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Report: Israeli cyberattack caused Iran nuclear site fire, F35s hit missile base
Times of Israel ^ | 3 July 2020, 2:08 pm | Judah Ari Gross

Posted on 07/04/2020 2:10:53 AM PDT by Zhang Fei

Israel was responsible for two blasts at Iranian facilities — one related to uranium enrichment, the other for missile production — over the past week, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported Friday.

The Al-Jareeda daily cited an unnamed senior source as saying that an Israeli cyberattack caused a fire and explosion at the largely underground Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in the predawn hours of Thursday morning.

According to the source, this was expected to set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program by approximately two months.

The newspaper also reported that last Friday Israeli F-35 stealth fighter jets bombed a site located in the area of Parchin, which is believed to house a missile production complex — an area of particular concern for the Jewish state, in light of the large number and increasing sophistication of missiles and rockets in the arsenals of Iranian proxies, notably Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Neither of these claims were confirmed by Israeli officials, who have been mum on the reports.

The reported Israeli strikes followed an alleged Iranian attempt to hack into Israel’s water infrastructure in April, an effort that was thwarted by Israeli cyber defenses, but if successful could have introduced dangerous levels of chlorine into the Israeli water supply and otherwise seriously interrupted the flow of water throughout the country.

Ultimately, the alleged Iranian cyberattack caused minimal issues, according to Israeli officials.

The alleged Israeli attacks also came amid an ongoing campaign of so-called maximum pressure by the United States in the form of crushing sanctions on Iran and Iranian officials.

Early Thursday morning, a fire and then an explosion were reported at an above-ground building in the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, which US-based analysts said was likely a new centrifuge production plant. Natanz, located some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Tehran, includes underground facilities buried under

(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 202004; 202006; 202007; aljareeda; cyberattack; cybersecurity; f35; hacking; iran; iranstrike; iraq; irgc; israel; jerusalem; kaboom; kag; kuwait; letshavejerusalem; maga; natanz; parchin; qasemsoleimani; qudsforce; tehran; trump; waronterror; water; watersupply; watersupplyplots
The Gulf kingdoms have been nervous ever since Iran began funneling serious amounts of hardware and financial assistance to Yemen, which lies to the south of the region. They are nervous for the same reason they fought off Egypt's attempt to get a foothold in Yemen back in the 60's - bases there would have given Egypt the ability to attack from both north and south simultaneously. Iran's presence in Iraq offers the Persians multiple land invasion routes into Saudi Arabia from the north. Iranian bases in Yemen would add more invasion routes from the south. That is why all the Gulf kingdoms are pitching in - if Saudi Arabia falls to Iran, all the Gulf kingdoms follow.
1 posted on 07/04/2020 2:10:53 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
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To: Zhang Fei
According to the source, this was expected to set back Iran’s nuclear enrichment program by approximately two months.

If all they did, was set them back 2 months, then they need to hit them again. Setting them back 20 years, would work better. 😁🤪

2 posted on 07/04/2020 2:19:45 AM PDT by Mark17 (Father of a US Air Force commissioned officer, and trained Air Force combat pilot. Go get em)
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To: Zhang Fei

And it’s the existential threat from an Iranian attack from both north and south that are fueling the Gulf kingdoms’ coziness with Israel that never used to exist. Their thinking is perhaps that in the worst case, and Uncle Sam abandons them, the Israelis might be conducting air strikes on their behalf, if only to deny the Iranians the oil resources of the Gulf kingdoms. If such a thing comes to pass, and Israel does end up warding off an Iranian invasion, I’d expect these countries to do an about face and not just have off-the-books contacts, but institute full diplomatic relations.

The problem, of course, is that Israel would pay a fearful price in human losses. Israel lost 0.3% of its population in 1967 during the Six Day War, widely acknowledged to be Israel’s most overwhelmingly successful war to date since modern state’s establishment in 1948 (Tanakh casualty numbers are indeterminate). The equivalent for the US would be the US’s WWII losses, about 400,000 dead. That’s a huge toll.

In % terms, that was the number at which Truman saw fit to detonate two nuclear bombs over Japanese cities, to prevent any further American losses. Israel suffered 3x that % during its near-collapse of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. It is rumored that the Samson option, using Israel’s nuclear arsenal, was mooted by Golda Meir’s cabinet, and the appropriate warnings were issued to the relevant Arab capitals.


3 posted on 07/04/2020 2:28:41 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: Zhang Fei

Media accuses Trump of being Anti-Semitic. Yet, he’s been Israel’s best friend compared to recent presidents. And Trump has not been an Iran enabler like the previous administration.

While back at home we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether this nation conceived in liberty can endure.


4 posted on 07/04/2020 2:41:46 AM PDT by nonsporting (MAGA -- Make America Godly Again)
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To: nonsporting

I don’t know what’s in your heart but I’m getting royally pissed off. These mother fu**ers need to feel more then push back. There are solutions but the longer we wait the harder they will be to achieve. Israel can take care of itself. We are in danger of this ridiculous behavior becoming the new normal. This country isn’t going down to this current group of juvenile delinquents. It’s up to all of us but Att. General could start by arresting people who actually break the law.


