The Obama administration developed a detailed plan for an expansive cyber-attack against Iran’s infrastructure early in President Obama’s term, according to a new documentary premiering this week.
The plan was code-named “Nitro Zeus” and included a range of targets across Iran’s electrical grid, air defenses and communications and transportation systems, according to details from the film revealed Tuesday by The New York Times and BuzzFeed News.
The centerpiece was a targeted cyber strike on the Fordo nuclear enrichment site, buried deep in a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
The cyberattack on that site would have been a sequel to the 2010 “Olympic Games” operation that destroyed up to 1,000 centrifuges at a separate nuclear site using a computer worm named “Stuxnet.”
The documentary film, “Zero Days,” will be screened on Wednesday at the Berlin Film Festival.
According to the New York Times, which confirmed aspects of the film’s claims through its own reporting, planning for the Nitro Zeus operation began under former President George W. Bush but escalated when Obama entered office in 2009.
The planning came amid heightened concerns about Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon and as tensions were riding high in Washington about the prospect that Israel might undertake a unilateral strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, to stop Tehran from building a bomb.
The program was based at the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., and amounted to what Gibney described as “likely the largest and most complex cyber war plan the U.S. has ever created,” according to BuzzFeed.
Thousands of military and intelligence officials were reportedly involved in the operation’s planning, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Planning for the operation appears to have been sidelined by the nuclear deal signed between Iran and other world powers last year.

Source: The Hill, 17 FEB 2016