Sabben released the “very advanced” computer worm known as Stuxnet into the Natanz underground nuclear plant’s computer systems at the end of 2008, bringing the Iranian nuclear programme to a grinding halt. He was killed in a road accident two weeks later.
The secret operation, part of an American and Israeli mission classified at “ultra secret”, was carried out together by the CIA and Mossad and had been years in the making, but faced a major problem: how to get an agent and the sabotage software into
