WarSclerotic

Lebanon news – NOW Lebanon -Iran Rules.

No one on our team seems the least bit embarrassed, nor do any of the pundits who predicted that some sort of nuke deal would be agreed on.  Indeed, most of the coverage that I’ve seen has to do with Israel:  will they attack or not?

On the basis of my mother’s dictum that repetition is the basis of all learning, let’s go through the basic principles again:

· Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is not interested in a deal with the West unless it is clearly and unequivocally a total Western surrender that ends sanctions, confirms our retreat from the Middle East, and acknowledges Iran as the regional hegemon;

· The current game–call it “around the world in 180 days”–provides the diplomats with good food, luxurious accommodations, and pictures in the papers, and it leaves the Iranians free to enrich uranium, build missiles and warheads, and kill us and anyone inclined to work with us. That is the Real War and no Western leader ever talks about it;

· Sanctions will neither stop the Iranian nuclear program nor stop the Real War. Only a change in regime can accomplish that.  To that end, sanctions could be a positive force if they were combined with support for the Iranian opposition.  Just ask the Revolutionary Guards how serious the resistance is:  the RG just deployed an additional eight thousand soldiers—some in uniform, others in plain clothes–in the streets of Tehran.But no Western leader cares to help the Iranian opposition, even verbally.  When  those leaders say “no option is off the table,” they mean some day there might be a  military attack against Iran.  But  financial and tactical assistance to the Iranian people willing to actively fight for freedom is totally off any Western  strategic table;

Dr. Michael Ledeen is the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Flame virus amateurish” – Globes.

GreenSQL CTO David Maman believes that the virus, which has raised a media buzz, was merely another standard attack.

Contradicting assessments by foreign IT security experts, GreenSQLCTO and IT security expert David Maman believes that the Flame virus discovered in Iran and elsewhere was just another example of a fairly simple cyber weapon in the global cyber war.

“The media buzz about the tool is just buzz,” Maman told “Globes”. He believe that there is no reason to be surprised about the virus’s discovery. “It looks a little amateurish, like many other cyber weapons. It is fairly simple. There are dozens like it on the web. The same people and private companies can buy them and do what they want with them.”

In contrast to foreign IT security experts, Maman believes that the idea that a government or major defense agency created Flame is not based on the virus’s actual structure. “I really do not agree with the assessment by Kaspersky Lab. Such a cyber weapon can be developed by any other group, which could have used it for corporate, or even political, espionage, not necessarily for defense,” he says.

Kaspersky Lab says that the cyber weapon mostly attacked in Iran, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel.

Maman: “Kaspersky only reports what it sees. There could definitely be other versions of the cyber weapon directed at other target countries.”

Maman adds that the fact that Kaspersky discovered the cyber weapon should raises suspicions among international cyber experts. “How come no American antivirus company, whose research departments are many times more advanced than Kaspersky’s, did not discover these Trojan horses. Why did only Russian and Belorussian companies discover them?” he asks.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on May 29, 2012

Iran: Yaalon Confirmed Israel is behind Flame – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Reuters

Semi-official Iranian news agency Fars seized upon statements by Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon Tuesday as proof that Israel engineered an exceedingly sophisticated program dubbed Flame that has been spying on computers in Iran.

“The Vice Prime Minister of the Zionist regime admitted the role of the regime in creating the virus Flame for cyber espionage in the Middle East, and especially in Iran,” Fars stated. “Moshe Yaalon’s statements today are an additional confirmation of Israel’s role in developing the malicious program.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparsat also pointed a finger at Israel, although less directly: “Illegitimate regimes are producing viruses and trying to use cyberspace and this is not really effective,” he told reporters at a weekly press briefing.

Iran’s MAHER Center, the Iranian equivalent of the U.S.’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) said Tuesday that Flame “has caused substantial damage” and that “massive amounts of data have been lost” due to its operation.

Annan warns Syria of grave concern, West e… JPost – Middle East.

Iran’s Mehmanparast Says ‘Soft War’ Cyber Attacks to Fail – Businessweek.

Israel Hayom | Who is behind ‘masterpiece’ computer virus against Iran?.