5 posted on 07/04/2020 2:56:08 AM PDT by magua (It's not racism, it's just that thisBecause itÂ’s being reported that a lot of this started in 2015.)
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To: magua
We are in danger of this ridiculous behavior becoming the new normal. This country isn’t going down to this current group of juvenile delinquents.

I watched a YouTube this week showing a crowd of 'Woke' protesters which had invaded some small town in Alberta, Canada to protest 'Racism'. My immediate reactions was, "The whole world is going truly insane!"

The protesters shown were for the most part 'normal' appearing & sounding white adults, plus their obligatory suburban small children holding a protest sign they could not read, let alone understand.

"Virtue Signaling NOW! - Followed by a Wine & Cheese Tasting at the closest trendy Boutique Cafe!"

The Eloi from The Time Machine:
The Eloi are one of two post-human races existing in Mor, the year 802,701 AD. They are descended from upper-class individuals, live above-ground, and are the main food source for the Morlocks.

https://timemachine.fandom.com/wiki/Eloi

6 posted on 07/04/2020 3:47:03 AM PDT by BwanaNdege ( Experience is the best teacher, but if you can accept it 2nd hand, the tuition is less!)
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To: Zhang Fei

While I personally doubt this report ( given how the Satanic Iranian dictators always claim Israel is causing all their failures), if Jerusalem did it ( abd they surely could’ve), WONDERFUL! We are all praying that the good Iranian people can install an honest, decent, peaceable government ASAP. One that’s sane and not rabid nor aggressive. Their country and its future would become so much better


7 posted on 07/04/2020 3:53:55 AM PDT by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, theyÂ’re excreted. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: magua

yep , we have law or not, as far as I am concerned marshall law is needed, surround san diego with troops, remove all illegals, rinse lather and repeat nationally, the protest will stop our ability to travel easily to work, they could kill all commerce easily, unless there is law, and ya know, a tent labor camp building the wall should be the prison place..


8 posted on 07/04/2020 4:12:00 AM PDT by aces (and)
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To: Zhang Fei

Much of Europe and Japan are dependent on Mid-East oil. If Iran could control that oil it would blackmail every country.
Thank GOD The Donald has made America energy independent.


9 posted on 07/04/2020 4:49:18 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ( Molon Labe' Baby, Molon Labe)
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To: aces
I am concerned marshall law is needed

Do you have a picture of this marshall Law guy?

10 posted on 07/04/2020 5:04:54 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves Month".)
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To: Zhang Fei

“I’d expect these countries to do an about face and not just have off-the-books contacts, but institute full diplomatic relations.”

It will take countries like Saudi Arabia two full generations of no propaganda to introduce full diplomatic relations with Israel. The Muslims have used Israel as their scarecrow since Israel’s inception. They have placed in the minds of their populace that Israel is behind everything evil that happens. If you get warts, it’s because Israel has put something in the water...that sort of thing. You can’t undo that level of social conditioning in a flash. The people thus conditioned will have to die off first.

In the meantime the Muslim governments will have to find a new exterior focus to blame all of their mismanagement and corruption on. As, I don’t see any of the causes that require an exterior focus going away.

The closest I have seen to normalization where a number of articles that floated the idea that Israel would be a part of the free economic zone that the new SA leader proposed on the Red Sea. I have not seen anything more in several years. That means that the free economic zone either couldn’t get funded or the idea of a Sharia free zone didn’t fly at home in SA. But the many mentions in articles about Israel’s inclusion seemed to be testing the waters. I am guessing it didn’t go well and caused much pushback in the Arab world.


11 posted on 07/04/2020 5:07:09 AM PDT by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud?)
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To: Joe Boucher

I suspect Israel is quickly approaching the point of removing all restraint shown previously. Do the Iranians and terrorists realize that when that day comes, it will be unlike anything they’ve witnessed before?


12 posted on 07/04/2020 5:08:11 AM PDT by sgt_lau (Being tolerant to the most intolerant people on the planet is a losing proposition. Reject islam.)
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To: Gen.Blather

[It will take countries like Saudi Arabia two full generations of no propaganda to introduce full diplomatic relations with Israel. The Muslims have used Israel as their scarecrow since Israel’s inception. They have placed in the minds of their populace that Israel is behind everything evil that happens. If you get warts, it’s because Israel has put something in the water...that sort of thing. You can’t undo that level of social conditioning in a flash. The people thus conditioned will have to die off first.

In the meantime the Muslim governments will have to find a new exterior focus to blame all of their mismanagement and corruption on. As, I don’t see any of the causes that require an exterior focus going away.]


My impression is the reverse - the man on the ground believes that Israel is the enemy because it exists on not just Muslim, but Arab territory that had been both Muslim and Arab for 1300 years. Some of this resentment is religious and some of it is ethnic. If Israel is the country that keeps the Sunni Arab Gulf kingdoms free of Shiite Persian domination, that’s a debt that cancels out some of that ethno-religious resentment.

