Talk about a wolf guarding the sheep ...

[Upchurch]

Meanwhile, back at the trees.

 

[Upchurch]

Curious.

You misspelled "typical".

 

[A'isha]

Curious. However, note that US News & World Report, who investigated the story, stated that two "senior level intelligence officers" confirmed it.

Completely anonymous officials, who just so happened to repeat a joke story about a virus being smuggled into Iraq via Jordan inside printers that messed up the Iraqi air defense computers by "devouring windows" in nearly verbatim detail. To the point that when the above was pointed out to him, the US News reporter who wrote the article repeating that joke story called it "troubling". Though apparently not troubling enough to admit the error or try to get any kind of verification from his anonymous sources.

Maybe they just didn't want potential enemies to know we have that capability so after the fact created an urban legend?

After the fact? You really don't know anything about this story, do you? The US News and World Report article was published in early 1992, with their book Triumph Without Victory, repeating the same story, coming out the same year (the US News article was not part of their reporting contemporary with the war, but actually part of the serialized excerpts from Triumph Without Victory run in the weekly magazine the year after the Gulf War).

The Infoworld joke was published over six months earlier, on April 1 (natch) 1991.

So unless this "coverup" involved a time machine, US News and World Report simply repeated, in pretty much every particular, a story more than half a year old that was nothing more than a computer magazine's April Fool's prank. And, as the books written by actual computer security experts that appear at the above Google Books link shows, pretty much everyone but US News and World Report (and you) realizes that it was simply a repetition of an April Fool's joke, and not an actual event at all.

 

[Travis]

Interesting note is that Iraq's air defense system was taken out by the US Army. Specifically a strike mission by the 101st Air Assault Division using Apaches armed with Hellfire missiles.

 

[Ausmerican]

Curious.

I dont believe I have ever seen the statement;
"Wow, was I ever wrong! Boy do I look and feel foolish now folks! Sorry 'bout that! " ...distilled down to one word before.
And certainly not the word you used. However we will take it in the spirit it was surely intended.

BTW; any response to the most oft asked question of the thread as yet? The one about the 47 voters with (R) after their names?

 

[BeAChooser]

Completely anonymous officials

But surely USN&WR knew who they were and weren't lying when they stated they were "senior" members of the US intelligence community.

After the fact? ... snip ... The US News and World Report article was published in early 1992 ... snip ... The Infoworld joke was published over six months earlier, on April 1 (natch) 1991.

I'm not suggesting that USN&WR started the story. Perhaps the folks they interviewed were not in the loop of the denial "after the fact" to keep our enemies guessing?

And in any case, do you really think we don't have the ability to embed stuff in computer chips that when attached to networks or devices will do bad things? If so, what's been going on in Iran lately with regards to their nuclear program? And if such capabilities do exist, then don't you think we should be very concerned about reports that chips built by Red China to be used in our IFF and missile systems have a backdoor that could be used to disable them? That does suggest the Chinese have hostile intent, doesn't it?

 

[A'isha]

The fact that the US News story was fishy was noticed almost immediately. And even though the US News reporter later doubled down on the story and claimed that his anonymous officials confirmed the story, he did back down from aspects of it.

The US News original copied the Infoworld April Fool's article almost completely, down to confirming that the printer was smuggled into Iraq via Jordan, and that it infected and took down an Iraqi air defense computer. However, three days after the above doubting story hit the news, the reporter backtracked: "Duffy said the magazine checked with two senior Pentagon officers who confirmed the planting of the virus in the printer, but said it was not known whether the printer ever reached Iraq." At the time, that reporter also claimed to the AP that the initial tip was provided, strangely, to a US News reporter in Tokyo, an odd choice for US military and intelligence officials wishing to provide information to the publication.

That backtrack was also picked up on by people who still wanted to believe the US News story was true, despite all the evidence to the contrary. James Adams, in his book The Next World War, cited Triumph Without Victory but claimed that the supposed virus never had a chance to infect Iraqi systems (the first result, page 39) because the US bombed the building in Baghdad that the virus-laden printer had been installed in, before it unleashed its deadly payload. He even cites (another) unnamed Pentagon official talking about how the "intelligence people" were pissed at the Air Force for ruining all their hard work.

