Iran to test-fire domestically manufactured S-300 missiles

TEHRAN – Iran will soon test-fire its new domestically manufactured long-range anti-aircraft missiles, including a system similar to the Russian S-300 missile system, Brigadier General Mohammad Hassan Mansourian said on Wednesday.


“In order to meet some of the country’s security needs, (Iran) planned to purchase the S-300 from Russia, but due to pressure by the United States and the Zionist regime, that country used (UN) Resolution 1929 as an excuse not to deliver the defensive weapon to our country,” Mansourian told the IRNA news agency.

Russia signed a deal to deliver five batteries of S-300PMU-1 air defense systems to Iran in 2007 but cancelled the sale in September 2010, claiming the systems, along with a number of other weapons, were covered by the fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.

The S-300 system, which can track targets and fire at aircraft 120 kilometers (75 miles) away, features high jamming immunity and is able to simultaneously engage up to 100 targets.

Mansourian said the Iranian version of the S-300 missile system is currently being evaluated, and the other long-range missiles are in the process of being designed and manufactured.

Iran is also manufacturing anti-aircraft systems that can counter high-altitude threats, although the threat from such altitudes is not that great, he added.

Obama extends freeze on Iranian assets

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama extended for another year a freeze on Iranian assets in the United States first imposed 31 years ago by president Jimmy Carter.

In a notice published by the White House Wednesday, Obama noted that ties between the two countries had yet to be normalized, giving grounds for a continuation of a "national emergency" with respect to Iran.

Carter had ordered a freeze on Iranian government assets under US jurisdiction on November 14, 1979, 10 days after militants and students sympathetic with the Islamic revolution overan the US embassy in Tehran.

Iranian militants held 52 US diplomats hostage for 444 days, and Washington and Tehran broke ties in April 1980.

Obama extended the asset freeze just as the United States and other world powers are seeking to break the deadlock over Iran's nuclear program, suspected of being a bid to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of what Tehran insists is a peaceful civilian energy program.

A European diplomatic source said Tuesday that Iran has proposed a resuming long-stalled nuclear negotiations with major world powers in Istanbul on November 23 or December 5. EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton had earlier proposed talks in Vienna from November 15 to November 18.

Nuclear talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States -- have been deadlocked since October 2009 when the two sides met in Geneva.

Iran bid for UN women agency flops

Iran has failed to secure a seat on a board running a new United Nations women's agency after the United States and its allies campaigned vigorously to make the Islamic Republic's bid fail.

East Timor, a late entrant to the contest, won the vote at the UN Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) after being encouraged by British and French diplomats to contest.

Iran, which secured 19 out of 54 votes, was one of 10 candidates for the 10 slots on the 41-nation board allotted to Asian countries. The candidate list had been agreed and endorsed beforehand by the caucus of nations known as the Asia Group.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, welcomed Iran's defeat, saying: "They lost, and they lost handily."

Iran is at loggerheads with the US over its nuclear programme, which Washington believes is intended to build an atomic bomb while Tehran insists it is acquiring nuclear energy for civilian use.

Women's freedoms in Iran are restricted, but the US supported other states that have been criticised by rights groups for their maltreatment of women.

Saudi Arabia, where women are forbidden from driving, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where rape is commonplace in the country's violent east, faced no US opposition and won seats on the agency's board.

The European Union, Australia and Canada carried out an intensive diplomatic campaign to thwart Iran, diplomats said.

"It was an expression of disapproval of Iran's rights record," Norway's UN ambassador, Morten Wetland, told the AFP news agency.

'Catastrophic record on rights'

Campaigners had highlighted Iran's treatment of women, including the case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani who was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery.

Though Iran has said the punishment will not be carried out, reports say she could now be hanged after being found guilty of the murder of her husband.

"We are extremely relieved," Philippe Bolopion, a UN specialist for the Human Rights Watch, said of Iran's loss.

"Iran has a catastrophic record on rights. It is a country which has distinguished itself by actively repressing women's rights activists, they have harassed many and imprisoned some."

A resolution on Iran's human rights is to be voted at the UN General Assembly next week and is already the subject of intense new lobbying, diplomats said.

Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner had said before the vote that having either Iran or Saudi Arabia on the board of UN Women would "a joke".

Netanyahu at GA: Iran must face ‘credible military threat’

Iran must face a "credible military threat" because sanctions have not deterred its nuclear weapons program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu, speaking Monday in New Orleans at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, said Israel "appreciated" President Obama's leadership in enhancing sanctions over the summer. However, he said, "we have yet to see any sign that the tyrants of Iran" have rolled back a suspected effort to obtain a nuclear device.

The Israeli leader said containment against Iran would not work.

"It will not work with a brazen and erratic regime that accuses the United States of bombing its own cities, that calls for the annihilation of Israel," he said, referring to recent statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggesting that the United States faked the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to bolster support for Israel. "When faced with such a regime, the only responsible policy is to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons in the first place."

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the United States preferred for now to maintain diplomatic and economic pressures on Iran.

"We are prepared to do what is necessary, but at this point we continue to believe that the political-economic approach that we are taking is in fact having an impact in Iran," Gates told media on Monday in Australia, where he is on an official visit.

