It will be interesting to find out if any information on who leaked the national security information on the Stuxnet virus is revealed by the special counsel, but whatever further information is released, the Israelis have decided to tell their side of the story.
Breitbart.com is reporting today that Israel intelligence claims that it first developed the Stuxnet virus and that President Obama joined in later after Israel had some difficulty convincing him to do so. The Israelis are accusing President Obama of claiming credit for the Stuxnet virus in order to increase his chances of re-election.
In IsraelSpy.com Yossi Melman reports:
The Israeli officials actually told me a different version. They said that it was Israeli intelligence that began, a few years earlier, a cyberspace campaign to damage and slow down Iran’s nuclear intentions. And only later they managed to convince the USA to consider a joint operation — which, at the time, was unheard of. Even friendly nations are hesitant to share their technological and intelligence resources against a common enemy. In our book, Spies Against Armageddon, we will reveal much more about the special strategic relations and cooperation between the CIA and the Mossad and the importance given by the Aman (military intelligence) to cyberspace warfare.
Yet my Israeli sources understand the sensitivity and the timing of the issue and are not going to be dragged into a battle over taking credit. “We know that it is the presidential election season,” one Israeli added, ”and don’t want to spoil the party for President Obama and his officials, who shared in a twisted and manipulated way some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of the success of cyberwar.”
This is interesting on a couple of levels–Israel would have more motivation to develop a virus to slow down Iran’s nuclear program–it is a nearer threat to Israel than it is to America, and also Israel has no reason to actually support the re-election of Barack Obama–he has not always treated them well.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if some of the leaks the White House was being investigated for turned out to be untrue to begin with?
