The Stuxnet computer worm is widely considered to be a U.S.-Israeli cyber weapon crafted to wreak havoc in Iran's nuclear enrichment plants. But with the identity of the perpetrators still unclear, it might be time to start seeking some alternative explanations. After all, suppose Stuxnet also caught the United States' defense and intelligence communities with their pants down? If this is the case, then a very different story could emerge, one involving faceless groups of Russians and their highly sophisticated cyber warriors.
In brief, the case for the United States having designed and developed Stuxnet is as follows: First, neither the United States nor Israel wants Iran to develop nuclear weapons. The worm, then, is seen as likely part of a covert strategy to delay or destroy Iran's nuclear infrastructure while stopping short of war.
The weapon was designed to target a specific version of the Siemens SCADA programmable logic controls (PLC) operating a specific configuration and number of cascading centrifuges found in Iran. Some analysts point to the fact that there were vulnerability assessments being run at Idaho National Labs on Siemens PLC software. Others note that the design of the cyber weapon closely fit Richard Clark's description in Cyber War of a well-designed and ethically thought out weapon limiting collateral damage due to a vast army of lawyers scrutinizing the effects. The malware-analyst community, meanwhile, points to digital code strings such as "b:myrtus" taken from biblical events important to Israeli identity. And, as the story goes, after the political decisions, vulnerability assessments, and weapon design took place, either an Iranian agent was found to take the USB memory stick into the nuclear facility, or all the computers around the plants were infected with Stuxnet via the conficker worm.
Remainder at the link, truncated per source request
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2011 14:10 ||
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#1
Russian diplomacy can be very enigmatic at times. Though they might pursue similar goals to the US, they make it a point never to pursue those goals in the same way. This is a strategy calculated to give them more influence in the outcome.
A good example is Iran's pursuit of nuclear everything. The US was direct in saying 'hell no', and trying to prevent any nuclear materials and equipment from going to Iran. But this left the question of Iran's intentions wide open. We really didn't know what they were planning to do.
But the Russians approach was to offer Iran enriched uranium for its nuclear power plants, but only on condition that the expended uranium was returned to Russia in exchange for fresh.
Were Iran to just want nuclear energy, this would have been fine with them. But they had to show their hand that they wanted to make nuclear weapons, by refusing Russia's deal. Weapons grade uranium is processed from expended fuel, which provides isotopes such as plutonium. To make it directly from reactor grade uranium is much harder.
So do not underestimate the Russians. While they seem to be Iran's good buddy, it is the friendship of a rattlesnake and a kingsnake. Russia will tolerate Iran as long as it is to Russia's interests. If Iran becomes a threat to Russia, Russia will treat it accordingly.
#1
As said or inferred times before, 9-11 + WAR FOR OWG-NWO INCLUD COMMIE-SOC WORLD ORDER [CWO-SWO]> once the US goes down, the honeymoon between Secular Leftist/Marxist-Socialists, + God/Faith-based Socialists aka Muslims or Islam, will be over.
D *** NG IT, AND ITS NOT GOING TO BE AN AMIABLE DIVORCE!
"THE SIMPSONS" MRS. REVEREND LOVEJOY = [ZOOMG = EEEK] WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
#2
What is it about the left and the MSM that embraces islam if it is supremacist in nature and has as its aim the destruction of the West? Islamacists have no more liking for the left and MSM than they do for the rest of us.
#2
and shortly after the publication of Prairie Fire the Weatherman or SDS burned down the Student Union at the University of Kansas causing millions of dollars of art to be destroyed. Also, that night someone was shot and a curfew was established which pitted the police against the radical students in combat for serveral weeks. I was back from Nam but still in the army and watched this happen in disbelief as KU became known as Berkely on the Kaw. These weathermen and sds types are still active in Lawrence (home of KU)and have dominated the local government for the last decade creating the only tax and spend blue county in Kansas.
A gunman pointed his weapon at more than a dozen people Friday as he randomly opened fire on drivers and pedestrians in Hollywood before being fatally shot by Los Angeles Police Department officers.
Video shows the gunman calmly pointing his handgun and opening fire on passing cars near Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard near the ArcLight Cinema.
A man driving a Mercedes was shot in the jaw and taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was in critical condition. He is expected to survive.
What is most disturbing about this story, apart from the obvious horror, is that not one news account reported what one witness said the shooter was screaming: "allahu akbar." Not one news account. The media is the enemy.
Check out the video here. One of the witnesses states that the shooter was repeatedly shouting "allahu akbar" at minute 2:42. This video is on the bottom right of the LA Times new story, but they don't mention it in their coverage -- neither does Reuters, CBS news, The Hollywood Reporter, KFAI, or any of the other news reports. I expect that this video will be removed or edited.
#5
No suprise. Remember Beslain - that children's school in Russia? The media bend over backwards and tied themselves in knots to give their allies cover and never, ever, ever, mention that the perps were Islamic or terrorists.