Strangely, this is at odds with the supposedly-confirmed claims of the "officials" that the US News reporter cited: "Brian Duffy, the magazine's assistant managing editor for investigative projects, told the wire service the original sources believed the system must have worked because Iraqi air defense guns opened up before any US airplanes had appeared." How could one set of military intelligence officials be sure the virus had worked by noting that Iraqi air defense guns had started firing before the Allied bombing campaign had started, while another set was ticked off that the virus never had a chance to work because the infected printer was destroyed by that very Allied bombing campaign?

 

[A'isha]

But surely USN&WR knew who they were and weren't lying when they stated they were "senior" members of the US intelligence community.

Without knowing who they talked to, we have no idea whether those officials were in a position to actually know the information they were supposedly repeating, or even if they were really who they presented themselves to be to the reporters.

I'm not suggesting that USN&WR started the story. Perhaps the folks they interviewed were not in the loop of the denial "after the fact" to keep our enemies guessing?

Again, what is this "after the fact"? Are you suggesting that the US military purposefully planted classified information disguised as an April Fool's story, just so they could try and cast doubt on the veracity of a US News report more than six months later that basically repeated that prank story verbatim as part of a "coverup"? Especially since after the similarities to the Infoworld story were noted, the US News story changed, and James Adams was quoting other anonymous officials telling a story that contradicted Duffy's supposedly confirmed tale?

Why do all your conspiracy stories involve the conspirators doing the exact opposite of the things they really should be doing if they actually want to pull off a conspiracy?

And in any case, do you really think we don't have the ability to embed stuff in computer chips that when attached to networks or devices will do bad things?

Read the contemporary computer security discussion I linked in my post above: one of the reasons the initial US News story was doubted by computer virus experts and professionals was because such a thing as a printer infecting a mainframe was so extremely unlikely as to be suspicious. (EDIT: You'll note that the US News and World Report article and Adams' variant follow-on both claim the virus was in a chip inside the printer hardware itself, which is the suspicious detail, while the original joke article had the much more plausible detail that the virus was "inserted into some software accompanying a printer being smuggled into Iraq through Jordan." [emphasis added], a big clue that both these "officials" and Duffy and Adams knew too little about actual computer security to question the veracity of the story they were repeating)

If so, what's been going on in Iran lately with regards to their nuclear program? And if such capabilities do exist, then don't you think we should be very concerned about reports that chips built by Red China to be used in our IFF and missile systems have a backdoor that could be used to disable them? That does suggest the Chinese have hostile intent, doesn't it?

If your entire basis for believing something is a chain of unsupported "what ifs", all building on each other and ultimately resting on an April Fool's prank in a computer magazine, then you and skepticism are like matter and anti-matter and I'm surprised that we haven't all disappeared in a mass-energy reaction as a result from your presence here on JREF.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Will. You. Stop. Looking. At. The. Trees?!?

Worse yet--sometimes I can't see the tree for the leaves.

 

[SezMe]

You misspelled "typical".

Uh-oh, I used the big green smilie. That means I've revealed the plot to have Foster kill Brown.

 

[Travis]

My prediction: three pages later we will still have not gotten an admission that using this virus in the printer thing was wrong.

 

[Ausmerican]

My prediction: three pages later we will still have not gotten an admission that using this virus in the printer thing was wrong.

This is only problematical for you Travis because you cannot see the Sheepforest through the Wolftrees guarding it.

 

[BeAChooser]

 

[cwalner]

Nice to see you are still here. so please answer this question, which has been asked multiple times (only quoting the most recent)

BTW; any response to the most oft asked question of the thread as yet? The one about the 47 voters with (R) after their names?

 

[mysteronyx]

BeAChooser, this is an fascinating topic. I'm interested in discussing it more with you.

The first thing I'd like to discuss is the 100-0 vote. What's your take on this, BAC?

 

[BenBurch]

Worse yet--sometimes I can't see the tree for the leaves.

Eats shoots and leaves?

 

[Spindrift]

So to summarize. Panetta talked to a Chinese Communist in the forest while looking for wolves, but never found a tree. He caught a virus from his printer on April 1st and he might have shot Ron Brown in the head. Therefore he should not be Secretary of Defense, even though he was approved by the Senate Sheep including all the Republican Sheep.

 

[I Am The Scum]

Edited by Tricky: 

Edited for rule 12.

 

[Upchurch]

Nice to see you are still here. so please answer this question, which has been asked multiple times (only quoting the most recent)

See, upon realizing that he has fully inserted his foot into his mouth, B likes to pretend he is a puppet master who has manipulated us for his enjoyment. This is not the first time he's done it.

 

[BenBurch]