As Allahpundit, Israel Matzav, and Ace point out, this is meant to prop up Team Obama, since we already knew lots of details, but to throw some blame at Israel
(Washington Post) The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected critical intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage attacks aimed at slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.
The massive piece of malware was designed to secretly map Iran’s computer networks and monitor the computers of Iranian officials, sending back a steady stream of intelligence used to enable an ongoing cyberwarfare campaign, according to the officials.
The effort, involving the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military, has included the use of destructive software such as the so-called Stuxnet virus to cause malfunctions in Iran’s nuclear enrichment equipment.
The emerging details about Flame provide new clues about what is believed to be the first sustained campaign of cyber-sabotage against an adversary of the United States.
Wonderful. What say we just tell enemies what we’re capable of so they can work to stop the attacks on their infrastructure, like, say, Iran’s nuclear weapons program. And anyone who doesn’t think Iran is looking to develop nuclear weapons is a complete boob who should spend his/her day in kindergarten. Eating paint. Not teaching.
The methodology and capabilities are laid out, and as Ace writes
There’s no possible way Iran (or any other targeted country) can benefit from knowing the virus’ tricks and tasks and Trojans, I guess.
There was a time when the media would never write about secrets like this, and work to protect the USA. Not so much anymore.
The Lonely Conservative calls this part of Obama’s “smart power.” I think we can all see the /sarc tag in big, bold writing, perhaps using Matisse ITC, which is always a good font to have blood dripping off of it. Which is what happens when secret operations are leaked.
