Watch your back!

Windows Virus targetted Iranian Nuke Facilities

It is no longer a thought experiment. The age of Cyber-Warfare has begun. The only question is, who created this thing? The USA, Israel, France, Russia? I'm betting there is a tell-all book already written, waiting for the right moment.

The malware, however, doesn’t just sabotage any frequency converter. It inventories a plant’s network and only springs to life if the plant has at least 33 frequency converter drives made by Fararo Paya in Teheran, Iran, or by the Finland-based Vacon.

Even more specifically, Stuxnet targets only frequency drives from these two companies that are running at high speeds – between 807Hz and 1210Hz. Such high speeds are used only for select applications. Symantec is careful not to say definitively that Stuxnet was targeting a nuclear facility, but notes that “frequency converter drives that output over 600Hz are regulated for export in the United States by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as they can be used for uranium enrichment.”

Iran bans GMail

It appears that the Iranian regime has not learned the lesson of the election debacle - that the internet can not be easily controlled. In an attempt to suppress protests around the Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, they are banning GMail from the country in favor of a "national e-mail service". The ban is supposedly permanent.

Of course, this may simply drive users to other free (both as in no-cost, and as in freedom) e-mail services like Hotmail, Yahoo, AIM Mail, GMX Mail, Inbox.Com, Fastmail, Lavabit, MySpace, and more. This is clearly an attempt to stop an avalanche with a stop sign.

A Milestone in the Nuclear Age - A Cure for Radiation Sickness

If you have done any reading on the Manhattan Project, then you have read countless stories about the horror experience by the scientists there as they began to understand the phenomenon of radiation sickness. The atom bomb was originally engineered to simply be a VERY LARGE conventional explosive, but the radioactive fallout from the bombs caused unexpected side-effects. Days or weeks after the bomb, survivors began seeing hair falling out, teeth and fingernails rotting away, sores and burns appearing spontaneously, etc. Some believe more died from radiation poisoning after Hiroshima than were killed directly by the explosion. Scenes from these events have become emblematic of the nuclear age, and movies such as THE DAY AFTER have burned images like this into the collective consciousness.

But now, faced with a future nuclear Iran, scientists in Israel have developed a cure for radiation sickness!!! Using a protein found in human gut bacteria, they found a medication that could be ingested anywhere from 24 hours before exposure to 72 hours after. Animals treated with the medication showed an almost 100% survival rate, and in many cases showed no evidence of radiation sickness at all.

This is a game changer. Here is hoping that in the Age of Terrorism government will be loading up stockpiles ASAP.

It's All About Priorities...

From Townhall.com.

Iran Soccer Players Banned for Life

Four Iranian soccer players were banned from playing for the national team after wearing green armbands during a recent world cup qualifying match against South Korea. The players wore the green armband to show their support for those who are protesting the election results in Iran. The players ranged in age from 24 to 32. I hope the worst thing that happens to these guys is their banishment from the national team. Unfortunately, I think they will be looking over their shoulders when they return to Iran. They should be commended for their peaceful protest in which they didn't distract from the game. They simply wore their armbands.

Iran's "Marriage Crisis"?

I have been so busy with things at work that posting has been light this week. We discussed this interesting article from Time.Com at GNO this week on the upcoming Iranian elections, and how youth are beginning to really change that country.

These days, the phrase "marriage crisis" pops up in election debates, newspapers and blogs and is considered by government officials and ordinary Iranians alike to be one of the nation's most serious problems. It refers to the rising number of young people of marrying age who cannot afford to marry or are choosing not to tie the knot. By official estimates, there are currently 13 million to 15 million Iranians of marrying age; to keep that figure steady, Iran should be registering about 1.65 million marriages each year. The real figure is closer to half that.

Why does this matter? Because Iran's government cannot afford to further alienate the young people that comprise more than 35% of its population.

Will these kinds of issue topple Ahmadinejad? And if so, will it mean anything in a country where the Ayatollahs are the Supreme Court? It should be an interesting time to observe Iran.

Iranian Students Demonstrate for Democracy

I am not a believer in George W. Bush's contention that it is America's duty to "export Democracy" around the world, the most visible expression of which is the War in Iraq. But I am a believer that people in all nations thirst for liberty and freedom. It is reassuring that at the same time Iran is flirting with nuclear oblivion to see students demonstrating against the dictatorship and for democracy. It is a reminder that even in nations held in bondage by a strong hand and a philosophy that supports tyranny, the light of freedom burns still.

Hundreds of students from different colleges gathered Sunday at Tehran University to protest against injustice and the dictatorship which runs their country and their lives.

The gathering marked "Students' Day," a commemoration of the day about 50 years ago when the Shah's police attacked students.