Netanyahu also called attacks against the legitimacy of Israel one of the greatest threats to the Jewish people, pointing as an example to protesters from the Jewish Voice for Peace inside the auditorium who interrupted him several times during his speech. Audience members cheered as the protesters were forced from the room.

The prime minister said the authors of the Goldstone report on the Gaza war owed Israel an apology for condemning the army, saying that it caused a high percentage of civilian deaths, in the wake of Hamas admitting that 700 of its militants died in the conflict -- meaning that more than half of the Palestinian war casualties were enemy combatants.

Iran sues Russia at int'l bodies if it refuses missiles delivery: MP

TEHRAN (ISNA)-Iranian Parliament Member Kazem Jalali reiterated that the country would sue Russia at international bodies if it refuses to hand over S-300 missiles to Iran.

"Prosecution of Russia on S-300 delivery is irrefutable right of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the Rapporteur of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission told ISNA, adding, "Iran sues Russia at international bodies if it refuses to comply with its commitments."

"Delivery of S-300 missiles to Iran is specified in a bilateral agreement, so international duties should be fulfilled," he added.

The Parliament Member expressed hope that Russians return to the path of implementation of their commitments through correction of their approach.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already said the country would claim compensation for unilateral cancellation of S-300 missile system.

Ahmadinejad had criticized Russia's unilateral cancellation of a defense agreement with Iran and said, "some countries thought that they can damage Iranian nation through illegal and unilateral cancellation of a defense deal."

"I proclaim that the contracts should be implemented, otherwise Iranian nation will claim compensation for lack of their implementation," Ahmadinejad had warned.

"Secondly, if you think that you can make Iranian nation yield to the US through annulment of sale agreement of some missiles, you need to know that our nation does not need your missiles, our nation with the help of its will creates a power which crushes you in your palaces."

Ahmadinejad then reiterated that Iranian nation never backs down from its position on nuclear issue.

The ban came following order of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to prohibit any military cooperation with Tehran based on what is called the UN Security Council's resolution No. 1929.

The bilateral contract was signed in 2007.

The S-300 air defense system is an advanced mobile system that can shoot down aircraft and cruise missiles from up to 150 km away.

Iran possesses enough enriched uranium to build one nuclear bomb and will soon have enough to produce a second.



Maj-Gen Amos Yadlin Photo: REX

 Israel's military intelligence chief says Iran possesses enough enriched uranium to build one nuclear bomb and will soon have enough to produce a second.

Maj-Gen Amos Yadlin's statement, made in closed door testimony to parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, is consistent with previous assessments from both the CIA and the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The statement is significant because Israel has not ruled out a military strike to try to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Israel, like the West, does not believe Tehran's claims that it is developing nuclear technology to produce energy.

FROM IRAN TO GAZA? Nigeria intercepts 13 Iranian missile containers

LAGOS, NIGERIA – Three men have been detained for questioning in the Nigerian capital Lagos after Nigerian national security agents intercepted and seized 13 containers of smuggled Iranian missiles and weapons camouflaged as building materials, possibly destined for Gaza.

Rocket launchers, grenades, 120mm and 60mm bombs and other explosives were concealed among crates of floor tiles in the containers which arrived by ship from Iran, docked at Apapa port in Lagos, where they were unloaded and after a few hours the ship sailed on.

Nigerian state security agents were alerted to the port where they ordered the containers to be opened for inspection, after the clearing agent in charge of their unloading attempted to bribe customs officials to allow the containers to be transferred to an off-dock terminal for screening outside the port, according to The Nigerian Tribune on Tuesday.

The containers had actually arrived in Lagos in July, and were immediately suspect because the bill of lading was unaccompanied by a required Risk Assessment Report (RAR), the paper disclosed.

Nigerian National Security Adviser, General Andrew Owoye Azazi declined to say what ship carried the weapons into the port. But the federal government, he said, would destroy the weapons.

“A lot of information was still needed about the authenticity of the containers’ port of origin, the actual importers and other vital information relevant to the interception of the containers,” General Azazi said.

In Israel, which maintains close security, trade and diplomatic ties with Nigeria, a senior Israeli defense source suggested that the weapons’ seizure has exposed a possible new arms smuggling route from Iran to Gaza around the African Horn, wrote the daily Haaretz.

The Iranians may have run into difficulties sending arms to Gaza via the Arabian and Red Seas and Sudan following improved intelligence sharing and supervision in the last year by a Western maritime work team on the prevention of Iranian arms smuggling in the region, the Israeli defense official said.

Iran urges West to be 'serious' on talks

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast

Iran insists that it has frequently announced readiness for nuclear talks, saying it is expecting the Western side to take a “serious” step towards the resumption of negotiations.

“We have agreed in principle to talks and we have expressed our readiness. It seems the other party is not so serious,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

He said that Iran had put forward a proposal to hold ministerial-level talks with the P5+1 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, but the other side seemed to be not ready for any negotiations.

The spokesperson added that even the country's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki suggested timing for negotiations with the P5+1 between late October and early November.

