Obama Ordered Cyber Attacks on Iran

According to a new book, excerpted today, the United States has been quietly waging a secret cyber war designed to take down the Iranian nuclear program.

The cyberweapon program code-named "Olympic Games" was begun during the Bush administration, but has accelerated under President Obama's direction, even after the controversial Stuxnet worm escaped into the wild. RELATED: Rhetoric Ramps Up as Obama Pins Terror Plot on Iran The book, Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, is written by David Sanger, and is based off interviews with anonymous intelligence sources with access to the highly-classified program.

 Sanger appears to confirm that Stuxnet was the work of a joint effort between American and Israeli intelligence units, who were determined to bring down the Iranian nuclear program from within. RELATED: Obama's New Tech Sanctions Could Hit Home While there were concerns within the both the Bush and Obama administrations about the use of uncertain technology and tactics, officials made the calculation that "Olympic Games" was worth trying, if only to prevent the Israelis from launching a dangerous military strike on Iran.

 According to Sanger, Rather than shut down the program after it became more widely known, the president ordered it to continue, launching the first computer attack that ended in physical damage to the Iranian plant.

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