Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Ahmadinejad to symbolically stone Israel from Lebanon

Arab media are reporting that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to throw a symbolic stone towards Israel when he visits southern Lebanon in October.

According to the reports, Ahmadinejad will visit Lebanon for two days, October 13-14. On the second day he will tour southern Lebanon under the protection of Hezbollah and his own Iranian security detail, already in place planning the trip.

He will visit Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbeil, both scenes of major battles in the 2006 Lebanon war where Hezbollah deaths outpaced IDF deaths by a ratio of roughly 8 to 1 and where Hezbollah claimed victory.

Ahmadiejad's stone throwing apparently will be done from Beit Jbeil.

He has not yet scheduled his meeting with Hassan Nasrallah, an event that is just crying out for a visit by a JDAM or two.

Jordan reveals the purpose of UNRWA

Jordan has written a "carefully worded" letter to the head of UNRWA and to the Arab donor nations warning about the shortfall in UNRWA's budget.

Originally reported in Saudi Arabia's Okaz on September 19th, the letter emphasized the dangers to Lebanon and Jordan of reducing the UNRWA budget.

Even though the vast majority of so-called "Palestinian refugees" in Jordan are in fact Jordanian citizens, the Hashemite kingdom shows no interest in integrating those residents into Jordanian society and has consistently worked to keep the Palestinian Arabs crammed into these miserable camps under UNRWA control rather than integrate these citizens into Jordanian society.

The newspaper said that Jordan regularly warns of the dangers of reducing UNRWA's budget, as "these UNRWA camps are meant to keep the issue of Palestinian refugees alive."

Here the Arab world is revealing explicitly the purpose of UNRWA from their perspective: not to reduce the "refugee" problem but to perpetuate it.

By way of contrast, in 1950 Israel provided Israeli citizenship to the members of UNRWA refugee camps in the new state and within a couple of years the camps were gone, as the refugees became self-supporting members of Israeli society. Israel felt that the presence of UNRWA camps on its territory - a foreign entity taking care of Israeli Arab citizens, instead of the state itself - was "repugnant."

Islamic Jihad tallies up their part of the intifada

Islamic Jihad has released a set of statistics on the tenth anniversary of the start of the terror spree known as the second intifada.

Since September 28, 2000, Islamic Jihad is boasting of 654 "martyrs" - meaning members of the terror group that have been killed.

They were behind 101 "martyrdom operations" (suicide bombings) killing, they say, 199 Israelis.

During this time period they boast of launching 2357 rockets and 848 mortar shells into Israel.

Last night, the IDF added three more to the ranks of the "martyred" as a group of Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed while they were trying to launch more rockets into Israel.

Allah willing, the number of Islamic Jihad martyrs will continue to increase into the tens of thousands in a similar fashion.

Hamas not thrilled with "Jewish" ship to Gaza

A ship of some 9 Jews is now being intercepted by the Israeli navy en route to Gaza. The Islamic Jihad newspaper Palestine Today notes, that, unlike other flotillas and vessels, Hamas has been ambivalent at best towards the entire idea of this particular pseudo-aid ship.

The reason? Because it has some Israelis on board who do not fully support the destruction of Israel.

Political writer Dr. Issam Shawar wrote that the reception of these peace activists in the Gaza Strip means recognizing the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of the areas occupied in 1948. Even though they claim to recognize the right of the people of Gaza and the West to exist, they do not recognize the right of the majority of the Palestinian people to return to their homeland and do not recognize as well as the crime of occupation for the rest of our territory. Those people are trying to ignore the usurpation of people's rights, and trying to mask the ugly face of occupation with this photo-op. Do not fool us this trick, which is widely practiced in the West and the rest of the world....This is much different from allowing Israeli journalists [into Gaza] as that does not imply recognition of the [Zionist] regime.

"We must stop them so as not to burden the government with responsibility to have to protect them or even hand them over to the Israeli side in the event that their lives become at risk by organizations see their arrival as an opportunity to increase the number of hostages or to avenge the victims of the holocaust of Gaza."

Spokesman for the Hamas parliamentary bloc al-Masri did not reveal a clear position on receiving the ship, but stressed that his government would welcome any sincere effort and motivation to break the siege on the Gaza Strip.

Is the US insistence on ending anti-Israel incitement just lip service?

Judith Apter Klinghoffer observes:

Striving to appear even handed at his UN address, President Obama repeatedly drew a parallel between continued Israeli settlements and Palestinian incitement. Yet while the media is filled with reports of the Obama administration's disappointment with Israel's refusal to renew the temporary suspension of settlement building, not a peep is heard regarding the ongoing vile anti-Israeli propaganda emanating from the Palestinian Authority. Clearly, the media understands Obama's "even-handedness" is not to be taken seriously.

At the UN Obama was applauded as he said:

We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel, and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements
And again:

The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians. (Applause.) And — and nations within this body do the Palestinians no favors when they choose vitriolic attacks against Israel over constructive willingness to recognize Israel’s legitimacy and its right to exist in peace and security.

Israel has suspended settlement growth for 10 months but the May/June 2010 PAL Watch study of the Palestinian Authority controlled media finds little evidence of any reduction in Palestinian incitement...

Read the whole thing.

PalArab raping of "peace activists" not isolated incidents

A couple of months ago I posted a Ha'aretz article about how an American pro-Palestinian Arab activist was raped by one of her heroes, and the crime was hushed up. JoeSettler followed up with other cases of harassment and attacks.

There have been a few other articles in the Hebrew media about these cases, and the Zionism Israel site puts it all together - and it is not pretty:

If you are looking for an adventure of a new and different kind, then you should probably head for the Palestinian territories, where you can do a real service to the oppressed Palestinians and at the same time get first hand experience of solidarity and intimate dialog with Palestinian Arabs, who, it seems, rape American and European female activists.

The stories of rape and sexual molestation of foreign peace activists by Palestinians first appeared in the dovish Haaretz several months ago. Back in July, Avi Isacharoff asked, Are the Palestinians silencing the attempted rape of U.S. peace activist? and then he reported: PA, protest leaders hushed up attempted rape of U.S. activist. That was back in July. Incredibly, nobody noticed these ‘juicy’ stories. ...

