On Retirement, Israeli General Takes Credit for Stuxnet Attacks

dinscott writes "Last month, The New York Times ran a story about Stuxnet having been developed by the Americans and the Israelis as a part of a joint project, but it was based on claims by confidential sources. It now seems that the information from these sources was correct. The Haaretz — Israel's oldest daily newspaper — reports on a surprising video that was played at a party organized for General Gabi Ashkenazi's last day on the job."

Cyber terrorisim

[grapeape]

So did he get added to the "no fly" and terrorist watch lists?

Everything you need to know

[slashqwerty]

From the article:

There is always the possibility that this was just a way of magnifying the General's achievements, but it is also possible it is true.

In other words, it confirms nothing.

Re:Everything you need to know

[JoshuaZ]

Yes, when I read the headline my first thought was "The Israelis can't possibly be so stupid as to do that. That's almost tantamount to admitting to an act of war. And doing it now will just make the faltering Iranian government look more like a valid object of sympathy." And then I read TFA. Yeah.

Re:Beautiful

[mr100percent]

How is Israel "keeping the Middle East nuclear-free" when it is widely regarded to have at least 100 nuclear weapons of its own? The Dimona Nuclear Complex [everything2.com] is not exactly a secret.

Re:Beautiful

[sageres]

The problem is that there are no partners for peace at the moment. If you were to actually ask a real Gazan or Palestinian it is possible to make peace with Israel -- they will tell you that the best Qu'ran will allow them to do is "hudna" -- i.e. long term cease-fire. As for the nuclear technology becoming a common occurrence in the Middle East -- trust me Israel is keeping tabs on them. If you were to look at the history, in 1948 and 1967, the US did not always have Israel's back. Even in 1973 US has stopped Israel from marching onto Damascus and Cairo, just because Brezhnev threatened to send the Red Army into Sinai. And finally -- we just do not want a madman with the Supreme Council of Madmen who is openly hosting the Holocaust denial conferences while promising Jews another one by wiping Israel off the map to have a nuclear weapon.

Re:Cyber terrorisim

[Draek]

Of course not, he's a Freedom Fighter (tm).

Remember, it's not terrorism if the US or its allies does it.

Re:serious for a moment

[tick-tock-atona]

Desperate times call for desperate measures. And Iran is indeed in a tough neighborhood where every single day, hour, second... Every single moment is a desperate time. Ever since her inception the US and Israel tried to annihilate her. That is why there is a policy of development when it comes to the nuclear weapons. And assassinations of the nuclear scientists by Iran's enemies shows that they are doing something right. And bombings of their reactors and finally yes -- the virus.

FTFY. Remember, the major reason for Iran's military buildup is exterior threats (and the fact that it's working only reinforces that [ynet.co.il]).

And for any of you who would point a finger at the "neighborhood bully" -- remember, that you do not live in that neighborhood.

Yeah, but if I did live in, say, the Gaza strip, and the neighbour used Collective Punishment [wikipedia.org] (a war crime) on my society for democratically choosing, in an election [wikipedia.org] described as "free, transparent and without violence", someone they didn't like, then I'd probably work damn hard to fight for my freedom and escape from beneath their boot heel too.

Re:Cyber terrorisim

[Anonymous Coward]

If you like, we can allow Iran to test out their new toy on your house.

. So I assume you wouldn't mind Israel treating your house like it were on the Gaza strip, your family like Palestinians, and in the end using their toys on your neighbourhood, just because Iran might be developing a similar toy to those Israel already has for years?

Re:serious for a moment

[BZ]

> There aren't many fundamentalists compared to
> moderates

Is this gut feeling, or do you have data? If the latter, can you cite?

Also, do note that "moderate" might mean different things in different places if you're simply defining it in terms of the population median. If that's the case, you may be interested in http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/02/egypt-vs-indonesia-in-attitudes/ [discovermagazine.com] and can of course not provide data to support the initial claim, since it becomes true by definition.

> Stop the cycle of violence. BE the bigger man you
> claim you are.

This is a lot easier to do if you have strategic depth, for what it's worth. Or even tactical depth. Both commodities are unfortunately in short supply in the Middle East....

Re:serious for a moment

[Compaqt]

This is a tangent, but it's funny to me how what are called the "moderate Arab states" have been the most repressive, either socio-religiously (Saudi Arabia), or politically (Jordan and the Persian Gulf states).

Sadly, a lot of different factors combined to destroy the only multi-cultural democracy in the Middle East: Lebanon.

Re:the video claims Israeli involvement

[Rakshasa Taisab]

The Haaretz — Israel's oldest daily newspaper — reports

However the Bible, the world's first and oldest printed book, fails to mention any aspect of this story, including the General's involvement.

I didn't know they had translated the bible to Chinese thousand years ago...

Re:the video claims Israeli involvement

[fractoid]

No, they only do that when there's TV cameras around. Notice that sometimes when you're seeing "jubilant arabs" on TV, most of them are just standing around wondering what's going on until they see the camera swing towards them, at which point they look around to see what the last people in front of the camera were doing, which is usually jumping up and down waving their arms in the air, and copy that.

Re:Beautiful

[mbkennel]

"Nobody is saying "he meant it in a good way," but there's quite a difference in what he actually said and people interpreting it as a sign of genocidal intent."

It is reasonable to suppose that the interpretation of genocidal intent might be reasonable given the throngs of thousands chanting "Death To Israel" many weeks per year for for 32 years, and the support for Hezbollah which has an explicitly exterminationist policy.

If the interpretation was "we want Israel to change its policies to have a much more satisfactory resolution so that Jews and Arabs will live peaceably", that clarification could have been offered.

But as far as I am aware, the ratio of that vs "Death To Israel" is something like zero to 30,000.

Re:Everything you need to know

[SplashMyBandit]

"Act of war"? I suggest you read the maifesto of Hezb Allah or th Iranian Revolutionary Government. They have repeatedly stated their aim is to destroy the "Zionist entity" by any means possible - that is, effectively declared war. Go ahead, read their pronouncements (especially the ones originally not in English), I'll wait. You might stop being so naiively prissy about who declares or doesn't declare what on whom. The Middle East is the "Wild West" at the moment, yet many in the West seem to be pretty ignorant about the *real* positions of each party (nb. I've been to a lot of the countries in the region, non are saints, but some are far worse than others).

Re:the video claims Israeli involvement

[FourthAge]

This is absolutely true. Actually, the Arabs don't care about Israel very much at all, and have certainly never celebrated attacks on Israel or the US, its sole Western supporter. The guys with sign boards saying things like "Death to Israel!" and "Drive them into the Sea" are in fact Jewish actors hired by Mossad to justify Israeli aggression against the Middle East. What you think is "the streets of Iran" is in fact a blue-screen television studio in the basement of a government building in Tel Aviv. Why, even the so-called "Hamas" is actually a false flag operation operated by Mossad, which fires rockets into Israel on a regular basis to stir up hate. The Israelis want us to believe that they're fighting for their own survival against aggressive enemies on all sides, but we all know the truth: that they started it and then made it look like their enemy did it.

Except (of course) all of the above is total bollocks. But it's amazing how mainstream those Zionist Conspiracies have become lately, isn't it? How people are willing to believe anything, no matter how retarded, if it justifies their hatred of Israel.

Re:the video claims Israeli involvement

[Moraelin]

What part about the movable-type printing press -- albeit with more expensive ceramic letters -- being invented by the 1040 AD by Bi Sheng in China, did you fail to understand? Basically before being snarky and condescending, do make sure that you're not the one who's the ignorant idiot.