Poetic Justice — Will a ‘Worm’ Destroy A-jad?
Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad crazy, evil, or both?
Most likely both, but the question is something of a weird psychological litmus test — one I first gave myself back in April 2009 when I personally came within five feet of the Iranian president in the lobby of Geneva’s Hotel Intercontinental. We were both there to attend the UN’s Durban II Conference on (so-called) Human Rights, he as a speaker and I as a humble new media reporter.
The moment he marched by with his entourage, nodding to those of us in the lobby, from many nations, as if we were loyal subjects of the Islamic Republic, is etched in my brain forever. It was like seeing Hitler up close in, say, 1937. (In this case Godwin’s Law does not apply. Hitler comparisons are not just Internet inevitability — they’re required.)
I was so shaken by the experience, it drove old agnostic me to God. If you can believe in pure Evil, well, there has to be Good, etc. A video I made of the experience is here, if you haven’t seen it — “How Ahmadinejad Made Me a Believer.”
Well, A-jad is back, as most of you know, speaking at the UN and being walked out on by Western delegates, just as he was in Geneva. Mahmoud opens his mouth and out comes the usual — the U.S. is behind September 11, the Holocaust is an illusion, etc., etc. and everyone from the West gets up and leaves. Well, not everyone. Some minor delegates from Norway and Switzerland apparently stayed to hear the madman out.
Interesting tandem of countries that. I wonder if they would have walked out on Benjamin Netanyahu. No, they just would have treated him equally with A-jad. All’s fair, you know — just as long as you don’t inspect anybody’s bank accounts. “Poor Switzerland” is suffering too in the economic downturn.
But speaking of the prime minister of Israel, there is hope coming from that small benighted nation in this blog from Forbes: The War Against Iran Has Already Started. Their Trevor Butterworth is reporting on an article from Computer World on a new computer worm known as Stuxnet:
Computer World magazine recently pronounced Stuxnet, “a 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.” And according to the latest article in the magazine, speculation is rife that Israel may have been behind the worm – and that it was designed to sabotage or even take control of the operating systems for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor.
Whether that is what really happened is beside the point. The reality of Stuxnet (and more to the point, its next incarnation) is that critical state infrastructure can be commandeered and destroyed without anyone firing a shot. The very prospect that Israel – or whomever – could shut down Iran by destroying its electrical grid through causing every generator to overload in a matter of minutes is a powerful signal: the signal that cyber war has physical consequences that make conventional air strikes look quaint and maladroit, so 20th century.
Mr. Simon:
“The moment he marched by with his entourage, nodding to those of us in the lobby, from many nations, as if we were loyal subjects of the Islamic Republic, is etched in my brain forever…I was so shaken by the experience, it drove old agnostic me to God. If you can believe in pure Evil, well, there has to be Good, etc.”
I remember that post.
Have you ever done any research into A-Jad’s past?
He was in the Basij and the Pasdaran during the Iran-Iraq War, the Pasdaran were and are roughly analogous to a “religious SS”, while the Basij would be more of an SA-type paramilitary organization.
The Iranian teenaged suicide brigades were drawn from the ranks of the Basij.
The story goes that there were tens of thousands of plastic toy keys imported from Taiwan, and that the teenaged Basij were told that they were to the gates of heaven, and these kids wore them around their necks as they marched towards the Iraqi defenses.
from Wiki:
“During the Iran–Iraq War tens of thousands of young Basij were killed on the battlefield. Believing that they were holy martyrs and chanting songs about the Battle of Karbala, in which the Imam Hussein, died a heroic death, the basij cleared minefields as “human waves” so that more experienced soldiers could advance against the enemy.[11] The Basij reportedly marched into battle marking their expected entry to heaven by wearing plastic “keys to paradise” around their necks.
The human wave tactic was implemented in the following way: The barely armed children and teenagers had to move continuously forward in perfectly straight rows. It did not matter whether they fell as canon fodder to enemy fire or detonated the mines with their bodies. The important thing was that the Basij continued to move forward over the torn and mutilated remains of their fallen comrades, going to their death in wave after wave. “They come toward our positions in huge hordes with their fists swinging,” an Iraqi officer complained in the summer of 1982. “You can shoot down the first wave and then the second. But at some point the corpses are piling up in front of you, and all you want to do is scream and throw away your weapon. Those are human beings, after all.””