It was not the only incident. An undated article in Hebrew, by Roni Aloni Sedovnik reported on Betrayal by the left of female peace activists who were sexually assaulted. Aloni-Sedovnik reported an additional case, the ‘severe sexual assault’ of an Israeli peace activist at Sheikh Jarrah. The victim tried to complain, but this time it was Israeli peace activists who shut her up:

“However, after heavy and unfair pressure from the organizers of the Sheikh Jarrah protest, she withdrew her complaint.
“As if that is not enough to make one appalled at the hypocritical morality and loss of direction, the situation became more serious recently, when the activists organizing the the demonstrations in Bil’in and Sheikh Jarah asked female demonstrators to wear ‘modest dress’ according to the code accepted in Arab villages: Hijab, Burqa or other head covering…
“How did we not hear about this? After all, the phenomenon is known in a broad group of peace activists, so what can we learn from the hushing up of this topic by the media?…
‘Peace’ groups such as Ir Amim that are demonstrating in Sheikh Jarrah and Bilin get U.S. tax deductible donations through the NIF, which supposedly advances ‘women’s rights’ and ‘democracy.’
The two cases are apparently only the tip of the iceberg.Yehudah Belo wrote, under the dramatic headline, Female leftist activists are raped day after day, night after night about the alleged rape of Scandinavian girls:

“I know of such rape cases from women who are not Jewish: a female European leftist activist, a female Red Cross volunteer and a young Arab woman from Yafo. I met the three of them during reserve service. I met with each of them afterwards… they told me what happens there, in the Palestinian villages, far from any observing eye.”
“It is not a matter of rape to satisfy lust. They are done systematically in order to impregnate the girl, and then to marry her, after she converts to Islam. Of course, we know about this method from girls who underwent a similar process inside Israel and escaped to Europe, but it is hard to escape from the [Palestinian] territories. Sometimes these women, some of whom are already older women, are not allowed to leave their homes unaccompanied, in order to prevent their escape. If someone doubts my words…please, check the statistics for entries and departures, and you will discover that a large portion of female leftist activists did not leave the country. Everyone knows about it, but nobody dares to talk about it…
“I ran into a few Norwegian girls married to Palestinians. They are not happy. Their lives were destroyed. Their families have broken off contact with them. They have no place to return to. They are deep in the raising of children and wish to die. I assume there are women in that situation in their own countries and in Israel too. Not everyone is happy, but one might think that a person who grew up in Oslo will have trouble adjusting to life in the refugee camps. She is no longer allowed to be free, to fly about the world as she wishes, or even to be a leftist activist.

Belo pleaded with Israeli womens’ and leftist organizations to help, but so far, none has done so.

The cause was also taken up by Israeli blogger Nimrod Avissar, in a Hebrew article called Thunderous Silence.

These Israeli reporters and bloggers do not all fit the stereotype of right wing settler supporters. Haaretz generally is sympathetic to Palestinians and so is their reporter and analyst Avi Issacharoff. Nimrod Avissar lives in Ramat Gan, not in a settlement. The reports cannot be dismissed. When rumors about Israeli ‘war crimes’ and illegal organ transplants surfaced, they were plastered all over respected journals such as the New York Times and Time magazine, as well as Scandinavian journals, though there was probably not a word of truth to them. Judge Richard Goldstone wrote thousands of pages and made the gravest accusations based on flimsier evidence, causing an upheaval in international justice as well as media coverage. But almost nothing at all has been published in international media about these rapes. No activists took up the cause of these poor women. There were two articles about the rape issue in a respectable journal, but they were ignored. Additional material accumulated, but that too was ignored. ...

Over the years, I have heard plenty of stories, not just about Israeli or European women being raped, but about Arab Christian girls being raped, sometimes with the cooperation of, or on the initiative of, the Fatah Police. I have also seen those earnest Scandinavian Lutheran girls, recruited for the causes of ‘peace’ and dialog,’ standing in a room full of Palestinian young men. What could they have in common?? Why were there no Scandinavian young men? Draw your own conclusions. If it was ‘dialog’ and ‘solidarity’ that they sought, they came to the right place, it seems. I have also seen ominous warnings about ‘modest dress.’
Don’t the charges at least merit further investigation and publicity? After all, if the same charges were leveled at Israelis, there would be a barrage of publicity, regardless of whether they had any truth to them or not. There are numerous specious allegations that Israeli soldiers raped Palestinians. There was even a ‘study’ that ‘proved’ that Israeli soldiers (including the non-Jewish ones) do not rape Palestinians because IDF soldiers are racists.

Surely it is time to break the silence? Won’t Women in Black or Code Pink or perhaps Gila Svirsky’s group (CWP – Coalition of women for Peace) organize a tumultuous demonstration demanding an international investigation?? It is understandable if they keep mum about these stories. But where is the army of Zionist bloggers and journalists who are supposed to publicize these issues? Where are the organizations who take money to supposedly defend Israel? Why is everyone silent??

At least there should be an investigation. Surely, all progressive people will welcome an investigation into the status of women in the West Bank, which is no doubt commendable in every way.

Won’t someone publicize this cause? Won’t someone speak out about this injustice? Won’t someone tour campuses in the United States and Scandinavia to warn the innocents before it is too late?? Won’t someone come forward and break the silence??

And thus the hypocrisy of feminists who support Palestinian Arab rights is exposed. The only leftists who care about these victims are the ones who happen to be - Zionist.

This is Mahmoud Abbas, meeting a rabbi in Paris, while speaking to a group of Jewish "intellectuals."

According to Ma'an, the rabbi was enthusiastic over Abbas, calling him "brave" and a "great humanitarian."

For his part, Abbas wished the audience a "chag sameach."

I wonder what the usual Arab anti-semites think about this?

Yemen chess team did not get fired - they just refused to play Israel

Last week I posted, based on a number of media reports, that the Yemen chess team had been sacked because they played Israel in the Chess Olympiad in Russia.

It turns out that the Yemen team did not get sacked and simply refused to play, thus losing the match 4-0.

They are still in the tournament, beating Uganda 3-1 in the latest round.

While on the subject of rock and roll...

Completely off topic, but this kid is great:

Of course, by the time I see something like this, it has already been viewed over 8 million times. I'm not quite on the cutting edge of viral videos.

Sweden protects PalArab children from abuse. Arabs call it kidnapping.

Palestine Press Agency reports that the Consul General of Palestine in Sweden has complained that some 76 Palestinian Arab girls have been "kidnapped" by Swedish authorities.