Strategic affairs minister says, “Israel has been blessed with elite technology, and these tools open up all sorts of options” • Experts believe a country, not individuals, behind virus that records conversations, monitors keystrokes and deletes files.

Israel Hayom | A nuclear gridlock.

Israel Hayom | Some in West seeking to stretch out Iran talks, Ya’alon accuses.

Vice Prime Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon says nuclear talks have only produced “more Iranian time-buying” • In January, he accused U.S. President Barack Obama of diluting anti-Iran sanctions for fear of spiking fuel prices that would sap re-election bid.

International nuclear talks with Iran have achieved nothing, a senior official said on Tuesday, suggesting that some Western nations were happy to see the negotiations drag on.

Israel, which has threatened to go to war to prevent its arch-foe from going nuclear, has fretted on the sidelines as six world powers press for a curb on Iranian uranium enrichment.

Breaking Israel’s official silence on the second round of talks, held in Baghdad last week, Vice Prime Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon said the talks had only produced “more Iranian time-buying”.

“(There was) no significant achievement except for the Iranians having been given another three weeks or so to pursue the nuclear project until the next meeting in Moscow,” he told Army Radio in an interview. “To my regret, I don’t see any sense of urgency, and perhaps it is even in the interest of some players in the West to stretch out the time, which would certainly square with the Iranian interest.”

Ya’alon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightist Likud party, would not elaborate. In January, he accused U.S. President Barack Obama of diluting anti-Iran sanctions for fear of a spike in fuel prices that would sap his bid to win another White House term in November.

Like Israel, Washington says armed force could be a last option against the Iranians, who deny seeking the bomb and have vowed to fight back on several fronts if attacked.

Reluctant to see a new war in the Muslim world, the Obama administration has sought to reassure the Netanyahu government that discussions have not yet been exhausted.

“Netanyahu’s concern that time is running out is justified,” a senior U.S. official told reporters in Israel on Friday. “We are doubtful about whether it is possible to reach an agreement with Iran, but we have to keep trying the diplomatic path because the alternatives, if it’s a nuclear Iran or regional war, are very serious.”

The Baghdad meeting focused on foreign efforts to roll back Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, a level approaching bomb grade. Israel wants an immediate curb on lower-level Iranian enrichment as well.

“Even when faced with lesser demands, the Iranians have yet to respond positively,” Ya’alon said. Sanctions should be toughened, he said, but “we have not even reached that stage in the talks. Instead, we roll the matter from meeting to meeting”.

Asked if the June 18-19 Moscow talks might prove conclusive, Ya’alon said: “Let’s hope … The Iranians are working to buy time, to hoodwink the Western world and to continue spinning (uranium) centrifuges toward a military capability.”

Though Israel is reputed to have the region’s only atomic arsenal, many international experts, including the top U.S. military officer, Gen. Martin Dempsey, have voiced doubt in the ability of its conventional forces to deliver lasting damage to Iran’s dispersed and well-defended nuclear facilities.

That has given rise to speculation that Israel is involved in a recent rash of anti-Iran sabotage, including cyber-warfare.

A new computer virus, dubbed Flame, emerged on Monday, with analysts saying it may have been built on behalf of the same nation that commissioned the unclaimed Stuxnet worm that struck Iran’s nuclear program in 2010.

Asked if such assessments were sound, Ya’alon, a former Israeli spymaster and military chief, said: “Apparently.”

“I reckon it is certainly reasonable that everyone who sees in the Iranian threat a significant threat — and that is not just Israel, but all of the Western world, led by the United States — is resorting to all means available, including these, in order to harm the Iranian nuclear project,” he said

West should topple Assad – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: There is no excuse for world’s ongoing inaction in the face of Syrian president’s murderousness

Yakir Elkariv

Just like his father before him, Assad Junior is a cold-blooded murderer who will do anything to stay in power. As the leader of a minority, he will do everything to maintain his hold on Syria – apparently based on the knowledge of what his fate and his family’s fate would be the moment they fall into the hands of the masses.

