Epstein Secrets

n between our troubles with Syria and Iran is pretty straightforward. The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad is Iran's closest ally, and its link to the Arab Middle East. Syria has provided the land bridge for the transport of Iranian weapons and militants to Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Without Syria, Iran's pretens

kely see Israeli- Palestinian negotiations as a bottomless pit for diplomatic energy rather than as a priority. If Obama is reelected, he will have no Middle East hands to whom he can turn. Mideast advisor Dennis Ross has left; Jeffrey Feltman, assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, departed for

ill in all likelihood leave when a new secretary of state is appointed or a few months later. In January 2009, Obama appointed Mitchell as special Middle East envoy on his second day in office. That kind of priority will not be assigned to the "peace process" in January 2013 -- no matter who wins. The ne

me defined by targeted assassination of Al Qaeda leaders by teams of Navy SEALS and Predator drones. In cooperating closely with Israel to develop Stuxnet, a computer virus aimed at Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. engaged in the first known act of pure cyberwarfare against another country. Obama has

arily and politically, and there are many sensitive and complex issues we have yet to deal with. One of these issues is our relationship with other Middle Eastern states. The president hasn't mentioned the word "Israel" in any of his speeches, EFTA00701617 yet official contacts with Israel — regarding both

2010, when the computer worm escaped from the Natanz plant and was replicated across the globe. The computer industry soon named the escaped weapon Stuxnet. Iran announced last year that it had begun its own military cyberunit, and Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran's Passive Defense Organ

p is organized, or where it has bought or developed its expertise. EFTA00701611 The United States has never acknowledged its role in creating the Stuxnet virus, nor has it said anything about the huge covert program that created it, code-named Olympic Games, which was first revealed earlier this year

aria (Islamic law) and too one-sided in favor of Israel. He's on record calling for "the permanent withdrawal of United States military forces from the Middle East and the Gulf." EFTA00712946 Feel better now? To its credit, the Times does not repeat the Journal's sleight of hand. Rather than being obscured,

xclusive and need not be in competition." Believing it was his role to repudiate neoconservatism, Obama completely missed the revolutionary wave of Middle Eastern democracy—precisely the wave the neocons had hoped to trigger with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. When revolution broke out—first in Iran

that are feasible. Cyber weapons have global reach at a limited cost, but questions remain about their actual lethality and attribution. After the Stuxnet attack in which malicious code entered the computer networks of the Iranian nuclear program and physically destroyed equipment by manipulating oper

Hard Gatekeeping can - with a little imagination and some discipline — be laid on puzzles like terrorism, cyberattacks, US-China relations, order in the Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, income inequality and global warming. It provides a sharp single image of what we're after - and guidelines fo

nsive pre-attack research. Every innovation in “righteous malware” is quickly copied and used in dangerous attack tools. The clever modular design of Stuxnet, for instance, was studied by criminals and was found years later still echoing in weapons aimed at banks, credit card companies and health insurance

p find and deploy the sorts of really deep system exploits that enable brazen cyber thefts of millions of pieces of personal data or attacks like the Stuxnet virus, which caused thousands of Iranian nuclear centrifuges to vibrate themselves apart. And they do still more: Most of the attacks we've talked ab

FTA00659891 their first contested leadership election in 7,000 years, how should we understand the speed, scope and variety of change transforming the Middle East? A year ago, the narrative was simple -- Arabs had awoken from their millennial slumber and demanded to be citizens, not subjects. But since then,

m started under the Bush Administration, but according to Sanger "Obama decided to accelerate the attacks," code-named Olympic Games, including the Stuxnet worm that set back the Iranian nuclear program by as much as two years [2]. EFTA00659888 The story [3], adapted from Sanger's forthcoming book, i

sia), held in Washington, was expected to call for talks to restart, as a matter of urgency. Nobody seems minded to point out an obvious fact. With the Middle East in turmoil, starting a new round of Israeli-Palestinian talks is completely pointless. Speaking last week Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy

have caused physical damage or disruption to critical services are the alleged Israeli use of cyber attack to disrupt Syrian air defenses and the Stuxnet attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. An extortion attempt in Brazil against a public utility may have backfired and EFTA_R1_02031722 EFTA026

sia), held in Washington, was expected to call for talks to restart, as a matter of urgency. Nobody seems minded to point out an obvious fact. With the Middle East in turmoil, starting a new round of Israeli-Palestinian talks is completely pointless. Speaking last week Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy

have caused physical damage or disruption to critical services are the alleged Israeli use of cyber attack to disrupt Syrian air defenses and the Stuxnet attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities. An extortion attempt in Brazil against a public utility may have backfired and EFTA_R1_02031778 EFTA026