The Swedish authorities say that the children were being beaten and abused by their parents, and they have been placed in foster homes to protect them. The consul charges that the girls are being raised in an alien culture with no regard to their native religion and customs.

The consul claims that 20 of the girls have lost their virginity while in their adopted homes. (I don't know exactly what polling methods he used to determine that fact.)

The diplomat says that the children's families are the most appropriate places to raise the kids.

A Swedish Arab of Palestinian origin whose daughter was taken away - presumably because he abused her - likened this "kidnapping" and raising the kids in the immoral Swedish culture to the Naqba, saying that Sweden was acting like Israel.

The article says that the children are being taken on the "pretext" of child abuse, but no one really denies that such abuse has indeed taken place.

Which means that the official Palestinian Arab position is that it is better for girls to be brought up with abuse and fear within their own culture than being treated with respect in Swedish culture.

Hezbollah openly threatens civil war in Lebanon

Hezbollah, taking a page out of the Mafia playbook, is telling the entire country of Lebanon that anyone who supports the findings of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on who was behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri (and 22 others) will be, pretty much, treated as a Zionist enemy and killed.

From Naharnet:

Hizbullah's MP Nawwaf Moussawi on Friday warned that "the period that will follow the (Special Tribunal for Lebanon) indictment won't be the same as the one before, and any group in Lebanon that might endorse this indictment will be treated as one of the tools of the U.S.-Israeli invasion, and it will have the same fate as the invader."

"Those must not only be worried, but also panic-stricken, and we tell everyone that those who couldn't defeat the Resistance through fire and iron and billions of dollars will not be able to defeat it through an indictment or anything else," Moussawi warned.

Now Lebanon parses it out:

Moussawi’s maddening logic [is] that those who support it are in league with Israel and will suffer the consequences. It posits that if you unconditionally support international justice (is there any other way to support justice?) and at the same time want a country that is predicated on the notion of the state; and if you oppose the open-ended right of Hezbollah to both maintain its weapons and dictate matters of war and peace, while at the same time using the threat of those weapons to promote its domestic agenda, then you are a Zionist.

This means the Resistance is permitted to confront the Israeli enemy, and presumably those who support it. If you don’t support Hezbollah, then you support Israel. If you support Israel, you are the enemy, and the enemy will be dealt with.

Lebanon is an entire country held hostage by Iran, using Hezbollah as a proxy. While the world pays lip service to worrying about Iranian nuclear ambitions, here we have an entire nation that is being blackmailed to bend to Iran's wishes on threat of civil war. Because of previous capitulations to Hezbollah, the Lebanese are no longer in a position to even consider fighting back for their very freedom.

The STL has delayed releasing its findings and is now supposed to announce them by the end of the year. The powder keg is in place, Iran is offering to provide lots of sparks, and the West still pretends that Lebanon is a minor issue but bulldozers in the West Bank are the real problem in the region.

Iranian VP calls Israel "the representative of the Devil on Earth"

Iranian officials must be competing to who can do the best job of insulting Israel.

The latest participant in the contest is Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, who put out this entry:

Iran's first vice-president says Israel will bite the dust in the face of regional nations' resistance and determination, calling the Israeli regime the very embodiment of evil.

"There is no doubt that the Zionist regime will be absolutely defeated in the face of the regional nations' determination and resistance," Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said in a meeting with Lebanese Health Minister Mohamad Jawad Khalifeh.

The Iranian official described Israel as 'the representative of the Devil on Earth,' and added the existence of Israel in the region is like “deadly venom.”

He said Tel Aviv seeks to sow discord among different faiths, adding the sacrilegious burnings of the holy Qur'an was yet another move to drive a wedge between Muslims and Christians.

"Zionism is hostile to all divine faiths and intends to secure its evil objectives by provoking divisions among the followers of different religions, but it will certainly fail thanks to the vigilance of nations," he continued.

Nice! How will the next Iranian official top this one? Maybe accusing all Zionists of eating their young?

Nasser's doctor denied that Sadat poisoned him

There has been a rumor going around Egypt for the past couple of weeks that Anwar Sadat had given Gamal Nasser some poisoned coffee to kill him and take over his job in 1970.

One of Nasser's doctors felt compelled to go on TV to deny it:

The doctor of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser denied recent reports that he died of poisoned coffee prepared for him by his successor President Anwar Sadat and attributed his death to hereditary reasons.

Dr. al-Sawy Habib, one of the members of the medical team of Abdel-Nasser, refuted insinuations made on T.V. by veteran Egyptian journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal about the involvement of Anwar Sadat in Nasser’s death.

“What Heikal said about Sadat making a cup of coffee for Nasser three days before his death is true,” Habib told Al Arabiya’s Studio Cairo Friday. “But this is not the reason for his death.”

According to Habib, it is very unlikely to identify a type of poison that takes such a long time to become effective.

“Also nothing abnormal happened to Nasser after drinking the coffee.”

Habib, who treated Nasser from July 1967 till his death in September 1970, said that the late president suffered from a heart stroke a year before his death and that he was already suffering from arteriosclerosis, varicose lungs, and diabetic complications.

“Then he had a heart attack and this immediately stopped more than 40% of the cardiac muscle.”

Of course, most of the Arab world still believes that Yasir Arafat was assassinated by Israel, and no one is likely to go on TV and say otherwise.

New whining in Gaza - because more goods are coming in

Even when Israel eases restrictions on goods entering Gaza, the wire services find Gazans more than happy to whine. From AFP:

The shelves are packed with imported food, but the ersatz prosperity of the newly opened "Gaza Mall" hides the lingering malaise haunting the impoverished territory.

The two-story supermarket in Gaza City opened its doors shortly after Israel partially lifted a four-year blockade of the Hamas-run enclave in June following an international outcry over the deadly seizure of an aid flotilla.

Three months later, it sells everything from Nestle cereals and Galaxy chocolate to blue jeans and toys, nearly everything imported from Israel. Newly released data show the economy is starting to recover.

But weary factory owners say they are being squeezed out of business by the new imports and more than a third of the Gaza workforce remains unemployed.

"Because of the entry of products from Israel, the West Bank and Jordan after the Freedom Flotilla incident we had to stop one of our production lines," said Musa Siyam, the owner of the Mecca Cola plant outside Gaza City.

