It seems you can't turn your back on the Middle East for more than a few minutes without something going bump in the desert. Sure enough, a few shorts hours after we reported that the leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards is certain war with Israel is coming [12], here comes Iran again with the stunning admission that none other than German industrial conglomerate, and occasional maker of nuclear power plants, Siemens was reponsible for "implanting tiny explosives inside equipment the Islamic Republic purchased for its disputed nuclear program. Prominent lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iranian security experts discovered the explosives and removed them before detonation, adding that authorities believe the booby-trapped equipment was sold to derail uranium enrichment efforts. "The equipment was supposed to explode after being put to work, in order to dismantle all our systems," he said. "But the wisdom of our experts thwarted the enemy conspiracy." Expert wisdom aside, what is stunning is not the ongoing attempts by everyone and the kitchen sink to terminally corrupt the Iranian nuclear power plant: after Stuxnet one would expect nothing less than every form of conventional and "new normal" espionage thrown into the pot to cripple the only peaceful argument Iran would have for demanding nuclear power, which by implication would mean that all ongoing nuclear pursuits are geared solely toward aggressive, military goals, of the type that demand immediate military retaliation by the democratic superpowers. No, what is stunning is the implicit admission that Germany's, and Europe's, largest electrical engineering company, has been not only quietly transacting with none other than world peace (as portrayed by the MSM) enemy #1, Iran, but instrumental in its nuclear program.
Obviously it took a Stuxnet second before Siemens denied everything and then some. Via Reuters [13]:
Siemens denied the charge and said its nuclear division has had no business with Iran since the 1979 revolution that led to its current clerical state.
"Siemens rejects the allegations and stresses that we have no business ties to the Iranian nuclear program," spokesman for the Munich-based company Alexander Machowetz said.
Oh well, Iran must have bought all those Siemens nuclear centrifuges, concrete dome and steam plant in near perfect condition on eBay from anonymous sellers (who accept PayPal and even credit cardsas long as the purchase does not have an Indonesian shipping address).
Iran, however, isn't afraid of trowing Siemens into even deeper water, alleging not only breach of international embargos, but also masterful sabotaging of ones own product:
Boroujerdi, who heads the parliamentary security committee, alleged that the explosives were implanted at a Siemens factory and demanded the company take responsibility.
There is of course another possibility: that the shipping address of the mysterious and anonymous ebay seller was somewhere in Langley, VA:
Some Iranian officials have also suggested in the past that specific European companies may have sold faulty equipment to Iran with the knowledge of American intelligence agencies and their own governments, since the sales would have harmed, rather than helped, the country's nuclear program.
According to Iran, the alleged campaign has included the abduction of scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt in 2010.
Certifying that there is undoubtedly a Jason Bourne episode in the works over this entire incident is the following:
Abbasi also told the U.N. nuclear agency in Vienna that "terrorists and saboteurs" might have infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency, after the watchdog's inspectors arrived at the Fordo underground enrichment facility shortly after power lines were blown up through sabotage on Aug. 17.
Iran has repeatedly accused the IAEA of sending spies in the guise of inspectors to collect information about its nuclear activities, pointing to alleged leaks of information by inspectors to U.S. and other officials.
Five nuclear scientists and researchers have been killed in Iran since 2010. Tehran blames the deaths on Israel's Mossad spy agency as well as the CIA and Britain's MI-6. Washington and London have denied any roles. Israel has not commented.
Boroujerdi said the alleged leaks of nuclear information to its adversaries by the IAEA may finally push Tehran to end all cooperation with the agency.
"Iran has the right to cut its cooperation with the IAEA should such violations continue," he said.
If anyone follows the game theory in this one, and has any idea who has not defected, or where the Nash equilibrium is at this point, please speak up. The rest of us just want the popcorn.
And in far simpler plotlines, Reuters reports [14]that Syria (which for those who have a 15 minutes attention span, was accused three months ago [15] by everyone, and certainly Hillary Clinton, of offensively taking down a Turkish plane before it turned out to be a self-defensive move, at which point the entire false flag story promptly disappeared as it could no longer be pre-spun) is once again being provoked by NATO-member Turkey, which is now deploying heavy armored vehicles and weapons to the border with Syria. The spin this time around:
The deployment is reportedly in an area where earlier this week Turkish civilians were wounded when stray bullets and shelling crossed the border from the Syrian province of al-Raqqa.
CNN Turk television said artillery fire had landed close to the Turkish border overnight, causing panic among local residents.
The Turkish army moved three Howitzers and one anti-aircraft weapon to the border, the channel said.
Turkey, a member of NATO, has conducted a number of troop deployments in recent months along its 911-km (566-mile) border with Syria, where rebels are fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
And on, and on, until the interminable foreplay finally ends, whenever one of the abovementioned democracies decides the quiet period is over, and the time for real GDP building (if only in a hard core Keynesian-cum-Krugman sense) once the ability to generate even one additional dollar in debt is no longer available, is upon us.