One wonders what future Spielberg will tell THEIR story?
Anyway, according to this article:
http://www.jewishmag.co.il/111mag/ahmadinejad/ahmadinejad.htm
Ahmedinedjad’s wartime role was to train these kids to become cannon-fodder and machine-gun bait… and that soulless reptile seeks atomic weapons while our narcissistic buffoons and weak-sister allies think that they can negotiate with such as THAT?
Your gut has good instincts, and even the Saudis finally woke up and realized that their Kingdom is the reptile’s REAL target,(thus that big 60 billion dollar arms order).
An article that explores A-jad’s ties to the Basij:
http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/ahmadinejads-demons
wasn’t he also a jail commander as well as cheif executioner at one time?
Just like Che. See all flour from the same bag.
Any chance that the Iranians will have their own home-grown Project Valkyrie (one that is successful)?
Whilst “A-jad” is a kewt acronymical nickname, I prefer, “Moody bitch Ahma-dalla-wango-tango-ding-dang-dong-dinejad”.
I’ve also issued a fatwa on the head of “Ahma-dalla-wango-tango-ding-dang-dong-dinejad”.
*here’s hoping some brave sharp-shooter aims the red laser beam and pulls the trigger*
Also (before I lapse into a sleepy time tea coma), I would also like to deploy one of my fatwa fantasies to blog/type:
Ahma-dalla-wango-tango-ding-dang-dong-dinejad is buried up to his neck in sand and then stoned within an inch of his worthless life, then, he is ripped out of the sand and flogged naked, then some wild hogs gnaw off his genitals and some wild crows peck out his eyeballs and then he is injected with ebola and thrown in a cage with wild, ravenously hungry dogs to eat away at his flesh.
Is Mahmoud Ahma-dalla-wango-tango-ding-dang-dong-dinejad crazy, evil or both?
I’m willing to send him straight to hell either way, Roger.
Why on earth would you want to poison those nice dogs?
You forgot the worst part. After all of that, he should be condemned to spend all of eternity next to Osama bin Laden in airport security lines.
Heartening and exciting news – and I share your hopes.
I have long contended that the Israelis have drawn a line in the sand and the moment the ayatolahs pt a toe over the line they will act; that they will not wait until Iran has fired its test nuke. I believe. too, that most people fail to understand how deeply the Israelis are reluctant to be forced into any action that would ignite warfare in the middleeast. Also the high level of intelligence that is being dedicated to security systems, defense capabilities, and advanced computer science.
Stuxnet does indeed sound like something they have developed, and I am sure that its programmers are concerned at assuring that it remains in their control. May the God of Abraham be with them as they hurry to perfect a non-military means of bringing down an evil regime.
It is bitter irony that it was western technology that developed the oil production that created the wealth that now funds jihad, and western technology that they are using to build the means to destroy western culture. And these are people who, when permitted to re-occupy Gaza, immediately destroyed the prosperous hydroponic greenhouses built by Israelis, that had generated millions of dollars of revenues for Gaza.
This is a faith we are asked to tolerate?
4. stuart williamson (might I call you ‘stew’?):
Jews?
Everyone hates da j00z don’tchya know (and especially the people who will NEVER ever NEVER make peace with them in a kazillion years aka the *joke-cough* “Palestinians”. Bitch, please.
RE: Oil
But, but, but (big ass Michelle 0bama BUTT evennn), aren’t we spreading the ‘wealthy’ globally by buying OIL from those precious third worlders? *cough/gag* I would LOVE to drill our OWN oil! I would LOVE to see us utilize more natural gas! I would LOVE to see us find ways of turning out own urine to power batteries (piss be upon us).
WHO is stopping us from doing the aforementioned? WHO?
If you guess the Leftist tree humping whackadoodles you get a Scooby snack!
You know what I say?
Nuke the Islamist nut-jobs back to hell and the world will FINALLY be at peace.
And send every Leftist/Marxist scum to URANUS.
Sleepy time is kickin’ in now.
Tired.
out. zzzzzz
A blunt comment if you permit.
If you had a president with balls & half a brain, not some impotent wimp leftist creep, the US military would have gone right into the UN & dragged Ahmadinejad off the podium & taken him out & shot him.
And please, don’t give me the BS about the rule of law or diplomatic immunity for the UN or any of that crap, nor the BS about ”higher moral standards” …..
