Reports: Retired general target of leaks probe

The former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is under investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about a covert cyberattack on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to media reports.

Retired Marine Gen. James "Hoss" Cartwright has been told he is a target of the probe, NBC News and The Washington Post reported Thursday. A "target" is someone a prosecutor or grand jury has substantial evidence linking to a crime and who is likely to be charged.

From last year before election concerning the Stuxnet release.....President Obama said on Friday that allegations the White House has been leaking classified information is “offensive.” “The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. It’s wrong, and people I think need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people around me approach this office,” Obama told reporters.

Now it appears that Gen. Cartwright, a close confidant of Bill Clinton and Obama's favorite general in the WHITE HOUSE may have been responsible for the leak....

Gen. Cartwright, a close confidant of Bill Clinton

Before the election, Hussein tells (orders) the General to quietly reveal the existence of STUXNET with the implication that we, and the Israelis, worked together closely to use it to sabotage/stop the Iranian nuke program. This makes Hussein look smart, tough and like he is a friend of Israel. All things important for re-election (although rigging the election through fraud made it a sure thing).

Now that the election is over, the General is just another useful idiot, who has outlived his usefulness, so make room under the bus!

- (November 10th, 2010) - In This Photo: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Henry Kissinger, James E. Cartwright, Richard Lugar, Madeleine Albright, Brent Scowcroft - (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd R) makes a statement during a meeting on the New START treaty in the Roosevelt Room of the White House November 18, 2010 in Washington, DC. With Obama are (L-R) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Obama, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Vice Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James E. Cartwright, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN). The New START treaty is a nuclear disarmament treaty between the United States and Russia.

In his book on the NSC, Rothkopf noted that, “[e]very single national security advisor since Kissinger is, in fact, within two degrees of Kissinger,” referring to the fact that they have all “worked with him as aides, on his staff, or directly with him in some capacity,” or worked for someone in those categories (hence, within “two degrees”).[2]

For example, General Brent Scowcroft, who was National Security Advisor (NSA) under Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush, was Kissinger’s Deputy National Security Advisor in the Nixon administration; Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s NSA, served on the faculty of Harvard with Kissinger, also served with Kissinger on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board during the Reagan administration, both of them are also members (and were at times, board members) of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as members of the Trilateral Commission, and they are both currently trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Other NSA’s with connections to Kissinger include: Richard Allen, NSA under Reagan, who worked for Kissinger in the Nixon administration; William P. Clark, NSA under Reagan, who worked for Kissinger’s former aide, Alexander Haig at the State Department; Robert McFarlane, also NSA under Reagan, worked with Kissinger in the Nixon administration; John Poindexter, also NSA for Reagan, was McFarlane’s deputy; Frank Carlucci, also NSA in the Reagan administration, worked for Kissinger in the Nixon administration; Colin Powell, NSA for Reagan (and Secretary of State for George W. Bush), worked for Carlucci as his deputy; Anthony Lake, Clinton’s NSA, worked directly for Kissinger; Samuel Berger, also NSA for Clinton, was Lake’s deputy; Condoleezza Rice, NSA for George W. Bush, worked on Scowcroft’s NSC staff; and Stephen Hadley also worked for Kissinger directly.[3]
http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/engineeringempire.html#.Ua5Rt0DVDzz

From the article

An element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran's Natanz plant and sent it out on the Internet, the Times reported.

Here's my guess as to what happened that let the virus propagate.

I think the virus was held in thumb drives that were somehow passed to scientists and technicians working at the Iranian plants. (probably as free gifts at a conference or sent by mail as promotional items)

These thumb drives would have hidden flash ram sections and a processor to run code to make the thumb appear normal but actually have two flash sections, one of which contained code payloads and data. The main flash/processor chip (SOC) in the thumb was likely created at the NSA chip fab and made to resemble the flash chip from a common low-cost thumb of Chinese origin. These SOC chips would be placed on the thumb drive boards after the originals had been removed.(a few hours labor at a rework station) These thumb drives would in effect be small computers that were masquerading as normal thumb drives.

The virus and executable code would have been placed in the hidden section of flash memory in the thumb drive.

At some point in time a small program would have been pushed out to the visible flash on the drive and its job would be to determine if the PC it was attached to was at an Iranian site. If it was at such a location then the Stuxnet code would be pushed out and used to disable the Siemens industrial controllers at the site.

My guess is that someone took their thumb drive home or to a less secure location and the thumb drive software malfunctioned or was somehow fooled into thinking its host was at a nuclear site and unloaded the worm. The worm then was spread from this location and eventually to the internet. It may be that a technician had his laptop connected to the network at the nuclear site and then later took the laptop home and used it and the worm did not notice that it was no longer on the nuclear site's network (sloppy programming IMO, constant checking would be called for)

I have no insider knowledge of this operation, the above is just what I would have done if asked to carry it out. Amateur versions of the modified thumb drives have been made by hobbyists using micro-controllers and uSD flash cards...it's not hard to do.

maybe it is time to stop all the “Military never is wrong” arguments or comments. How many times do we find leftist officers helping ruin our various branches of Military? Can someone tell me why the Air Force academy and other branches are now TOUGH on CHRISTIANS? How about stories of deals done by generals that later become employees of a contractor? geez... when is it going to stop? Maybe when generations of Americans actually learn history and realize this is a pretty good country. /rant off

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