MommyOfaLittleBoy
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An Update On Iran's Nuclear Program
Iran wishes to become one of the world's nuclear armed countries and has been refining uranium and developing missile technology.
It's not just Iran, I think that any country developing an atomic arsenal and joining the club has got to be a bad thing for world peace. The situation with Pakistan's nukes is tenuous as is North Korea's -who are collaborating with Iran on their ballistic missile programs.
You can mouse over the headlines - they contain links to the articles cited.
North Korea and Iran increase collaboration on nuclear missile, report claims
Anyway, the two biggest stories of the last couple of years are the Stuxnet virus and the havoc it caused and the assassinations of Irani scientists.
Who Is Killing Iran's Nuclear Scientists?
Somebody has been doing targeted killings in an attempt to cripple the Irani nuke program. I wonder who is doing that?
Well, it seems that the Stuxnet virus never really was succesfully removed from the computers driving Iran's nuclear refinement program.
Stuxnet returns to bedevil Iran's nuclear systems
Wired Magazine has an excellent article about how researchers across the globe teamed up to crack one of the most complex and sophisticated viruses ever.
How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet, the Most Menacing Malware in History
The article is really long but here are some excerpts:
It sounRAB like a Hollywood movie script or something.
It was later discovered that the virus had four zero-day exploits contained in it's code. Someone went to a whole lot of trouble to make this virus and no one really is sure who made it. The US, Israel, someone else? Did the German company Siemans, the producer of the computer controlled valves used in the centrifuges, assist whoever it was?
Liam O Murchu, a researcher for Symatec, was the first person to closely examine this new virus. He soon realized how unique it was. He spent months pouring over the code to try to understand it.
The program burrowed into system for a couple of weeks and then sped the centrifuges up for 15 minutes, then waited 27 days at normal operation. Then it would slow them for 50 minutes. It kept repeating this 27 day cycle until the centrifuges eventually failed and flew apart from being run out of tolerance.
The beauty of the plan was that they would not all fail at once arousing too much suspicion. The whole time Stuxnet was phoning home to it's creators so they could monitor progress and tweak the virus's settings. The whole time this is happening Stuxnet is sending the proper readings for the Irani scientists to monitor. Brilliant!
Iran has been slow to admit to the problems.
How much this actually slowed enrichment is debatable.
There have been some reports that the virus is back but it really was a one shot deal because now they will grow suspicious much faster when problems arise.
I'm wondering just how far should we go to prevent Iran from going nuclear. The options on the table are these:
*Inspections
*Diplomacy
*Encouraging and supporting revolt against the government
*Sanctions
*Sabotage
*Targeted assassinations of scientists
*Drone and cruise missile strikes on nuclear sites
*Air Campaign
*Full out ground war
Some of these things are obviously already happening. Stronger measures are being considered and contingencies drawn.
Iran is going to acquire nuclear weapons sooner or later no matter what we do short of going in there and taking over the country and doing some more nation building. Does anyone really want to form a coalition and try that one again?
So anything we do short of that is probably going to make Iran all that more pissed at us when they finally do get a ticking warhead attached to a shiny new ICBM. Of course does anyone believe that Iran would actually fire a missile at us or anyone else when they know the US would blast them back to dust if they did? Or would they supply a borab to a terrorist organization? They seem to have no problem with arming terrorists with any other kind of borab they can get their hanRAB on.
Let's face it, the real reason why Iran wants nuclear weapons is so that they will have greater influence in the region. With all the revolts of the Arab spring, Iran seeks to flex it's military might wield more influence on budding governments.
Being the biggest bully on the block and the only
nation who could boast nukes to match those of Israel would
make them an attractive ally to others in the middle east and beyond.
Many countries in the nuclear club claim their weapons are defensive and provide a deterrent to war. I have to admit, that for Iran nukes would achieve that aim. The US and it's allies would be much less inclined to tangle with Iran if they had the borab.
Do you think that if Libya was nuclear that we would be borabing them and supporting rebels there? Would we be targeting Gaddafi if he had his finger on an atomic launch button? We would probably be sending him billions in aid instead.
I want your opinion on any of this and -- just how far we should go to stop Iran from going nuclear or should it be none of our business. They claim their program is for peaceful purposes right?