7. Terry, Eilat – Israel,
THANK YOU! I’m so tired of us playing “patty-cake” with tyrants and terrorists and cretins of the lowest common denominator.
Please, MORE blunt comments. I’m so tired of the tip-toeing around the OBVIOUS. The ‘pc’ crap has RUINED the Western Civilized world.
F_CK! I’m so angry at our ineptitude! We fall for a grenade lamely hidden by a kerchief.
What have we LEARNED from all of this?
Wake the hell up, America.
zzzzzzz
Terry, of course you are correct.What normal democratic leadership-at least one which brags about its democratic principles!-would allow a clone of Hitler a platform to incite before a world forum?The US had to issue this monster a visa, they could have denied it! Absolutely.
Genocidal leaders have their rights abrogated once they incite murder of another people.
Moreover,where is it written that EVERY anti-semite has a right ! to incite to Jew murder?
IF there ever were such a moment where a righteous kill was justified this IS it.
IF I ever were in a position to rid the world of A’jad I would consider it an honor to do so.
Further, one has to wonder why the Mossad hasn’t done the deed, the nanosecond he opened his trap that he would annihilate Israel. While it wouldn’t be an easy hit, surely our guys have the means.
What the f—k are they waiting for? By the way, this righteous hit would also have a silencing effect on Nasrallah and the rest of the crew. They would be quiet for a long time to come.Guaranteed.
Hi Adina, Hag Sameach.
I’m sure it would send the right message.
Terry,(and all others who care about Israel and justice) take a look at this, I recalled something along these lines and finally got my hands on it-
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3742960,00.html
This should close the case as to who inserted the malware.
IF ever there were a smoking gun, this article is it.
Israel let the world know that it was taking its fate-so to speak-into its own hands.
GO IDF cyber jocks!!Again, this does not obviate the necessity of actual military intervention, it just bought us some time.
UPDATE to Israeli cyber prowess, IDF techies-take a bow!!
http://debka.com/article/9045
Adina, chag sameach. The world is done with normal. That’s so yesterday. Today is lawfare, The Hague, the EU, one world at peace in which Russia, China and Islam dance around the old bonfire while the pagan-worshiping campers celebrate the sacrifice.
Only this time we’re not going into the fire.
Terry, we have not had one of those since Ronald Reagan.
Terry, can I please have some of whatever you’re drinking?
Terry, Rock on! May all the US presidential candidates in 2012 have balls, half a brain, and be against open borders. A-jad should be on everyone’s no fly list, no visa list, and nowhere near an effing microphone list. Cancel his show.
I guess William Blake must have foreseen Ahmadinejad, when he wrote this:
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
William Blake is a must for every bedside table along with Edgar Allen Poe, in every Transylvanian chilly turret/garret bedroom. With a flickering candle, and also that Raven pecking/tapping insistently on a nearby window.
…..hush!!….wait!!…. is that some mirthless laughter faintly coming in under the door? …now fading away……into a wail….
There is a good chance that Norway and Switzerland was asked to stay by those that walked out. When you walk out on someone but don’t leave someone in the room you leave your self open to claims that your distorting reports later. Yes its all recorded but he could claim that he never said X and the recording have been tampered with, without a trusted witness in the room you can’t later counter with “oh yes he did say X.’
The American military could easily stand up to anything the Iranian military has to offer. The United States has more than enough of the very best armament, along with the best fed, best led, and best trained sailors and soldiers in the world floating idly in the Persian Gulf. The American missile cruisers and destroyers in the Persian Gulf could quickly and easily contain any Iranian naval attempt to cause havoc there and rapidly destroy the Iranian Air Force and Navy in short order.
There is only one problem as Terry #7 above has pointed out and that is the present American Commander in Chief Barack Hussein Obama. Mr. Obama plainly despises the American military but is also terrified of using American military power even to protect American interests. Furthermore Mr. Obama is plagued by doubts and misgivings about the threat to America and America’s allies that Iran poses, and thus believes, as is his wont, that just talking is his safest bet.
I don’t expect, nor should anyone else expect, that Barack Obama will ever “man up” to anything much less use force on Iran, all Obama seems to be able to do is blame Bush, blame the Republicans, blame the Israelis, and whine and moan about how tough his job is. What a pathetic caricature of a man Obama has turned out to be!
God help us all!
