"In Israeli desert, computer virus targeting Iran was born; Joint effort with US disrupted nuclear program" by William J. Broad, John Markoff and David E. Sanger, New York Times / January 16, 2011
I will remember this the next time China or Korea is fingered for hacking.
The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal.
Over the past two years, according to intelligence and military specialists familiar with its operations, Dimona has taken on a new, equally secret role — as a critical testing ground in a joint American and Israeli effort to undermine Iran’s efforts to make a bomb of its own.
Even if they are not making one.
Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the specialists say, Israel has tested the effectiveness the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that now appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges....
Though American and Israeli officials refuse to talk publicly about what goes on at Dimona, the operations there, as well as related efforts in the United States, are among the newest and strongest clues suggesting that the virus was designed as an American-Israeli project to sabotage the Iranian program.....
In addition to the assassination of nuclear scientist, etc.
In recent days, the retiring chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, whose organization has been accused by Iran of being behind the deaths of several Iranian scientists, told the Israeli Knesset in recent days that Iran had run into technological difficulties that could delay a bomb until 2015.
Then NO MORE WAR TALK!
Has world outrage and reason finally com to the psychopaths?
That represented a sharp reversal from Israel’s long-held argument that Iran was on the cusp of success.
The biggest single factor in putting time on the nuclear clock appears to be Stuxnet, the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever deployed.
In interviews over the past three months in the United States and Europe, specialists who have picked apart the computer worm describe it as far more complex — and ingenious — than anything they had imagined when it began circulating around the world, unexplained, in mid-2009....
The digital trail is littered with intriguing bits of evidence.
In early 2008 the German company Siemens cooperated with one of the United States’ premier national laboratories, in Idaho, to identify the vulnerabilities of computer controllers that the company sells to operate industrial machinery around the world....
The worm itself now appears to have included two major components. One was designed to send Iran’s nuclear centrifuges spinning wildly out of control. Another seems right out of the movies: The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators, like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing themselves apart.....
How funny, ha-ha!
Officially, neither American nor Israeli officials will even utter the name of the malicious computer program, much less describe any role in designing it.
Just refer to them as USrael; it is much more accurate.
By the accounts of a number of computer scientists, nuclear enrichment specialists, and former officials, the covert race to create Stuxnet was a joint project between the Americans and the Israelis, with some help, knowing or unknowing, from the Germans and the British.
The project’s political origins can be found in the last months of President George W. Bush’s administration.
And Obama didn't change it?
Also see: Iran is Paranoid
Now it turns out not.
In January 2009, the New York Times reported that Bush authorized a covert program to undermine the electrical and computer systems around Natanz, Iran’s major enrichment center. President Obama, first briefed on the program even before taking office, sped it up, according to officials familiar with the administration’s Iran strategy. So did the Israelis, other officials said....
Not the CHANGE I WAS LOOKING FOR!
So he has ESCALATED the WARS and HOSTILITIES, hanh?!!
--more--"
Another II: Iran may drop death-by-stoning sentence (New York Times)
Why wouldn't the Globe want newspaper readers to see those stories?
What I did get in my war-promoter:
"Iran refuses to budge on nuclear program" by Steven Erlanger, New York Times / January 23, 2011
ISTANBUL — At the same time, espionage activities, technical problems, and crucial shortages have delayed Iran’s nuclear program, providing more time for talks and pressure short of military action. But that delay also reduces the urgency felt by Iran to negotiate seriously while it continues to pile up enriched uranium, even if more slowly.
It's not weapons grade; however, don't expect my Zionist War Daily to relay that information to you.
Related: Iran's Isotopes
Yeah, turns out they need the energy to treat cancer patients.
Rounds of sanctions have begun to hurt Iran, but clearly not to the point of bringing the survival of the government or the Islamic Revolution into play.
And you know what is next when sanctions won't work.
In fact, even if they are bluffing, Iranian officials insist privately that the sanctions are making Iran stronger by pushing the government to make needed economic reforms and reduce domestic subsidies on energy and food....
Iranian chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, in a news conference, insisted that the only way to move forward was to agree on a framework that respected Iran’s rights as a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich for peaceful purposes and removed punitive measures. “I don’t say these are preconditions,’’ he said. “These are prerequisites.’’
Yeah, and because IT IS the LAW (as opposed to our rogue friends Israel and India that have never signed, or whipping-boy Pakistan -- the only Muslim nation with nuclear arms).
He said that while Iran was open to negotiation on many topics, the six pushed “dictation, not dialogue.’’
Yeah, we never listen to anyone (except when Israel barks; then it's "Yessa, massa.").
Without a common logic, he said, “It’s no longer a dialogue but just a set of special orders and specifications.’’ He complained about being dictated to by six nations when about 130 countries have signed the nonproliferation treaty.
You know, something a dictatorship would do.
But US and European officials said that while the treaty provides the right to civilian nuclear energy, “Iran must also show that its program is peaceful,’’ one said....
And Israel?
And how about the U.S. for that matter -- you know, the nation that actually used the monstrous weapons on people?
--more--"
More:
"The president and his supporters are currently undertaking a major restructuring of the economy, raising prices of fuel, energy, bread, and other products to market levels while reducing state subsidies. Officials say the move will help the poor, but the lawyers, nurses, double-shift taxi drivers, and others who make up the country’s broad middle class say it will break their backs....
Wow, that is exactly what is happening here in AmeriKa!
Are Iranian banks fraudulently seizing homes, too?
--more--"
"Citing US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks....
That's where I stopped reading.
See: Wikileaking Our Way To War
If you want to go that way:
--more--"
Former Iran hostages return to West Point
Whatever thread of emotion that will sell the war propaganda; however, you guys are really reaching these days.