Anyway I find the whole thing fascinating and I'm interested to see how it all turns out.
Iran wishes to become one of the world's nuclear armed countries and has been refining uranium and developing missile technology.
It's not just Iran, I think that any country developing an atomic arsenal and joining the club has got to be a bad thing for world peace. The situation with Pakistan's nukes is tenuous as is North Korea's -who are collaborating with Iran on their ballistic missile programs.
You can mouse over the headlines - they contain links to the articles cited.
North Korea and Iran increase collaboration on nuclear missile, report claims
Anyway, the two biggest stories of the last couple of years are the Stuxnet virus and the havoc it caused and the assassinations of Irani scientists.
Who Is Killing Iran's Nuclear Scientists?
Somebody has been doing targeted killings in an attempt to cripple the Irani nuke program. I wonder who is doing that?
Well, it seems that the Stuxnet virus never really was succesfully removed from the computers driving Iran's nuclear refinement program.
Stuxnet returns to bedevil Iran's nuclear systems
Wired Magazine has an excellent article about how researchers across the globe teamed up to crack one of the most complex and sophisticated viruses ever.
How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet, the Most Menacing Malware in History
The article is really long but here are some excerpts:
It sounRAB like a Hollywood movie script or something.
It was later discovered that the virus had four zero-day exploits contained in it's code. Someone went to a whole lot of trouble to make this virus and no one really is sure who made it. The US, Israel, someone else? Did the German company Siemans, the producer of the computer controlled valves used in the centrifuges, assist whoever it was?
Liam O Murchu, a researcher for Symatec, was the first person to closely examine this new virus. He soon realized how unique it was. He spent months pouring over the code to try to understand it.
The program burrowed into system for a couple of weeks and then sped the centrifuges up for 15 minutes, then waited 27 days at normal operation. Then it would slow them for 50 minutes. It kept repeating this 27 day cycle until the centrifuges eventually failed and flew apart from being run out of tolerance.
The beauty of the plan was that they would not all fail at once arousing too much suspicion. The whole time Stuxnet was phoning home to it's creators so they could monitor progress and tweak the virus's settings. The whole time this is happening Stuxnet is sending the proper readings for the Irani scientists to monitor. Brilliant!
Iran has been slow to admit to the problems.
How much this actually slowed enrichment is debatable.
There have been some reports that the virus is back but it really was a one shot deal because now they will grow suspicious much faster when problems arise.
I'm wondering just how far should we go to prevent Iran from going nuclear. The options on the table are these:
*Inspections
*Diplomacy
*Encouraging and supporting revolt against the government
*Sanctions
*Sabotage
*Targeted assassinations of scientists
*Drone and cruise missile strikes on nuclear sites
*Air Campaign
*Full out ground war
Some of these things are obviously already happening. Stronger measures are being considered and contingencies drawn.
Iran is going to acquire nuclear weapons sooner or later no matter what we do short of going in there and taking over the country and doing some more nation building. Does anyone really want to form a coalition and try that one again?
So anything we do short of that is probably going to make Iran all that more pissed at us when they finally do get a ticking warhead attached to a shiny new ICBM. Of course does anyone believe that Iran would actually fire a missile at us or anyone else when they know the US would blast them back to dust if they did? Or would they supply a borab to a terrorist organization? They seem to have no problem with arming terrorists with any other kind of borab they can get their hanRAB on.
Let's face it, the real reason why Iran wants nuclear weapons is so that they will have greater influence in the region. With all the revolts of the Arab spring, Iran seeks to flex it's military might wield more influence on budding governments.
Being the biggest bully on the block and the only
nation who could boast nukes to match those of Israel would
make them an attractive ally to others in the middle east and beyond.
Many countries in the nuclear club claim their weapons are defensive and provide a deterrent to war. I have to admit, that for Iran nukes would achieve that aim. The US and it's allies would be much less inclined to tangle with Iran if they had the borab.
Do you think that if Libya was nuclear that we would be borabing them and supporting rebels there? Would we be targeting Gaddafi if he had his finger on an atomic launch button? We would probably be sending him billions in aid instead.
I want your opinion on any of this and -- just how far we should go to stop Iran from going nuclear or should it be none of our business. They claim their program is for peaceful purposes right?
Anyway I find the whole thing fascinating and I'm interested to see how it all turns out.