Disagree strongly that our military can do much against Iran. They can never mount a D-Day style attack on our shores. But many Islamist wannabe martyrs may already be in the country, including born here, who can do severe damage to large cities, power and transportation infrastructure with chemical, bio and perhaps nuclear materials as well as Bombay style scare’ums. How many? Perhaps thousands.
Spoiled, uneducated and self-esteem indoctrinated Americans will then complete the damage when the shelves go bare, the water stops runnning and the power for their electronic devices fizzles out.
As much as I respect and honor our soldiers, it’s only rational under the present regime to remind you that the U.S. military, for all its weaponry and power, our military that had not lost a war in all its history up until Korea, has not won a war since 1945.
This time it will be on your own soil. Jingoism won’t defeat Jihadi fanatics led by Satan himself.
Pelaut, I have to take strong exception to your analysis of the US military’s to take on Iran.
First, no matter how difficult such an operation would be it is preferable to the risk of an Iranian A-bomb being sailed into our ports and coastal refineries, which under their insane leadership is a near certainty no matter how unthinkable.
Second, we would not be fighting a country of 70 million, probably fewer than 10% support the government at this point. Their Army cannot be relied on. Even if they did organize regular units to fight our armies if would be suicidal given our firepower. That would leave their SS equivalents to conduct a war.
Third their SS has neither the numbers or logistics for a regular warfare.
The conquest of Iran would primarily a logistical headache for us. Most of the fighting against the Khomenists would have to be conducted by a newly organized Iranian army fighting for a newly formed democratic Iranian government.
Bob….from Charlie here in Deepest Central Maryland:
By all means, let’s not have any further massed United States military presence on Asian soil. I believe it was President Eisenhower who strongly advised, in 1957, against any American participation in any Asian land war. Then came Korea and Vietnam. Let Iraq/Afghanistan be the last of that. Forget this changing of “Hearts and Minds”, that didn’t work in on the Korean Peninsula or Southeast Asia. Why expect any such changes in our present Central/West Asian Theatres of war?
What came closest then and is still applicable just about anywhere worldwide, as we have ample evidence, is barrels upon barrels of American cash, but that’s another sore subject, isn’t it?
American taxpayers are getting restless. We’ve our own problems. Our own borders and ports will need our troops.
In the event of an expanded Iranian operation, let our contribution be confined to aerial re-supply of the restless indigenous rebels accompanied by aerial attacks via drones or long-distance bombing runs against the Iranian nuclear production areas, intercepting, or..’interdicting’ may be the term…domestic Iranian supply routes.
The Chinese or maybe Russian rockets can be destroyed hopefully while not on Russian/Chinese soil. The Chinese dragon is very, very, “face” conscious, and we must not trip-wire the involvement of the smothering presence of the vast Chinese Army. Hopefully the Russian Bear has had enough of Central Asia.
I always like to repeat my caution: Avoid “the Asian Sponge”. Let Iraq/Afghanistan be our lesson. No more American blood to be spilled on Asian soil.
In sum: It’s past time for some American Isolationism. What’ve we got to show for our twentieth century involvement in Europe/Asia except backbiting anti-Americanism…and, all the while expecting still more USAID.
The problem is that Iran is getting some weapons from China
Boys and girls-while computer warfare may not ultimately rid us of the Iranian Hitler’s genocidal designs,(most likely our inestimable hardware will need to be deployed, in tandem with our software) suffice it to say that the mischief our boys and girls can make via cyber warfare is NOT the stuff of wild imaginations.I know this for a fact.
ANYONE who has a clue about our abilities needs to acquaint themselves with MAMRAM. In fact, I urge all readers/posters to google MAMRAM + MIT and see the pdf study which pops up. Once done, realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
NO doubt about it.
Our cyber jocks are motivated by a lot more than business ventures, even though out of the MAMRAM experience many business are born.First and foremost, the technology coming out of our IDF cyber units are understood as being life saving measures, not in the theoretical sense, but in the ACTUAL sense.The will to stay alive motivates people to push the envelope, to push to the outer (brain) limits.
Read up on this VERY important, but little known topic.
By the way, I can’t go to ANY event, personal or otherwise, where the room isn’t full of hi-tech engineers. We breed engineers like the Muslims breed jihadists.
Personally I have two of my own-MIT & Caltech educated-currently working and living in Israel.And they are ONLY the tip of our technical spear capability.There are many more where they come from!
