In January 2010, (click here) inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency visiting the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran noticed that centrifuges used to enrich uranium gas were failing at an unprecedented rate. The cause was a complete mystery—apparently as much to the Iranian technicians replacing the centrifuges as to the inspectors observing them.
Five months later a seemingly unrelated event occurred. A computer security firm in Belarus was called in to troubleshoot a series of computers in Iran that were crashing and rebooting repeatedly. Again, the cause of the problem was a mystery. That is, until the researchers found a handful of malicious files on one of the systems and discovered the world's first digital weapon.
Stuxnet, as it came to be known, was unlike any other virus or worm that came before. Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it escaped the digital realm to wreak physical destruction on equipment the computers controlled....
It wasn't just one device. Different manufacturers. Now, I am to believe there was a global conspiracy against Hezbollah. There wasn't. The USA would have known ahead of the attack and it didn't. So, according to the fantasy war profile today the pagers and walkie talkies were interrupted in their shipments and diverted to Israel to install an explosive. Really?
September 19, 2024
By Claire Parker, Mohamad El Chamaa, Lior Soroka and Shira Rubin
...Still, the operation marked an embarrassing breach of the group’s supply chain, and the explosions also injured the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon....
By Claire Parker, Mohamad El Chamaa, Lior Soroka and Shira Rubin
...Still, the operation marked an embarrassing breach of the group’s supply chain, and the explosions also injured the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon....
...Images from the scenes of the explosions (click here) also showed walkie-talkies bearing the name of Icom, a Japanese manufacturer of radio equipment, which said the model in question had been discontinued about a decade ago. “We cannot confirm whether the product was shipped from our company or not,” Icom said in a statement Thursday....
This accounting by Franco seems to be a perfect storm. There had to be a lot to go perfectly if the mission was to be successful. It would have had a long time frame that would expose the operation to discovery (exposure of it's operation).
September 17, 2024
By Gerrit De Vynck
, Sammy Westfall
, Elizabeth Dwoskin
and Niha Masih
...On Wednesday, (click here) a second round of explosions killed 20 and injured at least 450. This attack appeared to impact a broader range of electronic devices, including radios and fingerprint analysis devices.
Israel uses sophisticated cyberespionage methods to spy on and track members of the militant groups it opposes, including Hamas and Hezbollah. It has also built a far-ranging surveillance system using facial recognition to monitor Palestinians in the West Bank....
...But the scale of such an attack, targeting thousands of Hezbollah members at once by use of their own devices, is unprecedented....
...“The scale suggests a complex supply-chain attack, rather than a scenario in which devices were intercepted and modified in transit.”...
...Lithium batteries that overheat can reach 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Meier said. Devices are generally designed to vent this heat, but if they don’t, “the battery can and will explode,” he said.
Some batteries rely on the devices’ own software to regulate their use and temperature, so it is theoretically possible to hack into a pager and trigger its battery to heat to the point that it explodes, Meier said....
Occam's Razor dictates that simplicity is the answer to problems that continue to build in theoretical complexity. As far as I am concerned, Israel owns the cyber world globally if it can harness a devices software to carry out killings.
As far as the propriety of Israel's actions:
A rebel-controlled (click here) area of Douma, east of Damascus. Syria’s civil war has stretched on because of its role as a proxy fight among other powers.
People die in war. War is not clean. If one looks at Russia's wars in the Middle East they are brutal, inhumane, and completely devastating. Russia's war in Syria looks exactly like Israel's war into Gaza. There is no difference.
May 27, 2022
By Beth Morrison
...Given that the laws of war (click here) are intended to protect those who are not participating in hostilities during times of armed conflict, it may come as a surprise that civilians can still be lawfully killed in war. To be clear, the deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime, nevertheless, in certain situations, the foreseen, but incidental killing of civilians is permissible in war. This article will lay out some of the responsibilities that combatants and fighters have towards civilians under the body of international law that regulates warfare: International Humanitarian Law (IHL)....
Ideally, Israel should have formed a coalition of countries it calls allies and carried out plans by such an alliance to round up Hamas members and other such terrorists in Gaza. The operation would look similar to the urban warfare the USA carried out in Iraq. This was Israel's call and it formed it's own war cabinet.
The people of Israel are up in arms about the conflict, hostages, and now the evacuation of northern Israel while it battles with Hezbollah at the border with Lebanon. The civilians of northern Israel want to go home. They want the fighting to stop.
Nasrallah is correct. There was an internal attack against Hezbollah. Hezbollah is recognized as a terrorist organization. Nasrallah has stated the killings were an act of war. In comparison, the USA had terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The USA acted to take down those networks and improve national security of a sovereign country. While Nasrallah is correct in stating the attacks within Lebanon is an act of war, it is not an act of war against Lebanon, it is against Hezbollah. Do the attacks of September 11th compare in the absolute right for retaliation by Hezbollah? Hezbollah is not a sovereign power and it would be wrong for Lebanon to take actions against Israel as the targets were obviously terrorists. The attacks also created carnage of civilians in the area of the dead terrorist. While Nasrallah is correct in that it is an act of war, it is not an act of war against a sovereign country.
The Middle East is a very complex place. It always has been. The Free World has for decades tried to understand the intricacies of the HATE that exists between peoples in the region. There has been no easy answer and the peace processes only accomplish some degree of civil societies, but, they have in the past failed royally to give way to the dominance of terrorist networks. These networks grew into political parties, but, they never stopped their hatred or violence.
This entire situation with Israel is complex beyond any imagination to bring about peace. The people of Israel do not appear to be living in a democracy anymore, so much as a wartime sovereignty. Basically, a police state.
The USA State Department has a difficult task. They have to understand an ally that is Israel while attempting to end the hate, bring about peace accords, and minimize the deaths of innocent people. It is an impossible task and it is not getting easier.
All I know is that Israel's Mossad are pure geniuses that currently own the world of cyber. I am getting rid of wireless in my life at every turn.
