Have you noticed? The NY Times seems to be getting an awful lot of inside information lately on how tough Obama has been in the war on terror and Iran.
First it was the expansive story about drone warfare, and now about Stuxnet:
From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.
Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks — begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games — even after 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 around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.
I guess you could say this is just good investigative journalism … if you just landed here from Mars and didn’t know that part of the Obama campaign strategy was to tout how tough he has been.
The Times says that its reporting is based on interviews with American, European and Israeli officials, but is it merely coincidence that this report comes so soon after the drone report, or not long after unprecedented access was provided to Hollywood movie makers and NBC news to details and persons involved in the bin Laden raid?
The administration so clearly is leaking these details for political purposes that one has to wonder how much damage we have done to our national security in order to get Obama reelected.
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The administration so clearly is leaking these details for political purposes that one has to wonder how much damage we have done to our national security in order to try to get Obama reelected.
shiver Please. Fixed it. (Boldface mine.)
The administration is releasing information which should remain highly classified. Combine that with the unprecedented effort to track down people who leak the administration’s copious dirty laundry, and you have a President who again demonstrates his utter unfitness for office.
Damaging America, destroying America, is Obama’s goal. If he can further that goal and his re-election efforts simultaneously, it is a twofer for him.
Five more months.
This is all completely in keeping with the left’s view of the military, which is that the military’s primary value purpose is to provide is a prop to run what in football is called gadget plays and for photo ops, all in furtherance of their agenda.
Toughness is a quality which – in men at least; I never was a woman, sorry! – is developed in their late teen years or early twenties. Yes, that’s about the time we rush to the military recruiter demanding one of those cool uniforms to wear and one of those excellent guns to shoot. Judging from President Obama’s photos from that time period, he was too busy learning how to stir up a mob and smoking too much dope to become tough, mentally or physically. Don’t expect much from this man. He appears to be stuck – emotionally and intellectually – in the mid to late teens years, still afraid of his shadow and unaware that there are things in the world he must face and deal with. Why do you suppose he comes across so narcisstic? Because he is, a consequence of never growing up, never maturing as a man ought to. Congratulations to the radical feminists: one of your “sensitive” and “thoughtful” men is in the White House. And he is – in one of my father’s colorful phrases – useless as teats on a boar hog.
My gawd…is there NOTHING this guy will now try to claim credit for?
When I first saw the story, I was dubious that the cyber attacks really were American in origin.
From this White House, I still am.
I wonder if anybody considered that the Iranians could consider this operation (not just a violation of their territorial integrity as with the UBL killing in Pakistan, but) an act of war.
Since they were already at war with us, that’s sort of a moot point. But Obama taking special credit does seem to set the whole US up for some kind of retaliation.
My gawd…is there NOTHING this guy will now try to claim credit for?
1. I will not be surprised if it emerges that Obama, while he undermines Israel’s security, is taking credit for Israeli work.
2. The flip side to Rags’ question: Is there anything for which he will accept responsibility?
#2 BWAAAAAHAHAHAHA–AHAHAHA.
Oh. You were serious…
Agree. The administration knows that the Israelis can’t exactly spike the football on this themselves, so they can claim whatever they want with impunity. Which means Obama can assert his anti-terror bona fides and demonstrate a close kinship with Israel against a common enemy (even if his does wear mom jeans). “See, Jews, see?!?!?! Now open your wallets.”
Rags is likely correct in assuming that Israel is the likely culprit – because of the reactions from Israel and the US to the new “Flame” virus that more virulent than Stuxnet.
So who thinks Carney would have missed the chance to help “Teh One” in this case?
Just like the story leaked by this Administration about the Pakistani doctor, that endangered the doctor and virtually every other doctor in the many NGOs give vaccinations, this story seemed like it’s originators possessed a special kind of stupid.
I think the message Republicans should have is: Here’s Obama /bragging/ about expanding a program that Bush started! Attacking foreign countries w/o getting permission from congress (blah blah blah)… That’ll have to make them a little more discomfited.
I would hope that Liberals who work in CIA/NSA/DOD would start thinking about not voting for him, simply because it should be obvious (to them) that they, personally, are expendable for his re-election, as are anyone else who helps the USA.
Hey, he hates the Israelis and the British, so whether or not it’s true, he’d spike the ball just to spite them.
I skimmed this article and found myself shaking my head through the whole thing. It is very sloppy reporting, apparently relying entirely on information from the administration. I had previously been under the impression that stuxnet was almost entirely an Israeli show with no more than a little technical advice from the US. This article makes it sound like the US lead the effort. Possible, I suppose but some evidence would be nice.
Add the reporter’s complete lack of understanding of “cyber attacks” and you get an annoying piece of second rate propaganda, aka typical New York Times. (disclosure: I am a computer security professional who has followed the stuxnet story closely, but I do not claim any particular knowledge of these kinds of attacks or any sort of inside knowledge)
Whatshisname’s entire term has been a national security risk/threat. I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s leaving little surprises throughout the entire Federal infrastructure that will off on January 21, 2013 and/or monitor and spy on every move of the next administration.
Why didn’t the NYT report about the Obamic virus Stux-on-myself-net? It is the most virulent form of societal programming.
In other news…Obama spikes himself.
Heh… In answer to your question, the NYT is just a few neurons short and many days late.
That’s my story ‘n I’m stickin’ to it!