Thank God…..
…I’m delighted, really, to read these two post of yours….and I will read up on this MAMRAM.
Thanks.
He is a nasty piece of work. No doubt about it. I hope something happens to destroy that regime.
A much more plausible explanation is right here:
http://frank.geekheim.de/?p=1189
All I can say that this is a far more likely scenario. It is just as wonderful as what Roger thinks, perhaps even more so. Even spy novel writers would have a hard time imagining how devious and cool this attack was.
On the other hand, the fact that someone did write code that does what Stuxnet does should make everyone sit up and take notice. Nobody in the West would have been able to defend against this attack either. Those who like having running water, transportation, electricity, and communications might want to have a discussion with their local public utilities commission and other political leaders.
We know one thing for certain: This was only the first shot. There will be others.
Not to mention the idiots that purchase E-voting machines with no audit trail. November elections may come down to who can control the most voting machines. Yes, I know that the Dems have specalized in finding boxes of votes (all for their candidate) in the back of a car – but that will change.
Too bad. If you were that close to the little putz, you should have taken the bastard out and earned your place in history.
Carla, I am ordinarily a pretty composed man, leading a rather non-newsworthy life.
And, I am long past my interscholastic competitive football and baseball days. Which is to say, that after a round of golf, (the ONLY game at which I’m any good any more), my muscles are sore.
And, I would still personally volunteer to sacrifice the remainder of my life to Mossad, if they would give me the honor of personally taking that soulless pipsqueak to his final destination. He hates with a passion and is driven to destroy. I ordinarily am the precise opposite. But, I’m willing to make this one exception.
Oh no! Now you can expect the UN / Obama to demand that Israelis put Stuxnet on the negotiation table, along with its nuclear arsenal! Unfair advantage! The Law of Non-Proliferation of Malware for Military Purposes!
“Now you can expect the UN / Obama to demand that Israelis put Stuxnet on the negotiation table”
Nope, won’t happen, because the Israelis aren’t going to say a word, they will neither confirm nor deny they have this.
Roger – let’s hope you are on to something. And most important – let’s hope A-jad and his henchmen don’t use Apple Macs. To enjoy this worm requires Microsoft.
There’s some very good technical discussion of this, including dissections of the code, on Symantec’s web site. The SCADA system is an off-the-shelf Siemens product, such as would be used in sewage treatment plants, but these systems all have extensive customization for the processes they are controlling. Whoever put it together had to have had detailed knowledge of not only the control software but the particular installation in Iran, suggesting that they may have had help from Siemens and from someone inside the plant. That ought to give mini-Hitler some sleepless nights.
I have documented networking technologies and network management systems. Though the products or ‘solution’ I have worked on are no doubt more generic and far less detailed than the software Iran uses, the combination of inside knowledge of what they actually use and the ability to take over networks from afar (or aclose) should give the engineers at those sites nervous tics.
There’s an interesting article on Hot Air about the virus, and suggests that it might not be the Israelis who did it. It’s a real “walk back the cat” article, and brings up alot of points worthy of discussion, if anyone’s interested.
How about a link to that site, RPL?
A genetically altered worm that only sterilizes a certain population. That’s what else is needed.
I quit worrying about the survival of Israel on the day I found a knitting blog by an Israeli housewife that had mathematical knitting, knit chemical signs, and mentioned, not as a matter of pride, just as a bits and pieces, all the different housewives raising their children- and each of them had an advanced degree in math or engineering or biotechnology. the wives– knitting– and having babies!—the husband’s were just as smart. Anyone in the world is basically a rock-throwing troglodyte compared to these families.
I’d like to point out that the stuff about encryption locks and so on- the engineers and software writers are Jewish, and in America. I’d bet on the survival of Israel and the Jews before I’d bet on anything else. And may they stay in America, too, to teach my kids math and science and goodness knows what else.
that little,pygmy, gilligan look alike, is an example of whom our illustrious POTUS is willing to have mediate in our “arizona issue”. i’m so confident that he & the likes of china, yeman, libya, saudi arabia, pakistan, venezeula, cuba & many other “humane” gov’ts will be eminently qualified to arbitrate in human rights disagreements.
There is no walla-tango-jango in what is clearly his properly pronounced name: Ahminadinnerjacket.
I always pronounced it “Ah-Mahd-Jihad” (“A Mad Jihad” with long “a”s.)