Now is the time for the other side to show an earnest desire for talks, Mehmanparast went on to say.

He said that Iran is willing to hold talks with the Vienna Group, consisting of the US, France, Russia and the IAEA, within the framework of the May 17 fuel swap declaration.

Iran signed a declaration with Turkey and Brazil on May 17 based on which Tehran agreed to exchange 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium on Turkish soil with 20 percent-enriched nuclear fuel.

He added that the Islamic Republic was also ready for talks with the P5+1 -- the US, UK, Russia, china and Germany -- based on Tehran's package of proposals or at least the commonalities of the packages put forward by both sides.

In 2009, Iran presented a package of proposals titled “Cooperation for Peace, Justice, and Progress” to the group of P5+1, which included proposals for talks for the establishment of peace and stability among the international community.

President Ahmadinejad's Lebanon visit

Mehmanparast said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Lebanon to hold talks with senior officials as well as political figures.

He said that the visit came at the official invitation of Lebanese President Michel Sleiman and is aimed at deepening political, economic and cultural relations.

He also rejected Israeli efforts to undermine the visit and said Israel is afraid of unity among Middle Eastern countries.

Israel's "oath of loyalty" bill

Mehmanparast condemned the bill and said the approval of the bill was in violation of international law.

The Israeli cabinet approved the "oath of loyalty" bill on Sunday.

The bill requires non-Jews seeking citizenship to swear loyalty to a "Jewish and democratic state." The controversial bill and is backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

China-Turkey maneuver

Mehmanparast said that Iran did not take part in the China-Turkey joint drill. He said that given the fact that Iran enjoys a strategic situation, it only provided facilities for the drill.

Afghanistan

He said that Iran welcomes any measure that would restore stability and security in Afghanistan.

He said that Iran was ready to help the war-torn country overcome its problems regarding its economy, drug trafficking and terrorism.

Caspian Sea summit

He said that the next Caspian Sea summit will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November.

Latin America

Mehmanparast said that relations with Latin American countries would continue given the political convergence and high economic potential between Iran and the Americas.

Returning troops facing new stresses

As troops come home from Iraq, and possibly Afghanistan, new stresses on military families are only just beginning. The concern stretches to the top Pentagon brass.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said he expects suicide and other post-combat problems to intensify as soldiers return to home and family. And as part of the push to cut federal deficits, the Pentagon almost certainly will face this new front with smaller budgets.
"What I am hoping to avoid," Mullen told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday, "are any massive cuts. And quite frankly, I think those would be dangerous now, given the national security requirements that we have."
Mullen said his priority is personnel over weapons and military hardware. He called American troops "the most combat-hardened force we have had in our history."
"We want to make sure we take care of the people, and their families," he said.
The $530 billion defense budget is about half of the federal government's discretionary spending, and some members of Congress are pushing for $1 trillion in cuts over the coming decade. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has initiated cost-cutting that could add up to $100 billion.
Mullen said the military's cost escalations included a nearly threefold increase in health care expenditures, from $19 billion in 2001 to more than $50 billion this year.
That level of growth, Mullen said, is "unsustainable," adding that the Pentagon should consider raising co-payment levels for the first time since 1995.
Mullen addressed multiple issues, including the possibility of war with Iran, and his concern about China's military buildup. But he made clear that stress on military families is a prime worry. The Army, he said, had five suicides alone on a recent weekend.
Part of the problem, Mullen said, is that American forces have been stretched so thin, and for so long, that many units have not had significant "garrison" life at home since 2003.
"I think we are going to see significant increase in the challenges that we have in terms of troops and our families," Mullen said, "because they are going to have some time home. Things that have been pent up, or packed in, or basically suppressed, or sucked up — whatever term you want to use — we are going to see that" come out.
Mullen called suicide an "emerging issue" and "a very difficult problem."
"There is not a national solution for this issue," the joint chiefs chairman said. "When you start diving into this, the literature isn't very deep or very comprehensive."
On other topics, Mullen said:
He expects to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan after July, but only in numbers recommended by commanders based on conditions on the ground. President Barack Obama deployed an additional 30,000 troops to help root out Taliban insurgents in areas they had long controlled. Mullen tried to downplay rifts over that strategy between the Pentagon and Obama's inner circle reported in a new book, "Obama's Wars," by investigative reporter Bob Woodward.
The military should end its "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay service members, but said he would prefer that the Pentagon complete an internal review before Congress acts. Mullen said the Defense Department has surveyed 400,000 service members and 150,000 military families, and the findings will help the Pentagon implement changes, if ordered.
He expressed fervent hope that diplomatic and economic pressure would force Iran to "figure out it is not in their interest to have a nuclear weapon." Mullen said that in any military action against Iran, "the consequences, known and unknown, are extremely serious."

Beijing-Tehran cooperation: A loophole in Iranian sanctions

On June 9, 2010, the UN Security Council imposed a new slate of sanctions on Iran in an attempt to curb its nuclear ambitions. On September 22, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev backed these sanctions by issuing a decree banning arms deliveries to Tehran.