Obama: I invented the Stuxnet while playing golf
Whatever it takes to elect “Dear Leader” will be done. Take credit for everything positive and make Obama the super hero, hide or shift blame for whatever is negative and make Bush or the Republican House the villians, reveal national secrets and compromise intelligence assets, sling whatever slime is necessary to dis-credit your opponant and his party, and lie, lie lie. It’s what any good student os Alinsky would do.
As usual with the Libs, the ends justify the means and however many eggs must be broken to serve up the socialist toxic omelet to the peasants.
Typical Lib “patriotic” battle cry would be —
I regret that I have only one country to give in exchange for my assuming and maintaining absolute power over the ignorant fly-over bumpkin prols. No price is to high to pay in pursuit of those lofty Utopian goals.
Why do I suspect this story might blow up in their faces like the CIA operative that turned out to be working for the Brits?
This president came to office pledging to the Iranian mullahs “an open hand, not a clenched fist.” – there’s just no way he would have risked getting busted on Stuxnet. If he were “all in” on helping Israel destabilize Iran – why did he ignore the opportunity provided by the Green Revolution in June 2009. And later that year our state department granted Ahmadinejad a visit to the UN to rail about Israel – while he was holding Americans in his prisons.
That’s not even adding in the blatant disrespect that Obama has publicly displayed towards Netanyahu and Israel and it’s over ride of Congessional efforts to stop funding going to Palestine.
It just seems like this story may fall apart in the vetting! Hopefully better researchers than me are “on it”!
As a former USAF vet who’s served much time in and around the intelligence community both military and civilian, it’s with gobsmacked awe that I observe how this current administration is unconscionably overflowing with the kind of national security disclosures that would have the average citizen summarily and rightly convicted and immediately sent on a lengthy all-expenses-paid stay at scenic Club Leavenworth to make little rocks out of big ones.
Well, it’s not like any of these clowns could get a clearance by the normal process…
Step back for a moment.
Just how does this affect Smart Diplomacy ?
This is an admission that diplomacy with the Iranians has failed
[…] I’m happy the administration is doing this, but very unhappy that it’s splashed in headlines all over the world. It’s obvious that, along with the SEAL Team 6 movie and classified info dump that accompanied it, and the drone strike story earlier in the week, this story is part of the administration’s re-election campaign. They’re working with the Times to drive a narrative that they believe helps the president. Obama is spiking the Stuxnet to keep his job. […]
If I were CIA director we’d be planting these stories in the NYT. And stories that the Israelis did it. Or maybe it was the Ruritanians. I would have so many conflicting stories leaked to the NYT, to WaPo and to the Guardian that the Iranians would turn themselves inside out trying to figure out the truth.
If I were CIA director I’d leak to the NYT that the guy who got Stuxnet into the Iranian centrifuge computer control room was someone named ‘Mahmoud’. No last name; let the Iranian secret police execute all of them. After they did I’d leak that the first name was actually ‘Reza’.
If I were CIA director I’d leak to the NYT that Stuxnet was also infecting the Syrian air defense system the day the Israelis bombed that reactor and got away scott-free. The same air defense system the Iranians bought from the Russians. Yup, can’t trust the S300 can you boys.
If I were CIA director I’d leak to the NYT that Stuxnet is also in all the Iranian oil pumps and controllers, and most especially is in all the controllers at their export terminals.
If I were CIA director I’d leak to the NYT that I’d paid off some of the Iranian Revolutionary Brigades commanders to get this done. Some guy named ‘Mohammad’. Let them figure it out.
If I were CIA director, oh, the fun I could have.
So when all this leaking of classified information and the consequent exposure of brave intelligence agents has not made people admire this charlatan, what next? Why, the October Surprise song and dance: Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran and the hot new Obama Mao Mao softshoe…
No, its not that easy. If he just off and bombs Iran without some sort of excuse, the Leftists will go sparse, the Conservatives will mock it as false heroics, the press will throw a fit that they were not invited to the party, and his ratings will crater.
What he *needs* is for Iran to do something dramatic and stupid, just far enough in front of the election for him to strike in response, but not so soon as to allow the furor to die down before voting begins.
[…] -William Jacobson is spot-on: I guess you could say this is just good investigative journalism … if you just landed here from Mars and didn’t know that part of the Obama campaign strategy was to tout how tough he has been. […]
Don’t you love how they try to make him sound so serious and involved.
Phhttt. All he had to do was check a box on a piece of paper.
Reminds me of those scenes from The Prince and The Pauper where the poor kid (now King) is stamping every thing they put in front of him. (of course they present the paper and the reason for it with all due deference.)
BTW where did he find the time to do this heroic rubber stamping? He was out on some golf course most days for the last 3 1/2 years. That or campaigning somewhere. Or bowing to some tyrant. Or apologizing for the US. Or blaming Bush. (note that Bush doesn’t get much mention in these Despatches From the Oval Office.)
Does he not KNOW how damaging suck leaks are to national security? Or does he simply not care how damaging these leaks are?
“Never in the field of human conflict has so much harm been caused by so few people for such self-serving ends.”
This guy is destroying what little is left of our intelligence assets for the dubious prospect of very little short-term personal benefit. People are going to die because of the information Obama is leaking on a regular basis…
I remember when people were outraged that Carter exposed details of the B1 bomber program. That was literally nothing compared to what Obama has done since the death of Bin Laden!
Who in their right mind will ever share a secret with the US government again?