Iranian Atomic Urgency
• LA Times: Attackers tried to wipe Flame virus from infected computers:
“They’re trying to cover their tracks in any way they can,” said Vikram Thakur, principal security response manager at Symantec, a computer security company. “What’s very interesting is that they were willing to take the risk of connecting to the servers, which could be watched.”
“They threw caution to the wind,” Thakur said.
• When it comes to cyber warfare against Iran, Lee Smith (Tablet) isn’t happy that the White House is trying to take all the credit while blaming Israel for the effort’s shortcomings.
Arab Spring Winter
• A Channel 4 reporter was nearly killed by the Syrian army when he was separated from a UN convoy crossing no man’s land. Alex Thomson says he is certain the Free Syrian Army set him up to die outside the rebel-held town of al-Qusayr:
I’m quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army. Dead journos are bad for Damascus . . . .
In a war where they slit the throats of toddlers back to the spine, what’s the big deal in sending a van full of journalists into the killing zone?
That prompted this tweet from an Arab League monitor in Syria earlier this year:
As I was about to publish this post, CNN reported the death of citizen journalist. Khaled Bakr, identified as the founder of the Baba Amr media center, was killed in Homs during a round of shelling. Hmmmm.
• Chemical weapons in Syria: Who to believe?
- “Syrian military forces loyal to President Bashar Assad are bombing civilian population centers with unidentified gas shells, al-Jazeera reported Thursday.”
- “Terrorist groups in Syria are now armed with chemical weapons, media reports disclosed on Saturday, adding that these groups receive the needed trainings on how to use such lethal weapons in Turkey.
Meanwhile, Druse MK says Israeli doctors are treating Syrian refugees along the Turkish border, and that according to photos he saw, the Assad regime has indeed used chemical weapons against men, women, and children. More on that the Times of Israel.
• Itamar Rabinovich (Times of Israel) blames the White House for international inaction:
. . . “it’s not Russia that’s preventing intervention. Russia is the pretext, the alibi” for the lack of substantive international action. “If someone wanted to ratchet up the pressure on Syria, they could,” he said.
The real block, he told Army Radio, is the US government. “The Obama administration is not looking for another major Middle East crisis before November.”
• Robert Satloff (The New Republic) says boots-on-the-ground intervention could get messy.
• See also a crie de couer from Elie Wiesel (Washington Post).
• Shaul Mofaz accuses Assad of genocide and slams Russia too. Reuters picks up on the Deputy PM’s comments.
• Whither the Egyptian revolution?
Egyptian men molest women at anti-sexual harassment rally
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Turns out the mysterious light seen over Mt. Hermon and other parts of the Mideast was a UFO meteorite satellite breaking up Russian ballistic missile test.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
• A Globe & Mail staff-ed weighs in on Israel’s African migrants issue. Meanwhile, a number of press reports picked up on Poll: 52% of Jewish Israelis say illegal African migrants a ‘cancer’.
(Image credits in small font)
For more, see Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
Clicking “Unsubscribe instantly” on your mailing will remove you from the Israel Daily News Stream list, but not from your regular HonestReporting emails.