This means one can now talk about a full-fledged "arms blockade" against the Islamic Republic of Iran. But how effective can this blockade be, and what loopholes are open to Tehran?

The Islamic Republic's capacity

Iran certainly ranks among the most powerful Middle East and South-West Asian military powers. Tehran's might is determined by a number of factors, including its vast territory with abundant natural resources, growing population, the lack of a colonial past and the existence of well-developed cultural traditions that enabled it to emulate European military and industrial technology rapidly.

Iran is also one of the most powerful Islamic states. Many analysts believe that its military and political potential dwarfs that of Pakistan, which is a nuclear power. Moreover, the Iranian military potential exceeds that of other Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula countries several times over. In fact, none of these countries has a comparable population or industrial potential.

Iran also has a sufficiently well-developed defense industry. The country's leaders strive for self-sufficiency in this sphere, but Iran is unable to manufacture all the required military hardware independently. Although its potential in this area exceeds that of Pakistan in some respects, it is not self-sufficient.

The threat of military conflicts with countries of the Gulf and the United States forces Iran to maintain its armed forces in a high state of combat readiness, which would be impossible without foreign deliveries.

China is Tehran's traditional partner in the defense and engineering sectors. Bilateral cooperation peaked after the 1979 Islamic revolution when cooperation with the West and the Soviet Union became impossible.

Technology for oil

Iran started receiving weapons and equipment from China, in addition to the required technology and production licenses. North Korea also provided Tehran with a large amount of technical information and completed models of ballistic missiles, some of which it had produced itself and some were Soviet-made. This assistance allowed Iran to fight Iraq in 1980-1988 from a more equal position. Iraq had a smaller population and size of the army but nonetheless wielded far more advanced military equipment than its enemy.

Iran and China continued to cooperate throughout the 1990s. Beijing needed an independent oil supplier, while Tehran wanted to gain access to more or less advanced military technologies. After recovering from the war with Iraq, Iran began to assess its armed forces' long-term development prospects. Considering its advanced domestic industrial potential, Tehran gradually began to purchase technology, rather than military equipment. Moreover, Iran began to cooperate with Russia and other post-Soviet republics, subsequently obtaining a number of modern military technologies. However, China remained its main partner. In the late 1990s, Iran and China began to scale down their direct military cooperation against the backdrop of improved Chinese-U.S. relations.

Iran then solved its military-equipment problem by launching production of new systems it had copied from foreign equivalents. But not all kinds of military equipment are easy to copy like that, with air-defense systems and warplanes posing particular difficulties. Tehran found a way out by expanding its cooperation with Beijing in the technological-development sphere, which increasingly replaced direct arms shipments. Iran actively bought devices and technologies that would enable it to enhance its scientific and industrial potential. Tehran managed to acquire specialized Chinese equipment used in this sphere, including X-ray machines for checking the quality of rocket-and-missile engines, high-precision machine-tools for manufacturing elements of gyro-stabilized platforms used in guided weapons, mobile rocket-and-missile telemetry-control systems, in addition to other components and instruments.

International agreements place strict limits on arms deliveries to Iran. Consequently, Chinese-Iranian military-technical cooperation has increasingly taken the form of joint ventures. These deliver dual-purpose systems, equipment and technical documentation to Iran. Moreover, the Iranian government has signed a number of intellectual-cooperation agreements with Chinese universities, which are involved in training Iranian specialists and researchers in various fields for subsequent work at Iranian facilities.

The scale of Iranian-Chinese cooperation in this sphere is largely limited by the Chinese companies' ability to provide modern technologies and materials. However, there is sufficient potential to enable the development of new types of missiles. But for its cooperation with China, Iran would find it difficult to accomplish that objective.

Iran's technological cooperation with China has allowed it to launch production of its own short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, a copy of China's HongQi Red Flag/Banner HQ-7 air-defense missile, and to upgrade older operational SAM systems. Some sources claim that Tehran has come close to developing its own version of S-300-PMU Favorit (SA-10 Grumble) SAM system. This was thanks to its in-depth study of China's HQ-9 / FT-2000 missile system, right down to the minutest detail. At any rate, launchers closely resembling the HQ-9 system have been repeatedly displayed at Iranian military parades. Analysts continue to argue as to whether they were mockups or live weapons.

What next?

Chinese-Iranian military-technical cooperation will obviously continue into the future. Both partners need each other because Iran requires state-of-the-art military equipment, while China is hard pressed for natural resources. The main aspects of bilateral cooperation are as follows.

China, which implements an ostensibly independent foreign policy, is unlikely to deliver substantial weapons consignments direct to Iran because it does not want to sour relations with the European Union and the United States. However, the situation may change should China's relations with the West worsen. Analysts believe that Beijing already covertly supplies small batches of military equipment to Tehran, allowing it to study and copy them.

Chinese engineers are expected to help Iran to mass-produce Azarakhsh and Saegheh fighters based on the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter and to upgrade its operational warplane fleet. Chinese specialists are also known to service U.S.-made aircraft at Iran's largest air base, Mehrabad, outside Tehran.

