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Wary of naked force, Israelis eye cyberwar on Iran
Reuters ^ | 7/7/09 | Dan Williams

Posted on 07/07/2009 4:45:09 PM PDT by dervish

In the late 1990s, a computer specialist from Israel's Shin Bet internal security service hacked into the mainframe of the Pi Glilot fuel depot north of Tel Aviv.

It was meant to be a routine test of safeguards at the strategic site. But it also tipped off the Israelis to the potential such hi-tech infiltrations offered for real sabotage.

"Once inside the Pi Glilot system, we suddenly realised that, aside from accessing secret data, we could also set off deliberate explosions, just by programming a re-route of the pipelines," said a veteran of the Shin Bet drill.

So began a cyberwarfare project...

'snip'

The appeal of cyber attacks was boosted, Israeli sources say, by the limited feasibility of conventional air strikes on the distant and fortified Iranian atomic facilities, and by U.S. reluctance to countenance another open war in the Middle East. "We came to the conclusion that, for our purposes, a key Iranian vulnerability is in its on-line information," said one recently retired Israeli security cabinet member, using a generic term for digital networks. "We have acted accordingly."

Cyberwarfare teams nestle deep within Israel's spy agencies, which have rich experience in traditional sabotage techniques and are cloaked in official secrecy and censorship.

They can draw on the know-how of Israeli commercial firms that are among the world's hi-tech leaders and whose staff are often veterans of elite military intelligence computer units.

'snip'

Israel may be open to a more overt strain of cyberwarfare. Tony Skinner of Jane's Defence Weekly cited Israeli sources as saying that Israel's 2007 bombing of an alleged atomic reactor in Syria was preceded by a cyber attack which neutralised ground radars and anti-aircraft batteries.

(Excerpt) Read more at alertnet.org ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cyberwar; iran; israel; nukes
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1 posted on 07/07/2009 4:45:09 PM PDT by dervish
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To: dervish

I don’t doubt the Israelis could do this, but I doubt they would tell the world, and Iran specifically, that they could do this.


2 posted on 07/07/2009 4:51:12 PM PDT by FLCowboy, (If the Iraq war was so wrong, why is the Afghanistan war so right??)
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To: dervish
Naked force would be inappropriate. I would suggest force dressed in desert uniforms and possibly body armor. And pressure suits for the pilots, always in fashion.

Of course the guys sitting in front of a computer screen flying the killer drones could be in the buff, or pajamas whatever they think is cool.
3 posted on 07/07/2009 4:57:46 PM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world, and they are all out to get me.)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

4 posted on 07/07/2009 5:06:29 PM PDT by SJackson (the number-one job facing the middle class...a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S. Jobs)
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To: GonzoGOP

Lol, I don’t write the headlines...


5 posted on 07/07/2009 5:12:59 PM PDT by dervish (I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself)
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To: dervish
I think these people might just take care of the problem themselves....eventually!

According to Ramin Mostaghim, reporting from Tehran for the Los Angeles Times, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s address to the Iranian people on state television on Tuesday failed to quell protests against the disputed election Mr. Ahmadinejad says he won:

During and after his speech, Iranians in various neighborhoods climbed to their rooftops and stepped out into their rooftops to chant “God is great,” and “Death to the dictator” in what has become a nightly protest against Ahmadinejad and in support of former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, his chief rival.

6 posted on 07/07/2009 5:24:03 PM PDT by evad (Spending money that we don't have on something that won't work for a problem that doesn't exist)
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To: dervish

About the only way the Israelis could successfully stop the Iranian nuclear program, short of a major attack, would be to convince the Iranians to fear and abhor nuclear *anything*.

This means to engineer or replicate a major nuclear disaster in Iran that results in the death of thousands of people, and in pretty graphic and horrible ways. And this is also so that once the international community sees this horror, they will put their foot down, and no longer pretend that what Iran is doing is unimportant.

An operation of this sort would have to be “black beyond black”, with no way it could be associated with Israel. By all appearances, it would have to be provably an Iranian disaster. Likely even with substantial foreign casualties as well, so that it could not be subdued or hidden.

The other side of the operation would be to broadcast the disaster to every corner of the world, getting out details even before the Iranians know themselves, and mustering international outrage.

The choice is between the death of thousands, and the death of tens or hundreds of thousands, of both Iranians and Israelis.


7 posted on 07/07/2009 5:29:39 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: GonzoGOP
[Naked force would be inappropriate.]

I am glad our Christian American forefathers found that naked force was appropriate when English dictators try to destroy American Christian peoples who loved freedom and the right to pursue happiness and the freedom to worship as they chose. Unlike the communist democrats and rinos.