Much of the government propaganda against Israel reflects popular sentiment, and is an attempt to co-opt rather than drive it. At the street and elite levels, Muslims and Arabs are not docile like the citizens of the West. That’s why elite mutinies and popular revolts are a constant worry in Arab capitals. For at least the past century, no Western government has had to worry about coups or armed revolution. That’s not true most places in the Middle East.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_revolution_of_1952
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_II_of_Iraq#Downfall_and_murder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_Syrian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Libyan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_Algerian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Tunisian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Moroccan_coup_attempt

It’s not a matter of incompetence or corruption. The average Arab has thousands of years of history as a basis for comparison. They recognize and respect the prerogatives of their rulers. They understand that their rulers are kings by another name, complete with grand viziers, etc. The idea that they want democracy is an alien concept superimposed by bleeding hearts upon them (and somehow bought wholesale by both the Bush administration and the American public, as well as, for a time, by the entire world, until the experience of the Iraqi insurgency taught some otherwise).

What they want isn’t democracy - it’s their values and beliefs reflected by their rulers. That’s what those rulers are doing when propagating anti-Israel narratives - convincing their Muslim and Arab citizenry that they are not in league with the evil Jews who have occupied sacred Muslim and Arab land. For these rulers, it’s a matter of self-preservation. With the exception of countries that stood to gain territory at Israeli expense, most Arab rulers have extended little more than lip service towards the cause of making Israel Arab territory once again. But that lip service, incorporating anti-Israel propaganda, is necessary for political and maybe physical survival, much as - while China remains an absolutist tyranny, and perhaps beyond - no Chinese leader can renounce China’s claim to Taiwan and stay in power.


13 posted on 07/04/2020 5:55:10 AM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: Mark17

I don’t think the Israelis would waste that much effort and take those kinds of risks for such a small strategic return (2 months). That’s the trouble with reports like this... even if there is a grain of Truth in them they still make no sense. Even you believe one part (The Strike) the result doesn’t add up. If you believe the second part (Damage Assessment) then the entire Strike is called into question.


14 posted on 07/04/2020 6:02:34 AM PDT by Tallguy (Facts be d@mned! The narrative must be protected at all costs!)
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To: Zhang Fei

Interesting take. Thanks for sharing!


15 posted on 07/04/2020 6:30:02 AM PDT by Tallguy (Facts be d@mned! The narrative must be protected at all costs!)
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To: sgt_lau

Them Israelis know how to whoop ass when necessary.
Been awhile and if they go ahead and annex parts of the west bank it surely will set off the moosies.


16 posted on 07/04/2020 8:02:51 AM PDT by Joe Boucher ( Molon Labe' Baby, Molon Labe)
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To: Zhang Fei

https://www.timesofisrael.com/explosion-reportedly-damages-power-plant-in-iran-the-latest-in-series-of-blasts/


17 posted on 07/04/2020 8:06:26 AM PDT by gandalftb
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To: Zhang Fei

AFAIK, the F-35 does not have the range to fly from Israel to Iran and back. So, either it’s a bogus story, or they took off and returned from a 3rd party country, or the Saudis painted their jets with Israeli markings.


18 posted on 07/06/2020 5:01:35 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: monkeyshine

Or they had a refueling plane accompanying them; but every country would see that on radar from 500 miles away. And even with in-flight refueling it’s a grueling trip of about 1200 miles each way.


19 posted on 07/06/2020 5:04:16 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: monkeyshine

[AFAIK, the F-35 does not have the range to fly from Israel to Iran and back. So, either it’s a bogus story, or they took off and returned from a 3rd party country, or the Saudis painted their jets with Israeli markings.]


https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/03/28/israels-secret-staging-ground/
[In 2009, the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Baku, Donald Lu, sent a cable to the State Department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom titled “Azerbaijan’s discreet symbiosis with Israel.” The memo, later released by WikiLeaks, quotes Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev as describing his country’s relationship with the Jewish state as an iceberg: “nine-tenths of it is below the surface.”

Why does it matter? Because Azerbaijan is strategically located on Iran’s northern border and, according to several high-level sources I’ve spoken with inside the U.S. government, Obama administration officials now believe that the “submerged” aspect of the Israeli-Azerbaijani alliance — the security cooperation between the two countries — is heightening the risks of an Israeli strike on Iran.

In particular, four senior diplomats and military intelligence officers say that the United States has concluded that Israel has recently been granted access to airbases on Iran’s northern border. To do what, exactly, is not clear. “The Israelis have bought an airfield,” a senior administration official told me in early February, “and the airfield is called Azerbaijan.”]


What’s in it for the Azeris? Azerbaijan, along with some of its neighbors, used to be part of the Persian empire until it was detached by the Russian empire back in the 19th century. I don’t think Iranians view Azerbaijan’s continued sovereignty as a forever situation. Azerbaijan has sought powerful friends abroad ever since its independence. Armenia, its other nemesis, has aligned with Russia. So Azeris have aligned with the West.


20 posted on 07/06/2020 5:23:34 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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