Chinese-Iranian naval cooperation will, most likely, expand in the future. Iran will continue to manufacture speedboats and missiles under a Chinese license. It should be noted that Iran has been trying to expand its naval presence in the Gulf for the past few years by actively developing new types of naval weapons, such as guided missiles and torpedoes, as well as artillery systems. Considering the situation in the Gulf, Iran's plans can only be implemented either by buying or building a sufficiently large number of heavily armed warships.

Moreover, China could help Iran upgrade its Lockheed P-3F Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft.

Report: Obama won't stop Israeli attack on Iran

Leading U.S. analysts have concluded that the administration of President Barack Obama would withhold military and other equipment from Israel that could be used in any air strike on the Teheran regime. But the analysts assessed that Obama would not order the U.S. Air Force to block an Israeli air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"There is no scenario imaginable in which the United States would use its own forces to disrupt an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities," the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said.

'US will never achieve goals in Mideast'

"The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly opposes the plots of arrogance," IRNA quoted the Commander of the Iranian Army, Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan, as saying on Monday.

He said the US ordered former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to attack Iran in the 1980s in order to eliminate the ideas of the Islamic Revolution and its founder, the late Imam Khomeini.

He added that the enemies' aggression against Iran had another evil objective, specifically preventing the spread of the Islamic Revolution to other countries in the region.

However, Iran has made great achievements in various fields and will fight against the conspiracies of the arrogant powers, Pourdastan said.

IRAN: Speculation on Israeli involvement in malware computer attack

It took Iran several months since the reports that it was hardest hit by the computer worm known as Stuxnet but recently authorities conceded that about 30,000 IP addresses had been infected with the malware. The worm affected computers of staff at the Bushehr nuclear plant as well as Internet service providers, but officials say major systems at the plant have not been damaged.

Specialists say the malware of unprecedented expertise was custom-made to target and control particular industrial automation software and manipulate it from remote locations. It uses the Internet to spread, but the worm isn't Internet-based, suggesting "patient zero" was infected physically -- presumably by a USB device. Used for espionage or sabotage, the software infects a computer immediately but can remain latent until activated. At any given moment, there are millions of "zombie computers" around the world awaiting activation, not unlike the way spy agencies use sleeper cells or agents, writes Guy Grimland (in Hebrew) of TheMarker.

When news of Stuxnet broke in July, Symantec blogged that it didn't know who unleashed the worm, but listed several theories, considered who was more or less likely to be behind the attack, and said the attack clearly was not the job of an amateur hack. Among the possible culprits were a "lone wolf"; a disgruntled employee; commercial competition; state-sponsored espionage; those with nationalistic, political and religious motivations; and terrorism, which was "within the realm of possibility" in a case that read "as if it were the latest Hollywood blockbuster."

Now, as experts' analyses of the worm are being published and as it becomes clearer that computers associated with Iran's controversial nuclear program were affected, it is also becoming clearer that Stuxnet is about sabotage, not espionage, and it's way bigger than was apparent. Computer technicians thought they could root out the virus in a month or two, senior Iranian information technology official Hamid Alipur was quoted as saying, but attacks keep coming and new versions of it continue to mutate and spread, hampering cleanup.

Gerry Egan, a top Symantec executive, told CNN that the high level of design and specialized knowledge associated with worm was not something "the average hacker at home or in a garage" would have access to.

The sophistication behind Stuxnet combined with Iran's nuclear facility as an apparent target is spawning much speculation.

The theory among experts is that this "took the resources of a nation-state to create a piece of malware so sophisticated," Richard Falkenrath of Chertoff Group told Bloomberg this week. It is theoretically possible that the U.S. did this, he said, noting that this was a remote possibility. A more likely creator, he said, was Israel.

Did Unit 8200, the Israeli army's technology intelligence branch, plant the worm in Iran? The catchy headline in TheMarker (in Hebrew) asked the same question many others are asking but offered no answer. "We'll probably never know," the story says.

About a year before Stuxnet was discovered (experts believe it took about six months to write the complex code), reports emerged of Israel's turning to cyber warfare to foil Iran's nuclear program. In late 2009, Amos Yadlin, commander of Israeli military intelligence, said the ability to collect information and launch cyber-attacks gives small countries -- and terror groups and even individuals -- power to inflict serious damage unlimited by range. And military intelligence is said to have become a combat arm like an air force or navy.

Concerns about attacks are spreading. This year the U.S. announced Cybercom, a new command to synchronize responses to cyber-threats to military systems. Next month, by the way, has been declared National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

In the early 2000s, Israel established a central body for defending computer systems involving defense as well as strategic national infrastructure, including water, energy and banking. Most responsibility is entrusted to Shin Bet, Israel's general security service.

Iran Says 'Main Elements' Behind Bombing Killed

Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has killed "main elements" behind a recent bombing that killed at least 12 people at a military parade.

The dead in that bombing, of an annual event to mark the start of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, included family members of senior commanders.

Officials in the wake of the tragedy reportedly blamed "antirevolutionaries" for the attack.

The semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Pakpour, head of the corps' ground forces, as saying they were killed in an operation "in a border area."

He also accused Israel and the United States of supporting the September 22 attack in the northwestern town of Mahabad.