Iranian students inside the Islamic Republic and abroad have long used the occasion to call for political freedom and voice their struggle against dictators - first the Western-backed Shah, and now the hard-line Islamic regime led by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

I pray that in time these students can bring about transformation in their country. I am not naive enough to think it will be soon or easy, but I am hopeful that it may come in time.

Iran Loses To Japan For Security Council Seat

I didn't even know they were making a bid for it, but Iran has lost to Japan for the Asian non-permanent U.N. Security Council seat. They needed two-thirds of those voting in order to get a seat, but only got 32 votes. I'm not sure how many votes two-thirds is, but Austria got their seat with 133 votes. Thankfully we won't have Iran trying to dictate where U.N forces go or don't go.

Hormuz incident caused by prankster?

A lot of people have accused the Bush administration of concocting a false casus belli out of an incident between Iranian speed boats and a naval destroyer earlier this week. The US Navy and the Iranian Navy released conflicting recordings of the events, and confusion has been rife. Now, it is being suggested that the international incident may have been caused by a well-known Persian Gulf prankster broadcasting on military channels.

A heckling radio ham known as the Filipino Monkey, who has spent years pestering ships in the Persian Gulf, is being blamed today for sparking a major diplomatic row after American warships almost attacked Iranian patrol boats.
The US navy came within seconds of firing at the Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz on January 6 after hearing threats that the boats were attacking and were about to explode.

Senior navy officials have admitted that the source of the threats, picked up in international waters, was a mystery.

This falls under the heading of "truth is stranger than fiction" and shows what a knife edge we are walking in the Persian Gulf. Iranian and American diplomats need to work out a method to authenticate transmissions now, before we go to war over some idiot's version of "Is your refrigerator running?"

Bush asked to speak at Iranian university

In a switch from last week's debacle at Columbia University, President Bush has been asked to speak at Ferdowsi University in Iran. Of course the president isn't going to accept this invitation, but how interesting would it be if he did choose to go? Would he come off looking as bad as Ahmadinejad or maybe better. I suppose it all depends on what side of the argument you're on. Then again maybe the University is being as slimy as Columbia was in inviting Ahmadinejad only to verbally bash him.

Russia Counters

Russia has countered our proposal for a missile defense system by saying that we should put our missile defense in Turkey, Iraq, or on sea platforms. So, let me get this straight... putting our missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic is a threat to Russia's balance of power, but putting them in Turkey or Iraq which appear to be *closer* to Russia is okay? I read somewhere that one of the Russian leaders in this is former KGB and wants to return to the Soviet Union style Russia. Is this Russia admitting that they want Poland and the Czech Republic back?

The link above is a NY Times article which seemed to have a good summary and a small number of ads. For those that prefer, here is a USA Today article (Unfortunately, it appears to have a pop-up, but the FireFox pop-up blocker blocks it).

For those wondering where Azerbaijan is, you can see it on the map just north of Iran.

Another cool thing, apparently the NY Times allows you to double click words on their site to get a definition (such as finding out about Azerbaijan). Very cool.

Iran Laughs; Russia Threatens Europe

Iran is laughing at us for saying that the new missile defense shield to be placed in Europe is to protect Europe from them because their missiles won't reach that far. Part of me is surprised that they would readily admit this given that it shows weakness. The part of me that isn't surprised thinks that perhaps this is just to further provoke Russia which is now claiming that it may have to attack Europe to keep the balance of power. I can't imagine that Russia would seriously do this, but then again we have been at odds with Russia in the past few years. Perhaps a pro-Soviet Union elected leadership could cause trouble.

Also, while Poland and the Czech Republic are our friends now, what happens if they turn on us? Will we be in the position we've been in the past with fighting against our own technology? We seem to have a habit as a country of giving support to a country and then fighting them some years later.

Is the Cold War with Iran heating up?

The Guardian (a British publication) is claiming that the ongoing cold war with Iran over their nuclear ambitions is about to flare up into full-heat, as Iran goes all-out to turn Iraq into the stage for a proxy war with America and Britain.

The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat. "We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus's report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush's controversial, six-month security "surge" of 30,000 troop reinforcements]," the official said.
"Certainly it [the violence] is going to pick up from their side. There is significant latent capability in Iraq, especially Iranian-sponsored capability. They can turn it up whenever they want. You can see that from the pre-positioning that's been going on and the huge stockpiles of Iranian weapons that we've turned up in the last couple of months. The relationships between Iran and groups like al-Qaida are very fluid," the official said.

I can't imagine anything more dangerous than this kind of brinksmanship from Iran. It would not take much to push Allied forced into a retaliatory strike on Iran - or to taking the leash off of Israel to allow them to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities - which could lead to all-out war. And if America is not very effective at fighting guerilla insurgency, we are quite good at fighting conventional wars with nation-states. Just ask Sadaam Hussein or the Taliban. Unfortunately, wars don't tend to stay localized in the Middle East.