"We couldn't compete on price because there are still raw materials we cannot bring into Gaza... I had to lay off 20 workers."

By the way, today some 15 trucks filled with cement and iron, and 6 more with communications equipment, are being shipped from Israel to Gaza - in addition to the 200 trucks of food, medicine and fuel.

Should priority be going towards building materials and infrastructure - or to factory owners? AFP doesn't even bother to ask the question.

Refreshing: Rock star admits he doesn't understand politics

From YNet and The JC:

English rock star Ozzy Osbourne arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport on a private plane Sunday evening, along with his family members.

Osbourne and his wife, Sharon, who also served as his personal manager, held a press conference at a Tel Aviv hotel.

Asked whether he had any hesitations about visiting Israel, on the backdrop of the latest cancellations by international artists, he replied that he tries to stay away from politics because "I wouldn't know what I was talking about."

“Politicians don't understand me and I don't understand them."

His wife Sharon, the daughter of the late Jewish music impresario Don Arden, added: "Britain has the IRA and no one cancels concerts there."

Asked why it took him so long to arrive, Osbourne said, "I don't know, I was drunk for years."

A rock star that admits that he drinks, parties and doesn't have the foggiest idea about politics? That's a lot more honest than the many who believe that they have some Special Wisdom because they surround themselves with people who tell them they are geniuses.

Israeli reaction to biased UNHRC report

I posted two articles about the UNHRC report on the flotilla incident and Zvi wrote a more general article about the hypocrisy of the UNHRC.

Here are some Israeli reactions to the report.

From YNet:

How can a country with virtually not connection to human rights be a member of a formal body dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights around the world? Is that not similar to putting a wife-beater in charge of a women's shelter? Welcome to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the most hypocritical and shameful body of an institution that knows a thing or two about hypocrisy and shame; a body that makes the UN more meaningless than ever.

Incredibly, about 80% (!) of the Council's censures were devoted to Israel. This is an unbelievable figure: Meanwhile, tyrannies such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, China and others were never condemned by the UNHRC. North Korea, one of the darkest regimes of the 21st century, was condemned once. Sudan, where genocide has been committed for years, was addressed in two UNHRC resolutions, none of which held the Sudanese government accountable (one actually praised it for its "progress" on human rights.)

On the other hand, Israel, a democracy that grants freedom, civil rights and human rights to all of its citizens, including minorities that belong to a people with whom Israel is involved in bitter conflict – is supposedly the worst human rights violator on earth, and in fact one of the only human rights violators altogether. This according to the UN sponsored wife-beater's best judgment.

From Danny Ayalon at JPost:

[O]nly 20 of the 47 nations on the UNHRC are considered “free” by Freedom House, an independent NGO which monitors human rights and political freedoms. This means the majority of nations currently represented on the UNHRC do not allow basic freedoms for their own people, let alone concern themselves with global human rights.

ONE OF the root problems is the influence of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) within the UNHRC.

The UNHRC heavily weights membership on its council to nations from Africa and Asia – two continents where the OIC has considerable influence. The OIC controls the lion’s share of the world’s energy resources, including oil, gas and uranium.

The OIC and its allies have an automatic majority on the UNHRC, and this is represented in the council’s workload.

Human Rights Watch claims that the OIC has “fought doggedly” and successfully within the UN Human Rights Council to shield states from criticism, except when it comes to criticism of Israel. The OIC’s mantra has been that the council should work cooperatively with abusive governments rather than condemn them.

This has led to the absurd situation in which Israel is condemned 33 times by the UNHRC out of a total of 40 countryspecific condemnations, while the UNHRC expresses only “deep concern” over Sudan and praises its cooperation.

When the UNHRC discussed issues relating to the Second Lebanon War in 2006, four of the council’s independent experts reported the findings of their visit to Lebanon and Israel. State after state from the OIC took the floor to denounce the experts for daring to look beyond Israeli violations to discuss Hizbullah’s as well.

This sent a very clear message that experts filing reports for the UNHRC involving Israel should never look at the conduct of any other party. Justice Richard Goldstone understood this very well, as was reflected in the report he gave the UNHRC. In an interview given to Al Jazeera in 2009, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the OIC, explained how his organization not only initiated, but drove the Goldstone process from start to finish.

The MFA said simply:

Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself. That is how Israel has always acted, and that is the way in which investigations were conducted following Operation Cast Lead, launched to protect the inhabitants of southern Israel from rockets and terror attacks carried out by Hamas from Gaza.

The Israeli investigation system, which conforms to all international standards, is being examined by the Turkel Committee, an independent panel with international observers. This committee is still carrying out its work.

In view of all this, as well as of the biased, politicized and extremist approach of the same Human Rights Council that had initiated the skewed Goldstone Report, Israel sees no reason to cooperate with this commission.

Israel will nonetheless read and study the report.

(h/t Joseph.E)

In Venezuela, anti-semitism is mainstream

From Pajamas Media:

