Did the CIA and/or Mossad murder 500 Iraqi intellectuals?

This report (which I learned about via Covert History) comes from an Iranian source, and certainly carries the stench of propaganda. The "Zionist regime" remark hardly seems unbiased. But we should take note of the allegation nonetheless. Has Iraq's intelligentsia been targeted by a "Phoenix" style assassination program, or are they simply (as others have reported) leaving the country in droves?

More than 500 Iraqi scientists and professors have been murdered by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, an Iraqi newspaper reports.

The report stated that the killings were part of a mission to get rid of those Iraqi nuclear specialists and university professors that refused to cooperate with the Zionist regime.

The assassinations were carried out by Mossad and the US Defense Department - the Pentagon.

So far 350 scientists and 200 professors have been surreptitiously murdered by Israeli Mossad commandoes, deployed to Iraq exclusively to carry out these atrocities.

According to the US State Department, these killings came after Washington's attempts to entice Iraqi scientists to cooperate with the US failed.

Many specialists living in the US also refused to comply and fled, seeking refuge in other countries. Those willing to cooperate suffered grueling interrogations and even torture by the hands of US officials.

According to the Al-Bayna newspaper, Tel Aviv sees these scientists posing a threat to the security of the Zionist regime, and has decided the best way to deal with this is to assassinate the offending intellectuals.

The Pentagon expressed its approval of such a scheme seven months ago, dispatching back-up for the Israeli commandoes, and also providing them with full personal records of the targeted victims.

The scholars are killed far from their homes in staged scenarios, taking advantage of the regularly expected bomb attacks happening every day in Iraq.

Again: This piece has a propagandistic aroma to it, not least because it ascribes evil-for-the-sake-of-evil to the United States; motive seems lacking. However, after reading (or listening to) "The Shock Doctrine," I'm inclined toward the theory that the neocons have deliberately sought to reduce Iraq to a primitive state. Friedmanites are close kin to Pol Pot in their willingness to inflict utter destruction in order to build anew.