10 December 2010

Unit 8200


(Symbol of the IDF's Unit 8200. Image courtesy IDF.)
So, we were going to talk about attribution for the cyber-attack on the Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz. Let’s just cut to the chase. It is just a guess, but I lean toward attributing the attack to Unit 8200, the signals intelligence arm of the Israeli defense forces,

It could have been us, too, since the amount of Iranian mischief out there is quite astonishing.

There are reports this morning that Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt.

The paper claims bantam strong-man President Hugo Chavez inked the deal on his trip to Tehran last October. NATO, of course, had moved forward on an initiative to deploy a missile defense system to defend against ballistic missiles, pointedly not those of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, but those of Iran.

The Germans claim that Iran is hop-scotching over that new network by flanking Europe altogether and putting the US mainland at risk from the Shahab 3, a missile with a  range about a thousand miles.

It seems to me we have been down this road before, so I will be very interested to see how it plays out. Naturally, we would have the inclination to squash the joint base like a bug, but the mischievous Russians are dangling the sale of the sophisticated S-300PMU-1 air defense systems to Caracas.

Man, if it is not one thing, it is certainly another.

We will to take a look at that later, since I have to drag my sorry butt out to the Bluesmobile this morning and be in Charlottesville by noon, so I am starting to glance at the clock icon on the upper right hand corner of the screen. There is a reception for our three-hundred odd employees down there at the Boar's Head Inn; last year, the affair coincided with the 24-inch snow dump on the 18th of December, and resulted in the wildest drive of the decade trying to claw my way back north.

No snow on the menu this holiday party season, so I am hoping I can make an appearance and get 40 miles up the road to the farm to spend the night, since I foolishly committed to hosting a table at Army-Navy Country Club (not the one downtown, as many have learned to their dismay on arrival) for the Army-Navy football game tomorrow afternoon.

Next week is the last full one before departing for Michigan, which I dread, big time. So, denial and driving are the watchwords of the day. We will have to let some smart people figure out what to do about the Iranian rockets in the Carribean.

I hope the President has put someone on it. Maybe he could borrow Unit 8200.

Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
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