World View — U.S. Officials Confirm Authorship of Stuxnet Computer Virus

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com.

• Hezbollah’s Nasrallah threatens war over hostages in Syria
• Unconfirmed report: Top 5 Hezbollah officers kidnapped
• U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate al-Assad crimes against humanity in Syria
• Egypt Braces For Verdict In Hosni Mubarak Trial
• Disastrous global financial news continues to pour out
• U.S. officials confirm authorship of Stuxnet computer virus

 

Hezbollah’s Nasrallah threatens war over hostages in Syria

The drama continues as Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who is normally the one fomenting terrorist acts, is now threatening war over a terrorist act targeting him. Last week, a busload of Shia Lebanese citizens were kidnapped in Syria, as they traveled back to Lebanon from a religious pilgrimage to Iran.

Nasrallah called for the release of Lebanese Shia pilgrims held in Syria in a televised speech on Friday, in which he threatened war:

“The pilgrims should be returned to their families.

If your problem is with Hezbollah … or a political party in Lebanon and its position on the events in Syria leave innocent people aside and solve your problem with us.

If you have a problem with me there are many ways [in which] we can solve it and on many levels, if you want war we can solve it with war, if you want peace then we can solve it in peace.”

A previously unknown armed group calling itself the “Syrian Revolutionaries – Aleppo Province” claims to have perpetrated the kidnapping. Al-Jazeera

 

Unconfirmed report: Top 5 Hezbollah officers kidnapped

There are unconfirmed reports that Syria’s rebels are holding a second group of hostages, Five top-ranking Hezbollah officers, including Nasrallah’s nephew. According to the reports, the group was ambushed 15 kilometers west of Damascus after they left the Syrian military base of Al-Hame, 4 kilometers from the Syrian capital. It is there that Hezbollah maintains its heavy Scud D long-range missiles, as well as its Fajr, Zelzal and Fateh 110 rockets. Debka

 

U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate al-Assad crimes against humanity in Syria

The United Nations Human Rights Council voted overwhelmingly on Friday to condemn Syria over the Houla massacre last weekend. Of the 47 states meeting at an emergency session in Geneva, 41 voted in favor of the resolution, which was put forward by Qatar, Turkey and the U.S. China, Cuba and Russia voted against it, and there were two abstentions. The resolution calls for a U.N. investigation to identify the perpetrators and gather evidence for criminal prosecution for war crimes. This could mean that, at some point, Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad could be accused of and tried for war crimes. Since Russia and Iran have been supplying weapons to Syria, it’s even possible that Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will also be accused of war crimes, following the precedent set recently by the international war crime conviction of Charles Taylor for selling weapons to rebels who committed genocidal acts in the Sierra Leone civil war. Al-Jazeera

 

Egypt Braces For Verdict In Hosni Mubarak Trial

Egypt’s deposed leader Hosni Mubarak has faced criminal charges of corruption and complicity in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the revolution last year that ousted him. Now the trial is coming to an end, and a verdict is expected on Saturday. Whichever way it goes, it’s liable to generate more anger and riots. The young secular liberals who led the revolution already feel that the revolution has been compromised, since the runoff election for president, to be held on June 16-17, will be between Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister. NPR

 

Disastrous global financial news continues to pour out

Friday’s disastrous U.S. jobs reports has sent economists into shock, since they never saw it coming. But it was only one part of the bad financial news on Friday. China’s factory output is barely growing and European manufacturing is falling deeper into malaise. As one economist said, “It was just three months ago that we thought that the economy was firing on all cylinders.” However, as I’ve reported for several years, Generational Dynamics predicts that the global economy is headed for a major deflationary spiral and financial crisis. The stock market will fall below the Dow 3000 level, and remain there until the 2020s. This is mathematically certain, and no politician can stop it. CNBC/Reuters

 

U.S. officials confirm authorship of Stuxnet computer virus

U.S. officials have confirmed what has long been suspected — that the Stuxnet virus that destroyed 1,000 of Iran’s 5,000 nuclear enrichment centrifuges in 2010 was in fact the work of the United States and Israel government agencies. It’s expected that this admission that a major act of cyber-warfare was launched from the U.S. will encourage other governments launch counter-attacks of their own. Forbes