2024-01-09T08:13:49+00:00
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/ An investigative investigation prepared by a Dutch newspaper revealed today, Monday, the identity of the agent who introduced the “Stuxnet” worm to the main uranium enrichment site in Natanz in central Iran, while showing that the operation came 16 years after targeting the Iranian nuclear program.
The newspaper “De Volkskrant” reported details of the arrival of American and Israeli intelligence to the heavily fortified facility, after a Dutch engineer succeeded in bringing equipment contaminated with the virus into Natanz and installing it on water pumps.
According to the investigation published by the newspaper “De Volkskrant”, the Dutch engineer Erik van Saben, an agent of the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), was the one who succeeded in reaching the Natanz facility, to carry out the operation that was preceded by years of preparation and cooperation between the intelligence agency. The US Central Bank, the Israeli Mossad, and a cost of one billion dollars to develop the virus.
Regarding the motives for revealing the identity of the perpetrator, the newspaper stated that the engineer’s death “removed the risk of Iranian retaliation against him,” noting that his family agreed to mention his name and publish his picture.
The investigation stated that the engineer carried out an extremely risky mission in Iran, by infiltrating the Natanz facility in 2007, where he installed contaminated devices and equipment, and this led to the disruption of a thousand central devices in the Natanz facility.
According to the newspaper, the Dutch engineer, who is married to an Iranian woman, worked for a transportation company in Dubai and traveled several times to Iran. Transport company TTS International said it had previously sent spare parts to Iran’s oil and gas industry, but was not aware of the secret activities of its employee, the Dutch agent.
It is unclear whether Sabin took advantage of his duties in the company to import nuclear equipment to Iran, or whether he knew that the equipment he sent to Natanz contained a devastating virus.
At the end of 2008, Sabin and his family traveled to Iran, to spend the end of the year vacation, for ten days, but the day after his arrival, he wanted his family to leave immediately.
Two weeks after his mysterious departure from Iran, Sabin died in an accident in Sharjah, near Dubai, after he was riding his motorcycle, which overturned and broke his neck.
His death raised questions among the Dutch intelligence service, and there were fears that his death was linked to his secret activities in Iran.
The two-year investigation was based on the testimonies of 43 people, 19 of whom were from the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD), and former employees of the Mossad, the Israeli Military Intelligence Service (Aman), and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
It is noteworthy that the United States and Israel developed the “Stuxnet” virus, which was discovered in 2010, after it was used to attack the Natanz facility, in the first attack of its kind to use a virus to attack industrial equipment.
The virus is a malicious computer program that attacks widely used industrial control systems produced by the German company Siemens AG, and exploits security vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system.