'Iran's military might deter enemies'

“The Islamic Republic has gained valuable experiences during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war on Iran. The war has turned Iran's Army and Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) into formidable military forces,” IRNA quoted Deputy Head of Iran's Joint Chiefs of Staff Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, as saying on Saturday.

Thanks to the commitment and capabilities of our defense forces, “today the Islamic Republic enjoys security and stability,” he said, reiterating that these forces have also been responsible in developing a domestically-based, top-notch defense industry that is wide-ranging and dynamic.

The top Iranian commander insisted that no adversary could undermine the sovereignty of the Islamic establishment, noting that the military might of the Islamic Republic enables it to vigorously encounter arrogant powers and deter any act of aggression.

According to General Jazayeri, Iran's mass production of a wide variety of military hardware products has made the ineffectiveness of tough US-led sanctions quite evident.

“The infrastructure of the country is totally different from that of 30 years ago and we have made enormous achievements in different spheres, some of which will be revealed to the world in the near future," he further explained.

“The Islamic Republic's primary focus is on establishing peace and justice, in adherence to Islamic principles,” he went on to say. “We hope for a world free from oppression and extremism.”
The US and Israel have been persistently making provocative military threats against Iran over its civilian nuclear energy program, in addition to their world-wide campaigns to impose variety of sanctions on Tehran.

Iran in turn maintains that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has every right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program. It has repeatedly questioned Western indifference towards Israel's nuclear activities and has called for a global abolition of all nuclear weaponry.

Iran Continues Weekly Aids to Pakistan

Iran is sending weekly humanitarian aid to the flood-hit people in Pakistan, a senior Iranian Air Force commander announced.
Addressing a ceremony to honor Iran's veteran Air Force pilots here on Saturday, Air Force Commander Brigadier General Hassan Shah-Safi said the country dispatches 60 tons of humanitarian aids to Pakistan on two Boeing 747 flights each week.

He said that an average of 60-ton plane loads are transported to Karachi and Islamabad airports every week, adding that the flights will continue operating on demand of Iran's Red Crescent Society.

Earlier, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar pledged that Iran will continue its support for the people and government of Pakistan to help them overcome the damage and the negative consequences of the recent floods.

On Friday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei asked all the world Muslims to take immediate action to help the Pakistani people.

Torrential monsoon rains have triggered massive floods that have moved steadily from north to south over the past month, engulfing a fifth of the volatile country and affecting 17 million of Pakistan's 167 million people.

Southern Sindh is the worst-affected province, with 19 of its 23 districts ravaged as floodwaters have swollen the raging Indus river to 40 times its usual volume.

Iran, which was among the first countries to send aid to Pakistan, has so far dispatched over 300 tons of humanitarian aid to the flood-stricken country.

Possible Israeli Cyber Attack Sabotaged Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Reactor

Though the Stuxnet cyber-attack which likely targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities may’ve begun as early as 2009, computer security experts have only this month published their full analysis of one of the most sophisticated and powerful computers worms ever developed, and what industrial damage it may’ve done. Stuxnet is malware likely designed to infiltrate Iranian (60% of computers infected were in Iran) industrial computers which controlled numerous automated processes in factory production cycles. The most likely target according to most experts consulted would be Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor complex, which last year was reported by Israeli media to have been sabotaged and faced extensive production delays. The speculation is that the centrifuges refining uranium for use in the facility may’ve been undermined by deliberately erroneous commands, which may’ve either destroyed the equipment or corrupted the enrichment process.

By all accounts. the worm is so advanced, performs so many functions, and operates in such a complex fashion that it can only have been produced by the intelligence agency of a sovereign nation. We can imagine which nations would have the capacity to mount such an operation and the motivation to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. The CIA and Mossad (or IDF military intelligence) spring to mind. My money is either on Israel and a shared operation mounted in some way by both countries.

IDF military intelligence has such a capability, Unit 8200, which analyzes intercepted communications and performs all manner of cyber-warfare tasks. A recent profile of the group described its operations in some detail though didn’t deal with the question of whether 8200 may’ve been involved in this attack. Forbes published this warm and fuzzy profile as well making 8200 out to be a real cool version of Silicon Valley.

This military unit performs a similar role in Israeli society to that of the Silicon Valley here. Since most Israelis serve in the army, this [8200] is where the techno-geeks among them gravitate. And when they exit their military service with their advanced technical training, they not only create commerical technology start-ups, they also continue developing products for Israel’s security apparatus. Such an 8200 alumnus founded Carmel Ventures, an Israeli venture capital outfit which funded Yuval Tal’s Payoneer, a U.S. company providing prepaid debit cards to its customers, who happened to be two of the Mossad hitmen who “hit” Mahmoud al-Mabouh in Dubai.

Since I don’t claim to be a computer security expert, but feel that Stuxnet is a very important development not only in and of itself, but also for the impact it will have on the Iran nuclear debate, I’m going to quote at some length from the recent technical articles about it in industry publications. It’s really fascinating stuff even for a layperson. Let’s start with PCWorld:

Researchers studying the worm all agree that Stuxnet was built by a very sophisticated and capable attacker — possibly a nation state — and it was designed to destroy something big…some of the researchers who know Stuxnet best say that it may have been built to sabotage Iran’s nukes.

