A cyber attack against Iran's nuclear program was the work of U.S. and Israeli experts and proceeded under the secret orders of President Barack Obama, say current and former U.S. officials.
 

The origins of the cyber weapon have long been debated, with most experts concluding that the United States and Israel probably collaborated. The current and former U.S. officials confirmed that long-standing suspicion Friday, after a New York Times report.

 

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the classified effort code-named Olympic Games, said it was first developed during the George W. Bush administration and was geared toward damaging Iran's nuclear capability gradually while sowing confusion among Iranian scientists about the cause of mishaps at a nuclear plant.

 

The use of the cyberweapon -- malware designed to infiltrate and damage systems run by computers -- was supposed to make the Iranians think that their engineers were incapable of running an enrichment facility.

 

"The idea was to string it out as long as possible," said one participant in the operation. "If you had wholesale destruction right away, then they generally can figure out what happened, and it doesn't look like incompetence."

 

Even after software security companies discovered Stuxnet loose on the Internet in 2010, causing concern among U.S. officials, Obama secretly ordered the operation continued and authorized the use of several variations of the computer virus.

 

The National Security Agency developed the cyber weapon with the help of Israel.

 

As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has legal right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

 

Iran has described the cyber-attacks as part of a "terrorist" campaign backed by Israel and the United States.

 

White House spokesman Josh Earnest declined comment on the substance of the New York Times article, but denied "in the strongest possible terms" that it was an authorized leak of classified information.

 

PA/PA

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MNA