8 posted on 07/07/2009 5:37:00 PM PDT by kindred (Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem... Ps.135:20)
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To: GonzoGOP

Smart *ss! You beat me to it. Although I am not so sure that if you picked up some of those people in the Gay Pride parades, and various drag races, and sent them against Hamas and Hezbollah, I am not so sure the terrorists wouldn’t break and run.

parsy, who would run through the briars and the brambles and the places that a rabbit couldn’t go.


9 posted on 07/07/2009 5:38:28 PM PDT by parsifal ("Knock and ye shall receive!" (The Bible, somewhere.))
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To: dervish

“....Israel’s spy agencies, which have rich experience in traditional sabotage techniques and are cloaked in official secrecy and censorship.”

I wish Israel’s spy agencies would sabotage B. Hussein. Start by getting and releasing his birth certificate. Come on Israel help your old American friends out here.


10 posted on 07/07/2009 5:38:34 PM PDT by Smokeyblue
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To: dervish

Ha, worked for the Celts to great effect, actually.


11 posted on 07/07/2009 5:41:36 PM PDT by Dysart (It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong--Voltaire)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Perhaps they could just destroy the nuclear facilities in a quick, hard attack without nuclear bombs like they and we in America have done before the hand wringing fools of the left decided we should lay down and die with our friend Israel.
The God of Israel will destroy all the enemies of Israel and of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord during the coming ordained 7 year tribulation to bring in the 1000 year rule of Jesus Christ as King of all the earth as the Scriptures teach.
Or you could believe the lies of mankind.
12 posted on 07/07/2009 5:43:08 PM PDT by kindred (Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem... Ps.135:20)
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To: kindred

You did catch that my entire post was a smart @$$ joke right?


13 posted on 07/07/2009 5:43:30 PM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world, and they are all out to get me.)
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To: Dysart
Ha, worked for the Celts to great effect, actually.

Sure, but in the desert. The sand and the sunburn, so much chafing! Of course I have seen some of those Israeli female soldiers. It might just blow the mind of the jhadis who haven't seen a woman wearing less than a burka.
14 posted on 07/07/2009 5:50:43 PM PDT by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world, and they are all out to get me.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

I’ve read reports that one of the reactor’s destruction would likely cause release of nuclear material.


15 posted on 07/07/2009 5:53:00 PM PDT by dervish (I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself)
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To: evad

The “eventually” is the problem. Not much time left.


16 posted on 07/07/2009 5:54:28 PM PDT by dervish (I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself)
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To: dervish

Proxy up and knock out Iran’s refinery. Virus and mass ddos the government’s servers. Go on twitter and tiny url a video of the protest with a trojan keylogger assigned to certain urls and when they get d/led by the mullah’s twitterer’s, hack their backdoor and shut systems down.

It ain’t hard.


17 posted on 07/07/2009 5:55:35 PM PDT by struggle ((The struggle continues))
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To: kindred

“Perhaps they could just destroy the nuclear facilities in a quick, hard attack without nuclear bombs...”

This is not an easy thing to do. Iran is quite large, and it is a considerable distance from Israel. And while small, fighter bombers could attack most nuclear targets with aerial refueling, large, cargo type aircraft would be needed for targets that were deep underground. These would have to contend with S-300 and other SAMs that are quite effective.

Israel’s problem is that it cannot project enough conventional forces to be more than a setback to Iran’s nuclear program, and Iran would likely have no problem retaliating with a large number of effective conventional missiles.

While W. Bush went to great lengths to surround Iran with as many PAC-3 and Patriot SAMs as he could, even offering integration with Israel’s ARROW missile system in a comprehensive THAAD (Theater Air Defense) system, only the US has enough substantial resources to utterly crush Iran, enough to forestall nuclear weapons development.

And while appreciating the motivations of heaven is good, even in ancient times the Hebrews appreciated that heaven definitely smiles on good prior planning, overwhelming odds, and effective weaponry.


18 posted on 07/07/2009 6:14:39 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: dervish; AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...

[singing] through the door there came familiar laughter...

Oh, that big 1982 Siberian explosion?
Fort Worth Star-Telegram / The New York Times | 2/3/04 | William Safire
Posted on 02/03/2004 9:13:42 PM PST by Valin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1071087/posts


19 posted on 07/07/2009 7:35:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: dervish
I’ve read reports that one of the reactor’s destruction would likely cause release of nuclear material.

I surmise it would not be nearly as dangerous as the normal operational release from a completed nuclear warhead.

20 posted on 07/07/2009 8:23:54 PM PDT by AndyTheBear
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