…Last week Ralph Langner, a well-respected expert on industrial systems security, published an analysis of the worm, which targets Siemens software systems, and suggested that it may have been used to sabotage Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor...Bushehr reportedly experienced delays last year, several months after Stuxnet is thought to have been created, and according to screen shots of the plant posted by UPI, it uses the Windows-based Siemens PLC software targeted by Stuxnet.

…One of the things that Langner discovered is that when Stuxnet finally identifies its target, it makes changes to a piece of Siemens code called Organizational Block 35. This Siemens component monitors critical factory operations — things that need a response within 100 milliseconds. By messing with Operational Block 35, Stuxnet could easily cause a refinery’s centrifuge to malfunction, but it could be used to hit other targets too, Byres said. “The only thing I can say is that it is something designed to go bang,” he said.

…This is not something that your run-of-the-mill hacker can pull off. Many security researchers think that it would take the resources of a nation state to accomplish.

Last year, rumors began surfacing that Israel might be contemplating a cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

It is common for such malware to exploit a single weakness to infect a computer or system, but Stuxnet uses four separate vulnerabilities, which is unheard of for such worms. It also uses two forged digital certificates, which further indicates the highly sophisticated nature of the attack.

CNET’s report amplifies on Langner’s findings:

“With the forensics we now have, it is evident and provable that Stuxnet is a directed sabotage attack involving heavy insider knowledge,” he wrote. “The attack combines an awful lot of skills–just think about the multiple zero-day vulnerabilities, the stolen certificates, etc. This was assembled by a highly qualified team of experts, involving some with specific control system expertise. This is not some hacker sitting in the basement of his parents’ house. To me, it seems that the resources needed to stage this attack point to a nation state.”
Computerworld’s report quotes Symantec experts who have studied the worm extensively:

The Stuxnet worm is a “groundbreaking” piece of malware so devious in its use of unpatched vulnerabilities, so sophisticated in its multipronged approach, that the security researchers who tore it apart believe it may be the work of state-backed professionals.

“It’s amazing, really, the resources that went into this worm,” said Liam O Murchu, manager of operations with Symantec’s security response team.

“I’d call it groundbreaking,” said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior antivirus researcher at Kaspersky Lab. In comparison, other notable attacks, like the one dubbed Aurora that hacked Google’s network and those of dozens of other major companies, were child’s play.

Here they analyze in greater details the particular ways in which Stuxnet operates and the technical ambition and complexity required to create it:

Once within a network — initially delivered via an infected USB device — Stuxnet used the EoP [elevation of privilege] vulnerabilities to gain administrative access to other PCs, sought out systems running the WinCC and PCS 7 SCADA management programs, hijacked them by exploiting either the print spooler or MS08-067 bugs, then tried the default Siemens passwords to commandeer the SCADA software.

They could then reprogram the so-called PLC (programmable logic control) software to give machinery new instructions.

On top of all that, the attack code seemed legitimate because the people behind Stuxnet had stolen at least two signed digital certificates.

“The organization and sophistication to execute the entire package is extremely impressive,” said Schouwenberg. “Whoever is behind this was on a mission to get into whatever company or companies they were targeting.”

O Murchu seconded that. “There are so many different types of execution needs that it’s clear this is a team of people with varied backgrounds, from the rootkit side to the database side to writing exploits,” he said.

The malware, which weighed in a nearly half a megabyte — an astounding size, said Schouwenberg — was written in multiple languages, including C, C++ and other object-oriented languages, O Murchu added.

“And from the SCADA side of things, which is a very specialized area, they would have needed the actual physical hardware for testing, and [they would have had to] know how the specific factory floor works,” said O Murchu.

“Someone had to sit down and say, ‘I want to be able to control something on the factory floor, I want it to spread quietly, I need to have several zero-days,’” O Murchu continued. “And then pull together all these resources. It was a big, big project.”

…Put all that together, and the picture is “scary,” said O Murchu.

So scary, so thorough was the reconnaissance, so complex the job, so sneaky the attack, that both O Murchu or Schouwenberg believe it couldn’t be the work of even an advanced cybercrime gang.

“I don’t think it was a private group,” said O Murchu. “They weren’t just after information, so a competitor is out. They wanted to reprogram the PLCs and operate the machinery in a way unintended by the real operators. That points to something more than industrial espionage.”

The necessary resources, and the money to finance the attack, puts it out the realm of a private hacking team, O Murchu said.

“This threat was specifically targeting Iran,” he continued. “It’s unique in that it was able to control machinery in the real world.”

“All the different circumstances, from the multiple zero-days to stolen certificates to its distribution, the most plausible scenario is a nation-state-backed group,” said Schouwenberg

Symantec has also published a more technically detailed analysis of Stuxnet for the more adept among you.