I am a whole-hearted unapologetic supporter of Israel and a Jewish patriotic lover of my own homeland, the United States of America. As such, I am a little disturbed by the tenor of some of the comments here. Both the boastful claims of our superiority and the death fantasies projected onto Muslims and, in particular, A-jad, I assume are palliative and perhaps even a release of much anxiety for many of our posters, but they are not particularly helpful. The reason that not even the Israelis, let alone our American forces, do not even think about assassinating A-Jad is simple. Once your enemy’s leaders are killed, your own become obvious targets. It is too easy for determined people, even a small poorly supplied bunch in a hostile and foreign country, to kill any one person who shows him or herself in public. Also, this is a situation that would also lead to tit-for-tat escalation. So, unless we want to shroud our own leaders in isolation, or start a real shooting war before we’re ready for, or even sure of the efficacy of, global conflict, Israel or the U.S. removing Iran’s leadership by bullet or bomb is not a wise option.
Think about it in terms of historical parallels; most people fantasize about the act of killing Hitler in terms of ending Nazi tyranny. But, if Hitler were actually assassinated in 1938, would WWII have unfolded any differently, or at least any better? We don’t really know; it might have been worse. His movement wouldn’t have necessarily been stopped, his ideas would have had unending power as from a martyr for his cause, and he might have been quickly replaced by an equally evil but more circumspect leader who could have guided Germany to a subtler but more successful strategy to share the world with their Soviet and Japanese counterparts, undoing Hitler’s most stupid mistakes. Under such circumstances, there most likely would still have been a holocaust, but not a later successful rout of the Nazi ideology, nor a freeing from tyranny of much of Europe and the rest of the world. And, the free West would not have been around to gird itself for the equally important task of resisting the spread of dictatorial Marxism. Think about it. The evil we fight is almost never the evil of one man. One man may be necessary to at first distill the ambient thinking of a great many others into a coherent vision, but once that vision is born, it’s on its own, existing independent of its creator, nesting in the minds of millions of others. This is how it works.
To successfully fight the Jihadists of either Sunni or Shia persuasion, we must marshal our forces for a civilizational challenge. First, we must believe in ourselves and our cause of freedom, liberty and the Western concept of the rights of the individual, especially as to the right of conscience to believe in whatever God, or no God at all, that we each have, according to our Constitution, without fear of abridgment from any group or government. That belief in our own cause is paramount. Then we must do whatever else is necessary to protect our individual rights, and help protect those of our allies, up to and including, if necessary, the last resort of armed conflict. First, we must give an unashamed and muscular diplomacy, backed up by the will to use force if necessary, a chance. That kind of self-confident diplomacy has not yet even been attempted by our current multi-culti-every-other-civilization-is-equally-good know-nothing administration. Hopefully, this will change after an electoral realignment occurs this November.
We must be strong, have a strong economy, and be unafraid of advancing our own interests in the cause of liberty. So, as I have concluded so often in my posts on this forum: remember to vote this November! Turn out Mr. Obama’s cohorts so as to render him more harmless until his turn for employment in the real world is upon him in 2012.
That’s all well and good, but not an answer, for Israelis, to what faces Israel from Iran. You have articulated the oft-expressed hope and intent of relatively non-assimilated Jews in the US for turning Republican, and partly in the hope that this will ‘save Israel.’ I was assured multiple times by Republican Americans during the Bush years that ‘he won’t leave office without dealing with Iran.’
So, given that the clock is winding perilously down to zero hour, and it appears that the Israeli gov’t must be prepared to take the fateful decision (which many hawks and even pro-Israeli people still warn against), I don’t see a problem with releasing anxiety. Besides, not everybody posting on such threads is Jewish. Lighten up.
So your counter is what, go ahead and assassinate A-Jad? That that will help? My post was an answer to those who suggested that or some other similar course of action. It was not a prescription for the Israeli government, as far as what they may finally be forced to choose to do about Iran’s nuclear weapon capabilities.
The fact is that I’m quite sure that the Mossad has no intention of making A-Jad a martyr, and neither do they think his death alone would solve anything at all. Their responses, if they come, will most likely be narrow military ones designed to wreck the nuclear and defense installations of Iran as much as possible. If a computer virus would accomplish the same thing, or close to it, I’m sure they would rather use it than suffer the additional backlash that would come with the inevitable collateral damages from bombing to irrelevant Iranian property and Iranian people who may personally have been against the regime itself.