Unlike many anti-Semitic hypocrites in Europe or the USA, Chavistas don’t even bother to camouflage their Jew-hatred; it comes naked. Just take a look at Aporrea.org, their most important website, which is sponsored by the Venezuelan government. Use the searchword “judios” (Jews), and you will be amazed how similar the Venezuelan “socialism of the 21st century” and the German National Socialism of the 1930s are. In this article some examples will be given — which are perhaps not even the most bizarre ones (there are so many, and the race is really too close to call):
Pedro Mendez (“Judios, intrigantes y asesinos”) wants to prevent the Jews — who are “children of the father of lies,” according to his interpretation of the Bible — from “doing away with the race of the non-elect” and calls upon the world to unite against them before it´s too late. Likewise, Ivana Cardinale, a radio moderator from state radio station YVKE, is convinced that Jews view themselves as a “superior race,” treat non-Jews “like animals,” and aspire to control the world (“Palestina: Tierra robada por los judíos”).
Many Aporrea authors dispute the Holocaust (“Whether the Holocaust was real or an exaggeration is a pending issue”) or deny it outright, calling it a “myth” that the Jews designed in order to rule the world. When they speak about the “Holocaust” they mean the “Holocaust” that the Jews allegedly commit against the Arabs or, even more surprising, the one that the Venezuelan opposition tries to commit against the Chavistas: “They are fascists but we are not German Jews.” Evaristo Marcano Marin (“A cazar judios”) is a hunter: “To hunt a Jew should be a labor of peace and love. Every Jew you hunt down, catch him with a net of love and affection. Tell him that we humans know that they could also become humans and that if we achieve that noble purpose, they will be capable of: respecting, loving, feel solidarity with people, feel and love others. Tell him that those feelings exist and are part of some humans.”
Luis Rivero Badaracco, author of the article “Los Holocausteros,” mocks the victims of the Holocaust. “Why,” he wonders, had “the Jews (in the concentration camps) never rebelled?” There is “no evidence that they had ever rebelled,” he claims, and answers his silly question himself: “Jews are selfish.” They were thinking: “If I am good, I may be saved. To hell with the others.” As a “proof” he mentions the Jewish members of the Sonderkommandos: “The workers who brought the Jews to the gas chambers and collected the bodies were Jewish.” Who would give Mr. Badaracco — who, by the way, is a professor of agricultural engineering — some lessons in history? Maybe his Aporrea colleague James Petras (professor emeritus of sociology at Binghamton University), who calls Barack Obama “the first Jewish president of the USA“?
Under Chávez, Venezuela has turned into a madhouse where every anti-Semitic crank passes as a philosopher and fighter for social progress. Like the Nazis, the Chavistas associate the Jews with all the alleged evils of capitalism. They are perceived as a “dark force” that controls every part of the world economy.
Some of the propaganda can actually be described as incitement to genocide. This is best illustrated by the article “La Verdad sobre la Dominación Sionista: Genocidio Global Controlado y el ‘Armageddon’ Artificial” by Ever Pisani, director of the “Fundación Proyecto Libertador.” Mr Pisani starts with a paragraph about the “world today.” The decade began with the “collapse” of the World Trade Center, followed by the “sudden” and “mysterious” appearance of diseases like mad-cow disease, bird flu, and pig flu. Then came the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the financial crisis. Guess who is to blame for all the mess? Pisani knows.
...Of course, there are loonies in every country. But in Chavez’ Venezuela the hatred against Jews is endorsed by the government. “For the first time in recent history we see what I would call government sponsored anti-Semitism in a Western country,” says Sammy Eppel, a Jewish activist in Venezuela. In his notorious Christmas speech in 2005, Chávez deplored that “the descendants of those who crucified Christ … have taken ownership of the riches of the world.” Last year he called Colombia the “Israel of Latin America.” Police raids in Jewish schools foster a climate of fear and stigmatize Jews as the enemy of the “Bolivarian Revolution” — especially those Jews who dare to oppose the government.

This is worse than what one can find in any government sponsored Arab sites. Muslims at least pay lip service to Judaism being a "divine religion" and, for the past ten years or so, Arabs have made an effort to publicly distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism (often just a word-substitution.) But this Venezuelan anti-semitism is unfiltered and extremely dangerous.

Egyptian cheese commercial goes viral

Some people are seeing this series of commercials as a metaphor for Egyptian totalitarianism, Arab inability to compromise, Chinese encroachment into the world's commercial marketplaces, or even American hegemony.

Others just think they are funny.

Those "dismantled" Al Aqsa Brigades keep popping up

How many times have we heard that the moderate PA has managed to dismantle the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, consolidated their security forces and made all terror groups illegal?

The first such announcement dates all the say back to 2007.

Somehow, however, they keep on popping up.

Just today the Al Aqsa Brigades announced that if Israel resumes construction in Jewish communities across the Green Line, they will "respond" and will teach Jews in the territories "unforgettable lessons."

They also claimed a shooting attack against a 9-months pregnant woman and her husband.

Isn't it strange that a supposedly banned and dismantled group, anathema to the "new" law-and-order PA, is still alive and kicking? Or perhaps it means that Fatah is not quite as moderate as they pretend to be when speaking to Western reporters?

Egypt finds another half-ton of explosives on way to Gaza

From Ma'an:

Egyptian security forces seized a cache of explosives in the Sinai Pensinsula on Sunday, security sources said.

...[O]fficers uncovered a weapons depot containing half a ton of TNT explosives and anti-aircraft shells. The ammunition was packaged in bags ready to be smuggled through underground tunnels into Gaza, sources said.

Given the number of caches Egypt has found, how many do you think they miss?

I'm sorry, but Arab paranoia is endlessly amusing

I just stumbled across a site I had never heard of but which apparently has some popularity in various Arab countries, called ArabCrunch.

This blog claims that it is being targeted by the CIA and the Mossad.

Here are some of the breathtaking details:

We mentioned for the first time in the last post who is behind the terrorist DDoS attacks and criminal hack of ArabCrunch blog. Now we will reveal more plots, as all these plots were designed to force ArabCrunch founder to become a CIA agent or remove him from the leadership position or get red of him in one way or another or destroy ArabCrunch with anyway, whether by blocking advertisers from advertising on AC so there are no revenues and we go bankrupt, or to the level of cutting the line of communications for ArabCrunch have with the outside the world, by manipulating our email on google ( we did not talk about Voice yet).

The CIA/Mossad and the global Zionist movement are ready to go at any level to destroy AC. The Zionist infiltration of United States of America is secret to too many Americans, they way they operate is no different than they way Banana republicz operates, control key power elements: Media, Economy then you control politics.

In 1997 the world news was Bill Clinton Monika Laynski Scandal, The US president was blackmailed by this young Jewish girl, she had her shirt with the “evidence” for 2 years! why? because she was a trap (card) to be used when needed.

he blackmail some say in USA was orchestrated by the Israeli Prime Minister Natneyaho, Monika is a member of an Israeli Party and when she went back to “Israel” she was greeted with flowers and roses as a hero who saved “Israel.”

The Mossad is always actively fresh for new recruits as a recent announcement reveled that they have succeed in recruiting a son of a Hamas leader. Mossad tries to recruits not just Hammas leaders but their direct family members. Not just that anyone they can. One of ArabCrunch fans who owns shares in one of the most poplar sites in USA has been facing several lawsuits.

We asked him if those are because of his support to AC, he said Yes extreme Israelis are behind this! The guy is not Muslim or Arab by the way!

