US, Israel may be involved in covert war against Iran: Report
The huge explosion ripped through the Revolutionary Guard Corps base on November 12, leveling most of the buildings and killing 17 people, including a founder of Iran's ballistic missile program, General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam.
The newspaper said the goal of the covert effort is to derail Iran's quest for a nuclear weapons capability and to stave off an Israeli or US airstrike to eliminate or lessen the threat.
“It looks like the 21st century form of war,” the paper quotes Patrick Clawson, who directs the Iran Security Initiative at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, as saying. "It does appear that there is a campaign of assassinations and cyber war, as well as the semi-acknowledged campaign of sabotage."
Any such operation would be highly classified, and those who might know are not talking, the report said.
For years, the United States and its allies have sought to hinder Iran's weapons programs by secretly supplying faulty parts, plans or software, The Times said. No proof of sabotage has emerged, but Iran's nuclear program clearly has hit obstacles that thwarted progress in recent years.
“We definitely are doing that,” the report quotes Art Keller, a former CIA case officer who worked on Iran, as saying. “It's pretty much the stated mission of the (CIA's) counter-proliferation division to do what it takes to slow Iran's weapons of mass destruction program.”
Many Western experts are convinced that American and Israeli engineers secretly fed the Stuxnet computer worm into Iran's nuclear program in 2010, The Times pointed out.
The virus reportedly caused centrifuges used to enrich uranium to spin out of control and shatter, the paper said.
Neither the US nor the Israeli government has acknowledged any role in the apparent cyber-attack, the report noted.
COMMENTS (8)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1732354127-0/Untitled-design-(3)1732354127-0-270x192.webp "north america s oldest macaroni penguins mark their 40th year")
Declared guilty? G din? Declared guilty by whom? Even terrorists "declare" their victims as guilty of "something they think is a crime".
If the act is done by those with the power of the media behind them, it is not terrorism, otherwise it is.
@ G. Din any one who tries to protect itself from others is guilty of being bombed? This is dictatorship by the ones enchanting the slogans of democracy. "This" is islamophobia dear nothing else!
@reason11: "Exactly how is this different than terrorism?" "This" is targeted accurately at those declared guilty who had been warned to cease and desist and did not do so. "This" accomplishes its objective with the least collateral damage Terrorism is random, targeting innocents with incalculable collateral damage. "This" is a rational response to a crude bully!
@reason 11, because this is done by civilized world thats why its not a terrorism its a adventurism and nation proud to killed non white race which is according to israeli god allowed to do.
Exactly how is this different than terrorism?
These cyber attacks are much worse than those cross border ones., which are open and the assailants identifiable. Iran has reasons to be furious and vindictive towards these covert operations, that destroyed the Revolutionary Guard Corps base in Teheran last month, allegedly derailing the nuclear programme.