As far as Bush and the “failure” of Republicans to “save” Israel is concerned, I’m quite sure that it would be wise for people who care about the survival of Israel to back political leaders who are friendliest to the real interests of Israel than those who are not. In this case, which party is friendlier to thast survival is quite clear. The reasons that President Bush did not attack Iran before he left office is something about which we may not learn for generations to come. I am confidant that there were political and strategic reasons for him holding off on that, and that they overcame any tactical advantages that such an action would have gained the U.S. and Israel at the time. To conclude from that that it is therefore not advisable to suggest that the current crop of young conservative Republicans running for office would do more for Israel than Obama and his left wing congressional cohort is quite a stretch, a foolish one I’d say.
Finally, I’m Jewish and American, not an assimilated or unassimilated anything. America is my country and home and I’m damn proud of it. Judaism is my religion. The Jewish people all over the world are my kinsmen by distant DNA and religious faith in the covenant handed down to His believers by God. Israel is the home of many of my kinsmen, the miraculous refuge of those cast off from many other lands and those self-selected Jews who wish to live in a wholly Jewish society on the land they have occupied, under self-rule and foreign empires alike, for thousands of years. And, Israel was the seemingly unobtainable reality of the imaginations so many of my Jewish forefathers, like a great ghost lying over the dreams of the diaspora.
Israel deserves and requires a place among the nations of men. But, I am not an Israeli. I am an American, and do whatever I can for my own country to help myself and my children, along with my fellow Americans and their children, while also doing my best for the Jews of Israel. Changing this American government is what is best for everyone, Americasns, Israelis and even most Iranians.
I just wanted to say that those last two paragraphs were among the best descriptions of personal patriotism I’ve come across. I have no particular religion, and I don’t know how far we’d agree on politics (my guess is decently), but dammit, I’m proud that you identify as a proud American, regardless of your heritage. I wish more people would do that.
Thank you.
Oh I fully support whacking A-jad by any means possible. Frankly I am surprised some enterprising Mossad folks didn’t take advantage of his visit to NYC, though perhaps the US has warned them off doing anything on US soil for appearances sake. In Texas they have this affirmative defense for shooting an unarmed person, if you can prove they “needed killin’” due to them being a truly evil person. I suppose we’ll never see A-jad making an appearance in that state.
I think assassination is underappreciated. If we had more assassinations I think we would have fewer wars. Any national leader who talks about wiping another nation off the map should be fair game.
Mike, ain’t that the truth about the need for more Texas style justice.If only!
In this regard, I am sure that you, and those who think like you, would have greatly admired my best friend in Israel. (he died unexpectedly from a heart attack in 2008)
To wit, Tsafrir Ronen, may his memory be for a blessing, was a Sayeret Matkal commando(part of the IDF General Staff Special forces)who took part in the raid on Entebbe. The rest of his time in the Special Forces led him to ‘parts unknown’, deep in Arab enemy territory.
While he never revealed details of his escapades, he would often allude to current events through the clear eyes of a Commando-he knew the enemy up close and personal. Whenever an enemy leader took to the bully pulpit, threatening to wage war on the ‘Zionist Entity’, my dear friend would quietly say – if only his unit was nearby…..
Sort of like, Texas style justice, right?
He was a good one. I saw him on ArutzSheva TV not long before he died. Do I remember a post where you talked about working on an encyclopedia project with Tsafrir?
Larry, not on an encyclopedia, but on a 24/7 satellite news channel, Israel National Television. Due to his untimely death a group of his financial backers are trying to get it off the ground, hopefully we will have good news on it soon.It was mirrored after FOX News. It was backed by Natan Sharansky, even Netanyahu wrote a letter of support for it.
The leftist media here tried many ways to stop him, but never made headway. He owned-now his estate does-thousands of hrs of historical archived footage,(mostly referencing Israeli history) enough to be used as historical references for every type of program conceivable.
I am helping his wife as much as possible to see that this gets off the ground.
Excellent. If you’d like some help in writing/researching at some point, let me know. Israel needs some competition for the Dan Margalit/Yaron London/Raviv Drucker group of worldly cynics.
It’s obvious (from the little bit of him I couldn’t avoid seeing this week) that Arachnidjihad is obsessed with the idea that Iran should be equal in stature to the US. Hugo Chavez is driven by the same sort of fixation.