ArabCrunch was in negotiations with a major hosting company in Texas: Softlayer, the hosting deal would bring salable server bandwidth to serve AC’s growing visits. We were waiting for this deal to happen because we had a deal with another company that would bring us 10s of millions of visits per month and potentially make us the number 1 blog or 2 in all categories ahead of Huffington Post. Negotiations with the hosting company took sometime and was about to close when we were close to close the deal, boom a private equity firm comes and acquires softlayer!!! And who is this private equity firm?

It is GI Partners a firm that has secured $4.0 billion of capital commitments on behalf of recognized institutional private equity and real estate investors in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

GI Partners is CIA front for its business, spy and military operations, GI Partners runs an imam program to brain wash Iraqi prisoners and destroy their well, a common tactic used before by clonal powers such as UK the program name is Russian and East European Partnerships (REEP) Inc., REEP/OSS Web site, also offers “intelligence support operations.”

That means not only the CIA and Mossad have access to our google email but the CIA have direct access to our server! Very nice! We mentioned before that the CIA and the Mossad had access to our email, now also confirmed: our server, We know that certain data that belong to us else where has been played with, and since there are thousands of files we do not know what else was added or deleted. Propably not just to fabricate crimes against AC’s founder and AC but also to wipe of any evidence of their transpasing!

And you thought that Jews were paranoid!

More on the UNHRC's extreme bias

In the UNHRC report on the June flotillas, we have already seen how the Human Rights Council has no compunction about twisting international law specifically to demonize Israel.

Elsewhere in the report, we can see how much they twist easily verifiable facts as well.

Here is how they justify believing biased, lying "eyewitnesses" over actual video evidence:

20. In ascertaining the facts surrounding the Israeli interception of the Gaza-bound flotilla, the Mission gave particular weight to the direct evidence received from interviews with eye witnesses and crew, as well as the forensic evidence and interviews with government officials. In light of seizure of cameras, CCTV footage and digital media storage devices and of the suppression of that material with the disclosure only of a selected and minute quantity of it, the Mission was obliged to treat with extreme caution the versions released by the Israeli authorities where those versions did not coincide with the evidence of eyewitnesses who appeared before us.

So when witnesses said one thing and video evidence showed something completely different, they chose to believe the liars.

And how do we know that the witnesses are unreliable at best, and liars at worst? Why, the UNHRC admits it! In paragraph 114:

The Mission does not find it plausible that soldiers were holding their weapons and firing as they descended on the rope.

Why does the report even bring this up? Simple - because that's exactly what the very same "eyewitnesses" claimed, in contradiction to the video evidence released both by the IDF and by the activists themselves.

Paragraph 114 proves that the UNHRC knows that the witnesses are unreliable but even so they judge them to be more trustworthy than direct, clear video evidence!

Even so, the UNHRC expects us to believe that "live ammunition was used from the helicopter onto the top deck prior to the descent of the soldiers" - as if the IHH fighters would have been standing on deck, as sitting ducks, waiting to be picked off one by one before the IDF soldiers rappelled onto the deck. And that the helicopter was firing 9mm rounds onto the deck (all of the dead were killed by 9mm bullets.) And that the IDF soldiers would somehow have avoided firing their weapons as soon as they hit the deck and allowed themselves to be beaten up with metal clubs even though the IDF had, according to the UNHRC, already been using live fire. The entire narrative is utterly nonsensical.

The rule seems to have been, when the UNHRC had no direct and incontrovertible evidence that passengers were lying, they must have been telling the absolute truth, and that the veracity of the "eyewitnesses" were not the least bit harmed by proof that they were wrong.

(h/t Professor Miao)

A great example of Elder's First Rule

Long time readers may remember Elder's First Rule of Arab Projection, that states:

Whenever Arabs accuse Israel of doing some crime, they are doing that exact crime, usually on a far grander scale than their accusations.

I just came across a perfect example of this rule, not by Arabs but by Muslims.

You know how Muslims like to accuse Israel of purposefully targeting Jewish interests in order to make Muslims look bad? Perhaps the example that has gained the most currency was the accusation that Zionists were behind a deadly synagogue bombing in Baghdad in 1951 in order to scare Iraqi Jews into leaving the country. That accusation was a lie.

However, check out what a Turkish general just admitted:

A retired general who has recently been accused of having conducted an assassination attempt on the life of Turkey's eighth president, Turgut Özal, has inadvertently confessed that he ordered the burning of a mosque as part of psychological warfare operations in 1974.

In remarks published in the Haber Türk daily yesterday as part of an interview with Gen. Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, who led the Special War Department in 1971 and also worked to mobilize civilian resistance during Turkey's military intervention on Cyprus in 1974, said: “In Special War, certain acts of sabotage are staged and blamed on the enemy to increase public resistance. We did this on Cyprus; we even burnt down a mosque.” In response to the surprised correspondent's incredulous look the general said, “I am giving an example,” in an attempt to clear things up.

The joke that is the UN Human Rights Council (Zvi)

From Zvi:

To be a credible authority on human rights topics, an organization of states must ensure that a state can only participate if it provides basic human rights for its people and extends the same concepts of human rights to others. So it must:

* provide freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion
* provide free markets
* provide one person-one-vote in free and fair elections
* provide rule of law and criminalize terrorism
* rid itself of laws that are racist and anti-Semitic

While there could be some gray areas, it is absolutely clear which types of regimes would need to be absolutely and vigorously excluded.

Any so-called "human rights commission" that includes Libya and Iran is simply a farce and has zero credibility in the human rights arena. Human rights NGOs should boycott it, and governments should disband it. It is worse than useless. Any so-called "human rights" attack written by Venezuela and Cuba simply erodes the credibility of all human rights resolutions (possibly by design).

Any "human rights" forum that gives equal membership to a brutal dictatorship like Libya and a free country like Canada is the wrong forum for any kind of human rights protection, legislation, reporting, expertise or condemnation. Thus, the UN, which in theory treats all nations more or less equally (except for Israel, of course) is ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG ORGANIZATION to be in charge of human rights activities of any kind.

A separate international commission or organization could be established, one whose membership constraints are specifically crafted to exclude dictatorships (if dictatorships wish to join, they must give up power and establish free democratic systems, which most will refuse to do). There is nothing wrong with a 2-tier system - tier 1 consisting of democratic states and tier 2 consisting of those states that insist on repression. After all, you want dictators to have incentives to grant freedom to their people. Only the free countries would have a voting place in any body that defends human rights. Only such a body would have any reasonable claim to credibility as a world human rights forum.