#6
Very odd. An LA television station report talks about the shooter, Tyler Brehm's Facebook page, his recent taking of under the table 'pharmaceuticals', and his resulting breakup with his girlfriend as the triggers.
[Dawn] INCENDIARY, irresponsible and incredible as some of the media coverage of President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari`s ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... sudden departure from Pakistain may have been, the PPP party machinery has to shoulder much of the blame for the latest `crisis` to have hit the country. After all, here is a man who is the president of a country where civil-military relations have taken another turn for the worse, as well as the de facto leader of a political government that has been besieged in recent weeks. If the president was unwell and required immediate medical care, the information needed to be communicated accurately and sensitively by the presidency and/or the party machinery. Instead, the public was given contradictory and misleading statements by PPP officials. Why? There really is no reasonable explanation or excuse for a party which has now been in power for almost four years. It should know better by now what happens when the flames of suspicion and conspiracy are fanned by official misstatements and half-truths.
Be that as it may, this has been yet another moment in which sections of the media have failed to live up to even basic standards of journalism. It appears that rather than use experience and access to vet information and help the public get closer to the truth, there was a gleeful dash by the media to deliver the most colourful scenarios imaginable. Had the president had a nervous breakdown of some kind? Had the army launched a soft coup? Who would be the likely members of an interim government? None of this was backed up by any proof or even reasonable inferences from the available information. But that did not deter many in the media from indulging in what amounted to misleading and wanton speculation. Perhaps it is too much to expect that when the rumour factory is in overdrive the media will be entirely aware of the situation, especially when the government`s own statements create confusion. Yet it is surely not too much to hope that some restraint and common sense are applied. Pakistain is no stranger, unfortunately, to the sudden curtailment of governments, and while few of the final tell-tale signs were visible this week many in the media who should have known better abandoned good sense anyway.
It may be a forlorn hope for the government to improve its performance in the fourth year of a dismal tenure. Still it is possible to have a point person to issue authoritative updates when the president`s or some other big shot`s health is affected. It may just save the country from another unnecessary crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] THE loss of scores of lives in bombings in Afghanistan on Tuesday and Wednesday has been tragic. Particularly alarming were Tuesday`s attacks on Shia mourners observing Ashura in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. The claim that sectarian violence is new to Afghanistan cannot be made so easily. Hazara Shias were targeted by the Taliban regime, including significant massacres in May 2000 and January 2001. While these incidents were also driven by ethnic tensions it is difficult to argue, given the Taliban`s hard-line Sunni views, that they did not have a sectarian element. It is also true though that in recent years Afghan Shias have not been singled out in the same fashion. In this context a large-scale, clearly sectarian attack is a worrying development. Afghanistan is already torn along ideological, political and ethnic lines, and another divide is hardly needed at a time when security is being transitioned to Afghan forces. The Shia-Sunni conflagration that erupted in Iraq under the Americans is a reminder of how destabilising sectarian conflict can become in a country facing an ongoing war.
That said, restraint could have been exercised before immediately pointing fingers in Pakistain`s direction. The only lead for this argument in the immediate aftermath was a phone call from an alleged operative of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , or an apparent offshoot, claiming responsibility for the Kabul attack. More evidence is needed before this connection can be made, and President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... would have done well to keep in mind previous knee-jerk accusations that have strained the relationship. For its part, Pakistain must take any evidence very seriously, as it might indicate a new ability and interest on the part of Pak bad boy groups in carrying out attacks in Afghanistan. If so this would mark an expansion of goals and a new level of cooperation with Afghan Death Eaters across the border, without which it is unlikely that attacks on this scale could have been carried out. If these incidents do indicate new bad boy aims and new patterns of collaboration across groups and across state lines, they serve as a wake-up call Pakistain cannot afford to ignore.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Shouldn't that be more properly "WHEN IRAN ATTACKS"?, as Iran has made it clear that the protection of local Shias is widin its vested/core interest???
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Asif Ali 
[Dawn] THE loss of scores of lives in bombings in Afghanistan on Tuesday and Wednesday has been tragic. Particularly alarming were Tuesday`s attacks on Shia mourners observing Ashura in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif. The claim that sectarian violence is new to Afghanistan cannot be made so easily. Hazara Shias were targeted by the Taliban regime, including significant massacres in May 2000 and January 2001. While these incidents were also driven by ethnic tensions it is difficult to argue, given the Taliban`s hard-line Sunni views, that they did not have a sectarian element. It is also true though that in recent years Afghan Shias have not been singled out in the same fashion. In this context a large-scale, clearly sectarian attack is a worrying development. Afghanistan is already torn along ideological, political and ethnic lines, and another divide is hardly needed at a time when security is being transitioned to Afghan forces. The Shia-Sunni conflagration that erupted in Iraq under the Americans is a reminder of how destabilising sectarian conflict can become in a country facing an ongoing war.
