Siemens Signs $3.5 Billion Deal With Iran as Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Conducts New Ballistic Missile Tests Threatening Israel

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As reported by Iran's Fars News Agency in an article entitled "Iran Fires 2 Ballistic Missiles at Targets 1400km in Distance," the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps today test-fired two additional ballistic missiles in violation of UN Security Council resolutions (my emphasis in red):

"The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday fired 2 home-made 'Qadr H' ballistic missiles from the Eastern Alborz Mountains at a target in Iran's Southeastern Makran seashore some 1400km away.

The missiles were fired on the sidelines of the main stage of the ongoing IRGC drills in Central Iran and various parts of the country.

One missile had a message written on it that said in Hebrew: "Israel should be wiped off the Earth".

Qadr is a 2000km-range, liquid-fuel and ballistic missile which can reach territories as far as Israel.

The missile can carry different types of ‘Blast’ and ‘MRV’ (Multiple Reentry Vehicle) payloads to destroy a range of targets. The new version of Qadr H can be launched from mobile platforms or silos in different positions and can escape missile defense shields due to their radar-evading capability.

A Multiple Reentry Vehicle payload for a ballistic missile deploys multiple warheads in a pattern against a single target. (As opposed to Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, which deploys multiple warheads against multiple targets.) The advantage of an MRV over a single warhead is that the damage produced in the center of the pattern is far greater than the damage possible from any single warhead in the MRV cluster, this makes for an efficient area attack weapon. Also, the sheer number of Warheads make interception by Anti-ballistic missiles unlikely.

Improved warhead designs allow smaller warheads for a given yield, while better electronics and guidance systems allowed greater accuracy. As a result MIRV technology has proven more attractive than MRV for advanced nations. Because of the larger amount of nuclear material consumed by MRVs and MIRVs, single warhead missiles are more attractive for nations with less advanced technology. The United States deployed an MRV payload on the Polaris A-3. The Soviet Union deployed MRVs on the SS-9 Mod 4 ICBM.

The IRGC began the main stage of its ballistic missile exercises on Tuesday."

And Obama responding by declaring . . . ?

On the other hand, Joe Biden, who is currently visiting Israel and reconsidering a run for the presidency after Hillary's embarrassing loss to Bernie in the Michigan primary, stated, "I want to reiterate, as I know people still doubt, if in fact they break the [nuclear] deal, we will act." Yup, seeing is believing.

Meanwhile, as reported in a separate Fars news item, "The Iranian industrial group MAPNA and the German equipment manufacturer, Siemens, signed a contract worth $3.5bln, a trade official announced on Wednesday." Siemens, of course, made extensive use of Jewish slave labor during World War II, but that was ages ago, and why should ongoing Iranian threats to eradicate Israel now trouble the consciences of Siemen's top management? Disgusting.

Iran: Did Siemens Grow a Conscience?

In an interesting column in PajamasMedia entitled "Cyber War on Iran: the Siemens Connection", Roger L. Simon suggests that Siemens might have assisted Israel in infecting Iranian industrial facilities with Stuxnet. Mr. Simon writes:

"In all likelihood Israel did not act entirely alone — there were too many moving parts to this attack — and I am going now to suggest another ally — the German electronics giant Siemens AG."

http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2010/09/25/cyber-war-on-iran-the-siemens-connection/?singlepage=true

Again, it is of no interest to me who is ultimately responsible for the "deed". However, regarding Siemens, I would observe the following information from a Reuters January 2010 article:

"Siemens, which is Europe's biggest engineering conglomerate, was aware of the sensitivities attached to doing business in Iran, Chief Executive Peter Loescher said.

'Some time ago, we reduced our business activities with customers in Iran,' Loescher said, responding to questions at a shareholders meeting.

The Siemens board decided at the start of October not to agree to any further orders with customers in Iran, he added, noting, however, that existing orders would be fulfilled.

Loescher said there were still bids submitted by Siemens before October 2009. If they were not accepted, it would mean new business in Iran would end by mid-2010."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE60P1LJ20100126?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c1.000000:b30083910:z0

Or stated more simply, Siemens claims it is terminating its business with Iran, however, it also says that it will continue to fulfill existing orders, and, if its tenders submitted to Iran before October 2009 are accepted, these apparently will also be honored.

Thanks, Siemens, for your kind and very thoughtfully worded assurances.

Siemens, Iran, Stuxnet and a Second Holocaust: Dinner Invitation to Peter Löscher

The news organizations are abuzz with reports that a sophisticated computer worm, Stuxnet, has infected industrial plants across Iran. As reported today by David E. Sanger of The New York Times:

"Stuxnet, which was first publicly identified several months ago, is aimed solely at industrial equipment made by Siemens that controls oil pipelines, electric utilities, nuclear facilities and other large industrial sites. While it is not clear that Iran was the main target — the infection has also been reported in Indonesia, Pakistan, India and elsewhere — a disproportionate number of computers inside Iran appear to have been struck, according to reports by computer security monitors.

Given the sophistication of the worm and its aim at specific industrial systems, many experts believe it is most probably the work of a state, rather than independent hackers. The worm is able to attack computers that are disconnected from the Internet, usually to protect them; in those cases an infected USB drive is plugged into a computer. The worm can then spread itself within a computer network, and possibly to other networks.

. . . .

The fact that the worm is aimed at Siemens equipment is telling: the company’s control systems are used around the world, but have been spotted in many Iranian facilities, say officials and experts who have toured them. Those include the new Bushehr nuclear power plant, built with Russian help."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/world/middleeast/26iran.html?_r=1&hp

Everyone is guessing who introduced the worm into the Iranian facilities. Personally, I am more troubled by the involvement of Siemens in the erection of these facilities.

Siemens is no ordinary company:

• Siemens funded the rise of the Nazi party.
• Siemens manufacturing facilities, built in close proximity to concentration camps, used slave labor during World War II.
• Siemens helped build V-2 rockets fired at England.

Sixty-five years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust, Siemen's equipment is being used by the nuclear development facilties of a country which is calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map.

Peter Löscher, President and CEO of Siemens, I would like to invite you for dinner with my family, and perhaps you would care to stare into my children's eyes and explain exactly why Siemens has sold equipment to Iran that is being used to realize that country's frightening nuclear ambitions.