Regardless, it is certain that the UN cannot and will not function as a competent human rights policeman. The ability of dictators to dominate the UNHRC demonstrates why the UN is fundamentally flawed as a human rights defender. At an international level, it imposes the "tyranny of the majority" (or of the large aggressive unified bloc, anyway), providing no protection against persecution of minority states. It treats thugs and dictators who climb into their UN seats on the backs of countless millions of oppressed people as if they had any right to represent those people. And it treats every government or regime, whether it is the world's oldest or largest democracy or whether it is ruled by the world's most brutal and repressive junta or theocracy, as being identical in rights and privileges. And that is simply wrong.

Some might complain that the people of dictatorships have as much right to be represented fully in the UN as do the people of democratic states. And they would be right! But the sad fact is that the people living under dictatorships are not represented at all in the UN today; only their dictators are represented.

Some might complain that the UN should be there to represent all states, because a UN that does not offer first-class treatment to dictators will be unable to mediate when dictators are involved. And they are perhaps correct, in principle, but only where mediation and security is concerned. Such a function does not require that the UN provide Human Rights Commissions and Relief Works Agencies.

Unlike some, I generally support the existence of a (MORE LIMITED) UN. The world does need a structure that allows governments to coordinate certain kinds of security efforts in a manner that does not reinvent the wheel in every single crisis. This function has been useful at reducing the scope of wars in a highly complex global society. Sometimes even the ability of governments to bluster and act hypocritically has been useful in that regard. But the UNHRC, UNRWA and other purely political organizations that do nothing but perpetuate a 60+ year brutal attack on one small democratic country add nothing to the international system and must be eliminated.

While it is too late to "fix" the UN, it is not too late to deny it credibility in areas where it manifestly cannot be credible.

Latest Latma

I like this one:

We get results! World Bank now includes Israel in MENA

UNHRC tramples on international law to demonize Israel

Even a quick glance at the UNHRC's report on the flotilla shows extraordinary duplicity in describing international law.

We had already posted at length a number of scholarly articles about the legality of Israel's naval blockade of Gaza. The UN Human Rights Council finds that it must completely make up new laws in order to accuse Israel of breaking them.

First, it accurately quotes San Remo to define what a legal blockade is:

51. Under the laws of armed conflict, a blockade is the prohibition of all commerce with a defined enemy coastline. A belligerent who has established a lawful blockade is entitled to enforce that blockade on the high seas.41 A blockade must satisfy a number of legal requirements, including: notification, effective and impartial enforcement and proportionality.42 In particular a blockade is illegal if:
(a) it has the sole purpose of starving the civilian population or denying it other objects essential for its survival; or
(b) the damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade.43

So far, so good. But look what comes next:

52. A blockade may not continue to be enforced where it inflicts disproportionate damage on the civilian population. The usual meaning of “damage to the civilian population” in LOAC refers to deaths, injuries and property damage. Here the damage may be thought of as the destruction of the civilian economy and prevention of reconstruction of past damage. One might also note, insofar as many in Gaza face a shortage of food or the means to buy it, that the ordinary meaning of “starvation” under LOAC is simply to cause hunger.44

The bolded text is simply made up by the UNHRC and has zero to do with international law. There is nothing in international law that says that "destruction of the civilian economy and prevention of reconstruction of past damage" is illegal under the laws of blockade.

Even worse, the footnote that it cites says this:

C. Pilloud and J. Pictet, Commentary on the additional protocols of 8 June 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (International Committee of the Red Cross, 1987), p.53 para 2089. See also Oxford English Dictionary definitions: “to deprive of or keep scantily supplied with food” or to “subdue by famine or low diet”.

They quote Pilloud and Pictet as if they say that "starvation" means to "cause hunger." Yet Pilloud and Pictet actually say:

The UNHRC is deliberately misinterpreting its own footnoted material to accuse Israel of starving Gaza with the blockade.

Of course it doesn't mention the tons of food that arrive daily into Gaza via Israel itself, nor the fact that not a single Gazan has yet been documented to have starved to death in the past four years.

Since the UNHRC made up a specialized definition of the legality of a blockade, tailor made for Israel alone, it is no surprise that they conclude:

53. In evaluating the evidence submitted to the Mission, including by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory, confirming the severe humanitarian situation in Gaza, the destruction of the economy and the prevention of reconstruction (as detailed above), the Mission is satisfied that the blockade was inflicting disproportionate damage upon the civilian population in the Gaza strip and as such the interception could not be justified and therefore has to be considered illegal.

The report goes on to the usual lies - claiming Gaza is occupied, saying that the IDF fired live ammunition from the helicopters before the first soldiers descended on the ship, and so forth. But here is a specific example where international law is being deliberately misinterpreted for the singular purpose of finding Israel guilty.

(h/t sshender)

Chag Sameach

(credit)

Sukkot starts tonight, and because I live outside The Land I will not be blogging until Sunday or so. However, I think I posted enough today to make up for it!

Here are posts just from earlier today that you can peruse in my absence:

I also would like to thank those of you who ordered items from my resurrected CafePress store. I appreciate it! (And if you have any suggestions for other items, just let me know!)

Have a chag sameach!

The ITIC has a report on a new book about the Mavi Marmara written by a Turkish journalist who was on board the vessel and smuggled out pictures.

His account verifies the IDF's contentions and disagrees with the IHH version of events.

Some of the revelations:

* It was obvious that the "resistance" was not going to be passive from the start.

The operatives waiting on the upper deck put the captive soldiers on the floor. Those soldiers were beaten with iron bars and clubs; they were kicked and slapped. Some operatives attempted to throw the soldiers taken to the lower deck into the sea. A soldier hanging in the air during an attempt to throw him into the sea was rescued thanks to the intervention of other people, who prevented that from happening

"As doctors attempted to treat the kidnapped soldiers in the corridors, they also attempted to keep the passengers from further beating [them]."

Read the whole thing.

Italian police seize 7 tons of explosives headed to Syria

From ABC News:

Italian police have seized seven tons of the powerful RDX explosive which they found in a shipping container they believe were likely destined for a terrorist organization.

While the origin and destination of the contraband is still being investigated, police are convinced the huge amount of explosive was in transit, possibly from Iran to Syria.

The bricks of military explosive, also known at T4, were found hidden behind sacks of powdered milk, and filled a good portion of the truck-sized container.

