Justice Dept. targets general in leak probe

[Cali_Democrat]

Source: Washington Post

A retired four-star Marine Corps general who served as the nation’s second-ranking military officer is a target of a Justice Department investigation into a leak of information about a covert U.S.-Israeli cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program, a senior Obama administration official said.

Retired Gen. James E. “Hoss” Cartwright served as deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was part of President Obama’s inner circle on a range of critical national security issues before he retired in 2011.

The administration official said that Cartwright is suspected of revealing information about a highly classified effort to use a computer virus later dubbed Stuxnet to sabotage equipment in Iranian nuclear enrichment plants.

Stuxnet was part of a broader cyber campaign called Olympic Games that was disclosed by the New York Times last year as one of the first major efforts by the United States to use computer code as a destructive weapon against a key adversary.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-dept-targets-general-in-leak-probe/2013/06/27/9ad8bc4e-df7c-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html

[DURHAM D]

1. Fry his ass.

It looks like he was pissed because Obama passed him over for the Joint Chiefs.

Here is an excellent article from Vanity Fair (April 2011) on Stuxnet-

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/04/stuxnet-201104#

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Thanks for the link

Looks like Obama made a good call passing him over.

Now Mr. Cartwright may end up in jail for a while.

[leveymg]

2. Ahmadinejad publicly announced the Stuxnet infection in Nov. 2010. It wasn't unveiled by Cartwright.

Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2013, 10:52 AM - Edit history (1)

It was discovered in June of 2010.

Source: Small Wars Journal, April 2011, smallwarsjournal.com
On June 17th, 2010, security researchers at a small Belarusian firm known as VirusBlockAda identified malicious software (malware) that infected USB memory sticks.1In the months that followed, there was a flurry of activity in the computer security community – revealing that this discovery identified only one component of a new computer worm2 known as Stuxnet. < . . .>
In November of 2010, some of these suspicions were validated when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly acknowledged that a computer worm created problems for a “limited number of our [nuclear] centrifuges.”5
(5) Thomas Erdbrink, “Ahmadinejad: Iran's nuclear program hit by sabotage,” Washington Post, 29 November, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112903468.html

The DOJ investigation was commenced until last summer, according to the WaPo article linked in the OP. That followed a story run in the NYT in June 2012 detailing President Obama's personal involvement in authorizing the continuation of the "Olympic Games" program, even after Iran became aware of it and the virus had spread globally. This created a dilemma for the Administration that it seemed to undermine American outrage at hacking and cyber sabotage of which the U.S. accused other powers. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=stuxnet

Mr. Obama, according to participants in the many Situation Room meetings on Olympic Games, was acutely aware that with every attack he was pushing the United States into new territory, much as his predecessors had with the first use of atomic weapons in the 1940s, of intercontinental missiles in the 1950s and of drones in the past decade. He repeatedly expressed concerns that any American acknowledgment that it was using cyberweapons — even under the most careful and limited circumstances — could enable other countries, terrorists or hackers to justify their own attacks.

It appears that Cartwright, a major enthusiast for the program, overplayed the bureaucratic game of leaking. This led to some embarrassment of the President when the US role in the attacks was confirmed. It is clear from a reading of the NYT article didn't reveal anything Iran did not already know.

I sense that something else is going on that led to Cartwright being targeted for an indictment . He has made some powerful enemies, and there may be a shift in US Iran policy going on.

[Eric J in MN]

4. The US is trying to cause a nuclear accident in Iran.

How would we like it if Iran were trying to cause a nuclear accident in the US?

[Cali_Democrat]

5. Not really

The stuxnet worm made Iran's centrifuges spin at an extremely high rate, but the person controlling it could not tell. This resulted in the centrifuges breaking.

This isn't really a nuclear accident like Fukushima. This is done during the process of enrichment.

[Eric J in MN]

6. Centrifuges holding radioactive material breaking can't cause a leak? NT

NT

[bananas]

9. It can't cause a leak. nt

[Zorro]

7. Sounds as if someone doesn't like Cartwright

I'd be quite surprised if there was any merit to this allegation.

[Whisp]

8. add Petraeus and McChrystal.

Some big star beefies don't like taking orders from the President. They undermine him and think they are the ones calling the shots.

Fuck them all.

And there are more of them.

I think there is a name for this kind of thing.