We must grimly admit that thus far, his strategy of firing in all directions and accusing the world of staging a conspiracy against him has proven itself. Neither Arab League condemnations nor Security Council threats have undermined his regime. At times it seems that the horrific images coming out of Syria almost daily have become part of the news routine.

he West must intervene in order to save the Syrian people from the nightmare they are caught up in. However, in Assad’s case one must be very cautious about creating a situation whereby the Syrian leader decides to bring down his foes as he goes down himself.

After all, the Alawite regime is armed to the teeth, among other things with long-range missiles that can hit Israel too. The danger is that the moment Assad realizes that he has no other way out he may fire them in order to stir a global commotion and disrupt the world’s plans.

Hardest nut to crack

The West should not delude itself: No operation, as successful as it may be, would be surgical. Assad’s removal would likely draw the whole of Syria into a terrible bloodbath and many innocents will be paying with their lives. However, his survival in power is already a stain on the West’s face, headed by the United States.

Nobody has any expectations from Putin. Yet does the whole world, and the honorable US president, have to remain paralyzed in the face of the ongoing horror until the Russian bear wakes up from its moralistic winter slumber and agrees to cooperate?

One must not think that one way or another, Assad will fall – as part of the energies unleashed by the “Arab Spring.” Should the world not topple him, he will not fall, and at the end of that day may even get to hand over power to his son.

Compared to the leaders toppled in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen, by now it’s already clear that Assad is the hardest nut to crack. Hence, removing him is the most urgent mission.

‘Flame virus aims to gather intelligence’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Tehran admits being targeted by what could be most sophisticated malware yet; says ‘massive amounts of data lost.’ Computer experts say such complex virus takes national resources to develop

Dudi Cohen, Yoav Zitun

Iranian authorities have admitted that malicious software dubbed Flame has attacked it, and instructed to run an urgent inspection of all computer systems in the country.

Iran’s MAHER Center said Tuesday that the Flame virus “has caused substantial damage” and that “massive amounts of data have been lost.”

The center, which is part of Iran’s Communication’s Ministry said that the virus’ level of complexity, accuracy and high-functionality – noted mostly by the information corrupted – indicated that there is a “relation” to the Stuxnet virus.

Iranian experts said that Flame was able to overcome 43 different anti-virus programs.

Flame-infected data (Photo: Kaspersky Lab)

While no one knows who is behind “the most sophisticated virus of all times,” the bottom line, computer experts say, is that only a state could have developed such a complex virus.

• For more on the raging cyber war click hereFlame can gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on PC microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and log instant messaging chats.Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, one of the world’s largest data protection companies, was the first to discover the new malware. However, researchers are still unsure about its scope, because it has about 100 times as much code as a typical virus designed to steal financial information.
  

  Iran hit the hardest

  Researchers at Kaspersky estimated that around 5,000 personal computers around the world have been infected by the virus, Iran being hit the hardest, with 189 infected computers, followed by Israel and the Palestinian territories (98 computers), Sudan (32), Syria (30),Lebanon (18), Saudi Arabia (10) and Egypt (5).

  The researchers further estimated that the virus was developed by a country that allocated a significant budget for its development, which might be linked to cyber warfare.

  “Unlike the Suxtent virus that attacked in Iran, this is a spyware that doesn’t disrupt or terminate systems, Professor Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, the former head of the Administration for the Development of Weapons and the Technological Industry said.

  According to Ben Yisrael, while the source of the software is unknown, “its aim is clear – collecting intelligence.” The professor added that the spyware acts like a worm, jumping from one computer to another, and that it is impossible to locate the destination of the data that was copied.

  Another expert noted that the virus was extremely invasive, and was not created by a bored teenager, but rather by a sophisticated programmer.

  Flame could be the third major cyber weapon uncovered after the Stuxnet virus that attacked Iran’s nuclear program in 2010, and its data-stealing cousin Duqu, named after the Star Wars villain.

  Both Flame and Stuxnet appear to infect machines by exploiting the same flaw in the Windows operating system and employ a similar way of spreading.

  That means the teams that built Stuxnet and Duqu might have had access to the same technology as the team that built Flame.