The seizure was the final outcome of a complex investigation involving various Italian police forces, including the customs police, and with the assistance of Italian intelligence services, reporters were told at the press conference.

The "Finland" unloaded a group of containers in the port of Gioia Tauro that were to be sorted for other destinations in the Mediterranean, including one container which was supposed to be filled with powerded milk.

h/t Iva

Yemen chess players fired for playing against Israel

The MEMRI blog reports:

Yemeni Sports Minister Hamoud 'Abad has fired members of Yemen's Chess Association and chess team.

The players were fired after they played Israel, in the Chess Olympiad currently underway in Russia.

The original article is here. A number of commenters say that the Sports Minister is the one who should resign for allowing the players to participate in the tournament against Israel in the first place, rather than have him fire the players.

One commenter asks the more fundamental question: who won?

Another one answers that is is obvious that Israel won because the minister was probably hoping that Yemen would beat Israel and he could gain a great propaganda victory. I'm not sure about that, but Israel did indeed win, shutting out the Yemeni team 4-0.

Israel plays Indonesia in the next round.

Is Bushehr the target of the super-worm?

The CSM adds more detail on the cyber-worm I mentioned Monday:

Cyber security experts say they have identified the world's first known cyber super weapon designed specifically to destroy a real-world target – a factory, a refinery, or just maybe a nuclear power plant.

The cyber worm, called Stuxnet, has been the object of intense study since its detection in June. As more has become known about it, alarm about its capabilities and purpose have grown. Some top cyber security experts now say Stuxnet's arrival heralds something blindingly new: a cyber weapon created to cross from the digital realm to the physical world – to destroy something.

At least one expert who has extensively studied the malicious software, or malware, suggests Stuxnet may have already attacked its target – and that it may have been Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, which much of the world condemns as a nuclear weapons threat.

The appearance of Stuxnet created a ripple of amazement among computer security experts. Too large, too encrypted, too complex to be immediately understood, it employed amazing new tricks, like taking control of a computer system without the user taking any action or clicking any button other than inserting an infected memory stick. Experts say it took a massive expenditure of time, money, and software engineering talent to identify and exploit such vulnerabilities in industrial control software systems.

Stuxnet surfaced in June and, by July, was identified as a hypersophisticated piece of malware probably created by a team working for a nation state, say cyber security experts. ....

By August, researchers had found something more disturbing: Stuxnet appeared to be able to take control of the automated factory control systems it had infected – and do whatever it was programmed to do with them. That was mischievous and dangerous.

But it gets worse. Since reverse engineering chunks of Stuxnet's massive code, senior US cyber security experts confirm what Mr. Langner, the German researcher, told the Monitor: Stuxnet is essentially a precision, military-grade cyber missile deployed early last year to seek out and destroy one real-world target of high importance – a target still unknown.

"Stuxnet is a 100-percent-directed cyber attack aimed at destroying an industrial process in the physical world," says Langner, who last week became the first to publicly detail Stuxnet's destructive purpose and its authors' malicious intent. "This is not about espionage, as some have said. This is a 100 percent sabotage attack."

Langner's research, outlined on his website Monday, reveals a key step in the Stuxnet attack that other researchers agree illustrates its destructive purpose. That step, which Langner calls "fingerprinting," qualifies Stuxnet as a targeted weapon, he says.

Langner zeroes in on Stuxnet's ability to "fingerprint" the computer system it infiltrates to determine whether it is the precise machine the attack-ware is looking to destroy. If not, it leaves the industrial computer alone. It is this digital fingerprinting of the control systems that shows Stuxnet to be not spyware, but rather attackware meant to destroy, Langner says.

Stuxnet's ability to autonomously and without human assistance discriminate among industrial computer systems is telling. It means, says Langner, that it is looking for one specific place and time to attack one specific factory or power plant in the entire world.

"Stuxnet is the key for a very specific lock – in fact, there is only one lock in the world that it will open," Langner says in an interview. "The whole attack is not at all about stealing data but about manipulation of a specific industrial process at a specific moment in time. This is not generic. It is about destroying that process."

Once a system is infected, Stuxnet simply sits and waits – checking every five seconds to see if its exact parameters are met on the system. When they are, Stuxnet is programmed to activate a sequence that will cause the industrial process to self-destruct, Langner says.

Langner's analysis also shows, step by step, what happens after Stuxnet finds its target. Once Stuxnet identifies the critical function running on a programmable logic controller, or PLC, made by Siemens, the giant industrial controls company, the malware takes control. One of the last codes Stuxnet sends is an enigmatic “DEADF007.” Then the fireworks begin, although the precise function being overridden is not known, Langner says. It may be that the maximum safety setting for RPMs on a turbine is overridden, or that lubrication is shut off, or some other vital function shut down. Whatever it is, Stuxnet overrides it, Langner’s analysis shows.
"After the original code [on the PLC] is no longer executed, we can expect that something will blow up soon," Langner writes in his analysis. "Something big."

It might be too late for Stuxnet's target, Langner says. He suggests it has already been hit – and destroyed or heavily damaged. But Stuxnet reveals no overt clues within its code to what it is after.

A geographical distribution of computers hit by Stuxnet, which Microsoft produced in July, found Iran to be the apparent epicenter of the Stuxnet infections. That suggests that any enemy of Iran with advanced cyber war capability might be involved, Langner says. The US is acknowledged to have that ability, and Israel is also reported to have a formidable offensive cyber-war-fighting capability.

Could Stuxnet's target be Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, a facility much of the world condemns as a nuclear weapons threat?

Langner is quick to note that his views on Stuxnet's target is speculation based on suggestive threads he has seen in the media. Still, he suspects that the Bushehr plant may already have been wrecked by Stuxnet. Bushehr's expected startup in late August has been delayed, he notes, for unknown reasons. (One Iranian official blamed the delay on hot weather.)

But if Stuxnet is so targeted, why did it spread to all those countries? Stuxnet might have been spread by the USB memory sticks used by a Russian contractor while building the Bushehr nuclear plant, Langner offers. The same contractor has jobs in several countries where the attackware has been uncovered.

"This will all eventually come out and Stuxnet's target will be known," Langner says. "If Bushehr wasn't the target and it starts up in a few months, well, I was wrong. But somewhere out there, Stuxnet has found its target. We can be fairly certain of that."