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Page added on October 19, 2012
Iranian Latest
The above shows the available public data on Iranian oil production as of this moment. The slide continues. You may wonder if there’s a little sign of stabilization in the OPEC secondary numbers in the last month, but the previous month also showed that sign but then it got revised away. So I think for now we should hold judgement on that.
Meanwhile the EU continues to tighten sanctions:
Yesterday in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers approved the improvements to the sanctions which close existing loopholes, and will focus on the finance, energy, and transport industries. They also took action to freeze the assets of 34 Iranian corporations in an attempt to restrict the ability of Ahmadinejad’s government to raise funds for further nuclear research and development.
Besides some rather amateurish terrorist attacks. it’s beginning to appear that Iran’s main response is cyber-attacks. This includes a very large internal worm attack on Saudi Aramco:
WASHINGTON, Oct 19 2012 (IPS) – Last weekend’s disclosure that Iranian cyber warriors had disabled some 30,000 computers owned by the Saudi oil giant Aramco is attracting considerable attention here, particularly in light of a warning last week by Pentagon chief Leon Panetta that Washington could face a “cyber-Pearl Harbor”.
The alleged Iranian hand behind the attack, first reported Saturday by the Wall Street Journal, was described as one of several forays by the increasingly sophisticated “Iran’s Cyber Army” whose existence first surfaced in 2009, according to experts here.
One key element of the Aramco attack, however, has not yet been reported. Two former senior CIA officials told IPS that it appears to have been carried out with the help of personnel inside Aramco. They said that the Saudi regime has been detaining and questioning staff with access to the affected work stations.
and distributed denial-of-service attacks on US banks:
Cyber attacks on U.S. banks continued this week from suspected hackers believed to be supported by the Iranian government, according to U.S. officials.
Attacks on Capital One Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp. occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday. U.S. and banking officials described them as denial of service strikes preventing customers from accessing their information from banking websites.
There was little damage and no accounts were compromised, the officials said.
But the banks were still not able to fully stop the attacks even though it appeared they were pre-announced by at least one group.
So far, these attacks have not had a major impact on bank operations and Saudi oil production was not affected in September. However, I think it’s a somewhat dangerous development. The vulnerability of the US economy to cyber-attacks is still a lot greater than has yet been capitalized on, in my opinion. Since we are placing the Iranians under very severe pressure with sanctions, they have the motivation to learn quickly and cyberattacks are very cheap. So there is some risk of them getting good enough to inflict real pain. I was always concerned that Stuxnet would be a case of us throwing the first stone while living in a glass house.
Having said that, from a grand strategic perspective, it’s not clear what the Iranians can really gain by further escalating the conflict with the entire world at present. If I were them, I’d be focussed on trying to somehow placate and divide my enemies while buying time to finish my nuclear weapons. Iranian cyberattacks on the US, at least at the present scale, are a bit like shooting at a grizzly with an air rifle – a lot more likely to result in being chased by an angry bear than in crippling it.
5 Comments on "Iranian Latest"
Arthur on Sat, 20th Oct 2012 12:13 am
“Having said that, from a grand strategic perspective, it’s not clear what the Iranians can really gain by further escalating the conflict with the entire world at present”
They do not have a conflict with the entire world, only with the western elite, the same elite that will be abandoned by their own populations, similar to way the slavic world got rid of their elite, that failed them with their shabby marxism. Western liberalism is running out of steam, because it essentially is a materialist paradigm and the planet is on the verge to halt cooperating with this mode of living.
Iran has a lot to gain from the coming conflict: after they got Iraq thrown in their, the eastern part of SA could be the next acquisition.
BillT on Sat, 20th Oct 2012 12:55 am
I agree Arthur. Assuming that it really is the Iranians doing the attacks, they have a lot to gain and not much to lose. But then, that very same CIA is just as likely to be in there stirring the pot. The West is getting desperate to keep the petroholics distracted from seeing the grand theft under way, of their money and freedoms, by the financial elite, otherwise known as banksters. Even at the cost of war.
The grand plan to have a one world money system and therefore a one world government run by the banksters has run into a landmine called Mother Nature that has set limits to the time line and possibilities of the current system. The number of ‘new discoveries’ and ‘alternates’ articles tells us they are running scared and are trying to convince the unlearned that they have it all under control and just go back to sleep.
We live in interesting days…
DC on Sat, 20th Oct 2012 6:12 am
Firstly there is no evidence to suggest Iran is behind this latest boogeyman, the ‘cyber-attacker’. Saudi Arabia also went along with that inept assassinate-the-ambassador false flag a while back. That was fake, and so is this. And tbh, I could give a $#$t about virused up S.A. arabian computers. It doesn’t effect me in the slightest, and besides making for lots of over-time for an IT dept somewhere, doesn’t affect anyone else in the greater world either.
If E.W., a site I used to feel was pretty decent thinks Im going to buy into the idea that hacking S.A. comps is somehow equal to actual death and destruction. Think again, only thing this article has done, has made me realize E.W. is just another limited hangout for the corporate propaganda war machine. This article reads like it was drafted at the US State Dept, probably was for all we know….
Arthur on Sat, 20th Oct 2012 8:45 am
http://lewrockwell.com/spl4/cyber-false-flag-iran.html
Arthur on Sat, 20th Oct 2012 10:13 am
Mitt Romney wants to increase ‘defense’ spending with $2 trillion, just google it up. Like Mother Jones: “Mitt Romney’s $2 Trillion Defense Increase Explained”.
Mind you, The US spends already as much as what the rest of the world spends combined on the subject. This can only mean one thing, Romney, or his handlers rather, are preparing for war. Even arch conservative Pat Buchanan, today at LewRockwell dot com has a column that might be interpreted that he could consider voting for Obama. If I were an American I would have voted for Ron Paul, if he were a candidate. Now that he is not (and if he would, he would be assasinated), I would have a hard time chosing between staying at home or voting for Obama, the lesser evil.
Who are Romney’s handlers?
His direct day-to-day handler is the zionist Dan Senor. He just hands over little pieces of paper with things Romney needs to say in a microphone. But for a broader ideological background we need to be with shady types like the zionist Gabriel Schoenfeld.
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/10/18/trotskyites-for-romney/
And if you read that article carefull (after having granted permission from Alan Cecil or PV), you will see that our supposedly conservative rightwinger Romney is being used as a tool for global revolution, Leon Trotzky style, and note that red agitation has moved from Russia to the US. Different location, same people (zionists). The ideology has changed (jewish neoconservatism rather than jewish bolshevism), but the drive for world conquest is the same. And they are going to provoke war one way or the other, to start with Iran. And you, my dear American nephews, are going to pay the bill for that exercise, with tax money and the blood of your children. And the downgrading of your society to Ukraine levels afterwards, if things go wrong. And once the war will be a fact, Washington is going to bulldozer aside all the remaining liberties you still enjoy and will make sure that the differences between the US and the former USSR, the Roosevelt ally of choice, will be as small as possible.