Israel Matzav

Who says Stuxnet is an Israeli project?

Remember that article in the Sunday Times that claimed that the Stuxnet computer worm had been developed by the US and Israel and that it was tested in Dimona? Jeffrey Carr doesn't buy it.

And the proof? The journalists give none, because no one wants to go on the record. Fair enough, but with such a sensational claim I’d expect, at the very least, to read some additional supporting evidence. And here it is – “Israeli officials grin widely when asked about its effects.” That’s it. That’s all they’ve got. Some officials grinned.

So how likely is it that an Israeli official who has direct knowledge of Stuxnet testing at Dimona is going to speak to a reporter about it? Based upon the experience of Mordechai Vanunu, who’s considered a traitor to Israel and has spent most of his life in prison after he revealed his knowledge of the top secret facility to the British press in 1986, I’m guessing the answer has something to do with snowballs and hell. To put it mildly, the Mossad was very unhappy with Mr. Vanunu. And everyone in Israel knows it.

As far as Mossad chief Meir Dagan telling the Israeli Knesset on the day before his retirement that Iran’s capabilities to develop a nuclear warhead have been pushed back until 2015, I have no idea where that figure came from or what Mr. Dagan’s motivations would be for saying that but the Israeli Prime Minister, the founder of Israel’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and at least two respected Israeli experts disagree with Mr. Dagan. One of them spent 40 years working in precisely this area.

Read the whole thing. He's got lots of proof. Or maybe this is just the Israeli way of creating plausible deniability? Hmmm.

Labels: Dimona nuclear reactor, Iranian nuclear program, Jeffrey Carr, New York Times, Stuxnet

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:48 PM