Let’s step back and ask a few questions. While Stuxnet and other types of sabotage may’ve delayed Iran’s nuclear production and research, do we really believe that Iran’s scientists are so simple and naive that they would create only a single track for their work? Do we really believe this will cause any more than a temporary delay for them in developing their nuclear technology? No matter how damaging the worm is, no matter how impressive the technical achievement that brought it forth, it’s at best a stop-gap measure. As such, it doesn’t get at the root issue or the root way to resolve the problem which, once again like a broken record, I proclaim to anyone who will listen is a negotiated diplomatic solution.

Whatever Iran is trying to do cannot be stopped except by negotiation or war, leading to toppling the regime and replacing it with a West-compliant one (and good luck with that).

In regards to the latter option, if Israel deliberately used cyber-sabotage in order to mess with the minds and facilities of Iranian scientists, they may’ve coupled such an operation with a more deliberate one to bomb the facilities later. Such a two-pronged approach would make more sense from a military-intelligence perspective than simply messing up the production schedule of Bushehr for a year. But again, what do I know, I’m only speculating. Educated speculation by someone who has studied such minds at work for some time–but speculation nonetheless.

Guarding Iran's President Ahmadinejad, the Most Hated Man in New York

A small army of U.S. security forces have been marshaled to protect Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his venom-laced stay in New York where he has threatened the U.S. with a "war without boundaries" and suggested the U.S. may have secretly carried out the 9/11 terror attacks.

Law enforcement sources told ABC News that Ahmadinejad has a security force that dwarfs that ofall the other 140 visiting heads of state who are in New York City this week for the U.N. General Assembly.

"It's second only to a POTUS-sized package," a law enforcement official said, referring to the security acronym for the President of the United States.

Another described the force protecting Ahmadinejad the "classic high threat package."

Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline

While laying the groundwork for strategic relationship with Pakistan, the US is persuading Pakistan to scuttle the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project due to its serious reservations about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The US administration is sympathetic about the energy problem of Pakistan but opposes the pipeline because it involves Iran, a country US President Obama labels as a ‘rogue state’.

The US wants to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state and has imposed Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. According to the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, the US President may impose sanctions on any international firm that does $20 million or more in oil or gas business with Iran (and $40 million with Libya). Consequently, US is “stepping up pressure”, as a $7.6 billion Iran-Pakistan pipeline project “could violate Iran and Libya Sanctions Act” passed by the US. The US special representative to the region cautioned Pakistanis not to over-commit themselves until the latest legislation on Iran is promulgated.

As a major non-Nato ally of the US in war on terror, Pakistan Army’s recent successes in the on-going military operation against the militants in Fata and Malakand areas, has earned a lot of respect from the international community. The Obama administration and the US Congress are committed to support Pakistan on a long-term basis and develop its institutions as well as energy requirements.

From December 2007 till now, the people of Pakistan began to suffer from severe electricity shortages, in the middle of winter, when electricity demand is at its lowest! The Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) enforced loadshedding, thereby cutting off electricity for hours at a time, which crippled industry, business and daily life. Pakistan’s need for natural gas is imperative than ever.

Pakistan is plagued by chronic electricity shortages that have led to mass demonstrations and battered the PPP-led government.

The gas supply in Pakistan, currently 71 million cubic meters per day, is expected to increase by 50% in the next five years. However, much of this increase would be met through an increase in domestic gas production. Gas production in Pakistan is expected to increase substantially as new fields like Sawan, Zamzama and Bhit come on stream. However, the longer-term projections would justify significant imports of gas by Pakistan. Pakistan is running out of options. Nonetheless, Iran-Pakistan pipeline project promised a ray of hope for the energy-starved country.

In the wake of Holbrooke’s warning that such a move could hit Pakistani companies involved in the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, what other options are available with the US to help its strategic partner.

The Rand Corporation’s proposal of considering a criteria-based nuclear deal to Pakistan tied to access to AQ Khan, greater visibility into Pakistan’s programme, submission to safeguards, a strategic decision to abandon militancy as a tool of foreign and domestic policy, and empirically verifiable metrics in eliminating militant groups operating in and from Pakistan, may not be acceptable to Pakistan. Pakistan would like to have a civilian nuclear agreement akin to the US-India civilian nuclear deal initiated in 2005, for meeting its growing energy needs. Pakistan’s energy needs are so pressing that less costly and time-consuming means to generate electricity deserve to be given priority.

Another option may be that the US should increase US-Pakistani trade cooperation and promote Pakistani infrastructure growth and economic development on issues from energy to the reconstruction of Opportunity Zones (ROZs). The crux of the matter is that political, economic and democratic forces are potentially capable of reversing the Talibanisation trend in the tribal areas.

If America insists on our true cooperation, then they should also be helping us in fighting terrorism on all vital fronts -- be it military or financial or development aspects. That’s what is expected from a real-time strategic partner. Pakistan is in a dire need of energy.

It will be in the supreme national interest of the country to help materialise the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. Understanding Pakistan’s energy requirements and needs, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague clarified that Britain would not interfere in the sovereign decision of Pakistan on the IP gas pipeline project.

It is hoped that the Obama administration would overlook the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act and persuade International Finanical Institutions (IFIs) to release funds for the proposed Iran-Pakistan gas line project so crucial for its survival or address the energy crisis by offering an unconditional civilian nuclear agreement to Pakistan.