It is well known now that the Stuxnet computer virus set back Iran's nuclear program two years. There was great speculation as to who created the computer worm, with Israel at the top of the list. It is now reported that Israel's Dimona complex actually tested the effectiveness of Stuxnet.
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 experts 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.
Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium.
The above is an excerpt from a New York Times article which reports that 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] and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton separately announced that they believed Iran’s efforts had been set back by several years, by Stuxnet, the most sophisticated cyberweapon ever deployed.
Read the entire article which discusses exactly who constructed a computer worm that appears to have several authors on several continents which includes the United States, Israel, Germany, the UK in a covert program to undermine the electrical and computer systems around Natanz that began under the George W. Bush administration. But the story doesn't begin there, it goes all the way back to our enemy A. Q. Khan.
The fact that Iran's nuclear program has been set back, whether it is two years or possibly more, their efforts and desires have not been thwarted:
Iranian Nuclear Threat Continues Despite Technical Setbacks, via Realite EU
Tehran continues to expand its military capabilities, despite sanctions and other attempts by the West to derail the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
The Islamic Republic is warning that any attempt to impose tougher sanctions will be met with even more determination on the part of Iran to push ahead with its nuclear program.
“If (the powers) come again with sanction threats, they should know that all the sanctions already issued and all the hundreds more to be issued will not in the least affect Iran's will, and just speed up our progress,” the Iranian news agency Fars quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying. [1]
Iran’s nuclear negotiator warned on Wednesday that the upcoming talks in Istanbul with Germany and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council could be the point of no return as far as Iran is concerned.
“(It) might be the last chance for the West to return to talks,” said Ali Asghar Soltanieh. [2]
Sunday’s The New York Times [3] suggested that the United States and Israel were behind the Stuxnet computer worm attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities – something that has lead some in the Israeli intelligence community to claim Iran will not possess nuclear weapons until 2015.
However, regional analysts are warning that to become complacent or fail to act immediately against Tehran could have dire consequences. Such intelligence estimates are no substitute for policy, they argue.
"The Iranian strategy is one of maintaining a diplomatic process while pursuing all their nuclear activities and limiting the risk of coercive options like new sanctions or (sic.) even the risk of military action," said Bruno Tertrais, a senior research fellow with the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research. [4]
The threat from Iran is not only aimed at Israel and American interests in the region but also at moderate Arab states. Tehran has already shown its power to destabilize the region via its proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Even without nuclear weapons, Iran’s capabilities are considerable. Its arsenal includes the full range of sufarce-, air- and sea-launched missiles with estimated ranges of up to 2,000 kilometers.
Experts argue that the current diplomatic push should focus on preventing Iran from developing the capability to build nuclear weapons – including nuclear materials, means of delivery and expertise.
“More than 350 Iranian companies and organizations were involved in the pursuit of nuclear and missile technology between 2006 and 2010,” the WikiLeaks papers showed, according to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. [5]
“For years, Iran has been working systematically to acquire the parts, equipment and technology needed for developing such weapons, in violation of U.N. sanctions against the country's nuclear and missile program,” the paper added.
References:
[1] “Envoy Judges World Powers' Refusal to Visit Iran's N. Sites as Naïve Move,” Fars News Agency, January 16, 2011, http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8910261344
[2] Mostafavi, Ramin: “Talks could be West's "last chance": Iran envoy,” Reuters, January 12, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70B1HC20110112
[3] Broad, William J.; Markoff, John & Sanger, David E: “Israel Tests on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay,” The New York Times, January 15, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world/middleeast/16stuxnet.html?_r=1&hp
[4] “Iran Warns of ‘Last Chance’ to Swap Uranium,” Global Security Newswire, January 12, 2011, http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20110112_1826.php
[5] Arrott, Elizabeth “Iran Missile Program,” Voice of America, September 28, 2009, http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2009/iran-090928-voa01.htm
This is absolutely the most intriguing spy thing to ever happen, in my opinion. It's something out of a spy novel and/or movie. Whoever did it was a genius and I applaud them. Sure saved pilots from being in harms way!
Posted by: Mushy | January 18, 2011 at 08:50 PM