Each will say…whatever…in order to bring attention to himself.
At least it was mildly cathartic when, yesterday, Eric Shawn asked A’jad how he could say such an “insane and nutty thing” about 911 in his UN speech.
The spidery little twerp appeared to be taken aback.
Shawn also asked him if he would swear to Allah that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear bomb.
A’jad of course weaved and bobbed at that one, but at least Shawn’s questions had some spice and went beyond predictable pap.
Israel is hardly the cause of Muslim pathologies
the msm is keeping this worm thing very quiet. fox started to talk about the other morning, and then abruptly stopped and never mentioned it again. we won’t read it in the papers until barry gives the word. it must have really made the islam lovers in our government nauseated with fear. a condition debvoutly to be wished for by the rest of us.
One problem is that America and Israel being modern complex networked societies are more vulnerable to electronic warfare, including worm attacks, than are more technically primitive places. It is good that Israel has the talent to develop cyber weapons. It is bad that we lack adequate defenses and may well suffer more than our enemies in the ensuing conflict.
Thousands of moslems study information systems and networking in the Gulf States, Europe or America. Some of them seek to do us harm. Many thousands of skilled but underemployed computer engineers in the former Soviet Union engage in malicious practices, even if it isn’t their government’s policy to encourage them as it well may be. In essence Russia is a society that was stripped of its moral foundations by communism and is now a Hacker’s paradise. Large numbers of Americans have been similarly damaged by the ideology controlled organs of education and media but given the technical tools to do harm. They drift into Socialism, Nihilism, Anarchism or Islam. China has entire PLA Divisions devoted to mapping the western grid and testing it in preparation for offensive operations.
Breaking into “Iranian” computers should be “DUCK SOUP” nearly all of their “stuff” is smuggled in through the Arab Gulf States and is off the shelf stuff with Intel or AMD processors, I believe the Israelis know a thing or THREE about the Intel chips as theyENGINEER/ MAKE a lot of them, AMD’s are made to run in the same systems/environments. DrShalit
“…it drove old agnostic me to God…”
Not the Jewish God certainly, Roger. Absolute or metaphysical evil–like the Devil and hell–are not part of Jewish belief which roots morality in free choice. Ahmadinejad is culpable for his crimes because he volitionally chose to be the murderous little jerk he is. The Devil didn’t make him do it.
The existence of God is not dependent on the existence of Ahmadinejads or Hitlers.
Stuxnet has been leaked to the world by US sources. Everything else is irrelevant.
“The Enemy Within
When the Conficker computer “worm” was unleashed on the world in November 2008, cyber-security experts didn’t know what to make of it. It infiltrated millions of computers around the globe. It constantly checks in with its unknown creators. It uses an encryption code so sophisticated that only a very few people could have deployed it. For the first time ever, the cyber-security elites of the world have joined forces in a high-tech game of cops and robbers, trying to find Conficker’s creators and defeat them. The cops are failing. And now the worm lies there, waiting …”
By Mark Bowden
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/the-enemy-within/8098/
(the tentative conclusion was Conficker is coming from Ukraine or Russia)
From Adina K’s Ynet link “…Technolytics Institute, an American consultancy, last year rated Israel the sixth-biggest “cyber warfare threat,” after China, Russia, Iran, France and “extremist/terrorist groups.” …”
For once, I am glad Israel comes in sixth, but I question why Iran and extremist/terrorist groups are ranked so high. Where is India?
One wonders how the Pentagon really feels about Israel when they ponder cyber-warfare. Most reliable ally on a very short list?
About time we had some good news…
postscript: the EU always designates one member to stay and listen to A-jad at the UN. The Swiss stay as the neutral who must be courteous in order to function as the back channel.
ISRAELI’S and other sharp minded, decent folks: Work as if everything depends on you, and pray as if everything depends on G-d. You will prevail. Love over hatred, creating over destroying, improving the world over destroying our world.
The world needs to be cleansed of evil, hateful, sexually repressed cruel killers (Read: Islamists)
Hot Air on Stuxnet.
M Simon, also.
Evil isn’t real. Neither is good. They are just concepts. Use real words like “harmful”, “dangerous”, or “threat”. Fighting “evil” is pointless, because they, the so-called “evil ones”, may see US as “evil”. The world’s never been one-sided.