The first link below reports that Iran is threatening “military action to settle scores with Israel and the US whom it suspects of planting the malignant Stuxnet cyber worm in the computer systems of its nuclear, military and strategic infrastructure.” There are conflicting reports on the internet about whether this cyber-attack took place, but Iran’s angry response indicates that it did, indeed, take place and that it hurt Iran’s nuclear program significantly. Such a cyber-attack vs. Iran risks no pilots and collateral damage, and it is actually more effective than a military attack as it could penetrate into the computers of Iran’s most hidden nuclear facilities buried under mountain ranges. This Stuxnet virus may have done more damage to Iran’s nuclear program than many cruise missiles and bunker buster bombs could have done! This attack also reveals that the abilities of the USA, Israel and western nations to launch cyberattacks may be much more advanced and sophisticated than anyone previously realized.
Iran’s President has now planned a trip to the Hezbollah-ruled section of southern Lebanon to be able to gaze personally into Israeli territory, and he has “advised” Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas to prepare for possible warfare, which the article hints might include the October 13-14 timeframe. Syria seems to be dragging its feet about wanting to engage in such a war (most likely because it realizes the terrible damage that would be done to Syria in any such war).
The first link also opines that a certain code word found in the Stuxnet cyber worm bears a resemblance in Hebrew to the name of the famous Jewish Queen of Persia, Esther, whose intervention led to the rescue of the Jewish people in ancient Persia (see the book of Esther for the full story). If so, it would be very appropriate for a modern cyber attack launched by the Israelis to save the modern Jewish people from another existential threat emanating from the region of ancient Persia (Iran).
The second link reports that Russian engineers are under suspicion because they were ones who had easy access to the German-made computer systems which were attacked by the Stuxnet cyber attack. It is possible that western intelligence operatives somehow “motivated” some Russian personnel to plant the Stuxnet worm, but that is not certain. It is also possible the worm was “pre-loaded” secretly onto the software of all the computers shipped from Germany (a NATO member) to Iran’s nuclear and strategic infrastructures. The Russian staffers may be the guilty ones or they may have been “set up” as scapegoats in a “divide and conquer” strategy to hinder cooperation and trust within the Russian-Iranian alliance. You can be sure some very highly placed intelligence and political leaders in certain nations know how this Stuxnet worm was planted in Iran’s critical computers, but the rest of us commoners will likely never know the truth.
There is an indication that the Iranian government also blames the USA for this cyber attack against Iran. In a particularly incendiary speech, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad “called for US leaders to be ‘buried'” for their considering military actions against Iran. The speech wasn’t directly linked to the Stuxnet attack, but its timing just after the cyber-attack infers that the cyber-attack may have prompted Iran’s latest “brash rhetoric.” The fourth link below reports that President Obama is coming under pressure from key Congressional leaders that he consider a military attack against Iran with a “time limit of just a few months” if the latest round of sanctions don’t stop Iran’s nuclear program.
It seems apparent that Iran has just gotten angrier, and it is threatening military action. This raises the odds that a Mideast War may be caused by an Iranian first strike, not a western first strike. When Iran’s president travels to the Lebanese-Israeli border to look into Israeli territory, will he be motivated to give an attack order to be implemented soon after he leaves the region? None of us knows for sure, but the danger of a Mideast War has risen of late. However, the Stuxnet cyber-attack seems to have insured that such a war will involve conventional, not nuclear, weapons. That would be a successful cyber-attack, indeed.
http://www.debka.com/article/9058/
http://www.debka.com/article/9061/
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/03/ahmadinejad-calls-leaders-buried/
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3962291,00.html
