Obama Ordered Computer Virus Attacks Against Iran

Decided Program Would Continue After Stuxnet Disaster

By Jason Ditz,
June 01, 2012
Courtesy Of "Anti-War"

Adding fuel to the speculation that the Flame Virus is a government created weapon, new reports reveal that President Obama ordered the launch of “cyberattacks” using computer malware as one of his first acts as president.

US dalliances into this sort of attack are of course well established, with the 2010 leak of the Stuxnet worm causing worldwide havoc. The worm, a joint creation of the US and Israel, was meant to target Iran’s uranium enrichment facility and was developed to attack Siemens computers. After its escape, it was altered by other groups and attacked Siemens computers worldwide, including in the United States.

Apparently even getting caught out on the Stuxnet disaster didn’t phase Obama, who ordered the program to continue even after this. The US is also said to have used viruses to attack Iran’s Russian built Bushehr power plant, bizarre since the president has insisted that the US doesn’t object to the energy program.

After initial confirmation from unnamed officials in the media, the US has denied any role in the Flame Virus, which is spreading across the Middle East. The virus, one of the most advanced ever seen, allows the attacker to capture keystrokes and screenshots, and even to turn on the microphones of effected systems to record conversations happening nearby.

Officials Say Move 'Preferable Alternative To Airstrikes'

Details continue to pour in about the Obama Administration’s decision to authorize a hostile computer hacking campaign against Iran, one of the first decisions he made upon taking office.

The most public of the attacks, Stuxnet, which was also an embarrassment since it quickly spread beyond the Iranian nuclear program and started attacking industrial computers across the planet, was created by the CIA, with the help of the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory.

Israeli experts were also involved in the creation of the Stuxnet worm, and while this fact has been floating around over a year, officials are just now getting around to confirming it.

US officials have defended the move, saying they believed it was a “preferable alternative to airstrikes,” but the enormous damage such viruses have caused when they inevitably move beyond the target and start attacking computers worldwide suggest it isn’t exactly a panacea either.

Despite the damage of the Stuxnet fiasco, the Obama Administration has continued the program. Though it has yet to be confirmed, it is widely believed that the Flame Virus, an advanced surveillance program, is also a product of this scheme.