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Pro-Beijing and Iran miscreants are using the war in Ukraine to spread disinformation that supports these countries' political interests namely, advancing anti-Western narratives according to threat-intel experts at Mandiant.

Additionally, Iranian cyber-campaigns are using Russia's invasion of its neighbor to take aim at Saudi Arabia and Israel, the researchers found.

In a new report published today, Mandiant's Alden Wahlstrom, Alice Revelli, Sam Riddell, David Mainor and Ryan Serabian analyze several information operations that the team has observed in its response to the conflict in Ukraine. It also attributes these campaigns to actors that the threat researchers say are operating in support of nation-states including Russia, Belarus, China and Iran.

"They're opportunistically leveraging the invasion to pursue the goals of known campaigns," Wahlstrom, a senior analyst at Mandiant, told The Register. "It's a bit of a view of how other actors can use a major event to pursue their own interests on the global stage."

In the case of Iran, this means tailoring their existing campaigns, some of which the Mandiant team has tracked for years, to pertain to the Russian invasion of Ukraine while still promoting their anti-US and allies messaging. This includes the pro-Iran Liberty Front Press (LFP) campaign, which Mandiant started tracking in 2018, and the Iran-aligned Endless Mayfly influence campaign that Citizen Lab reported on in 2019.

For the first time in this research, Mandiant has named a pro-Iran group "Roaming Mayfly" because of its similarities to the Endless Mayfly campaign.

"The campaigns aren't new, but the activity and the focus is," Revelli, a Mandiant senior manager, said in an interview. "They've been leveraging narratives pertaining to the invasion to take aim at the usual adversaries."

Some of the campaigns include messaging directed at Arabic-language audiences stating that the US has abandoned Ukraine like it did with Afghanistan in 2021. "So that's really focusing on the US and how it abandons its allies rather than on the invasion in and of itself," Revelli added.

In other examples of messaging promoting Western hypocrisy and racism, pro-Iran campaigns have used the Ukraine invasion to highlight how the US and its allies responded to Russia compared to how they dealt with Saudi Arabia after the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen.

Mandiant also documented Roaming Mayfly targeting Russian audiences on the eve of the invasion in what the security researchers say is an attempt to increase tensions between Russia and Israel. Specifically, this effort used a fake Twitter account that impersonated Russian journalist Fyodor Lukyanov to suggest Israeli intelligence was supporting Ukraine, and that it had also supported earlier violent protests in 2000, 2004, and 2014.

Also in the research, Mandiant links a pro-Chinese government effort called "Dragonbridge" to an ongoing misinformation campaign that alleges Pentagon-linked labs are conducting biological weapons research in Ukraine.

While it's difficult to measure the influence or reach of these types of misinformation campaigns, the general chaos and distrust they sow is in and of itself a successful outcome, Wahlstrom said.

"Creating an influx of questionable information in a conflict zone at least raises questions or concerns about trustworthy news sources that larger possibility of confusion or not knowing exactly when you can trust if something was posted to a website or if that is real," he said.

In addition to the Chinese and Iranian campaigns related to the Ukraine war, the research includes information on new Russian information operations.

This includes a Russian-influence campaign known as "Secondary Infektion," which began prior to the ground invasion and spread misinformation about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Mandiant linked the operation to a March false claim that Zelenskyy had died by suicide in the military bunker in Kyiv.

A more recent Secondary Infection campaign circulated in both Ukrainian and Russian falsely claimed that the Ukrainian and Polish governments sought to enable Polish troops to deploy in western Ukraine. And one in early April claimed that Poland attempted to use an alleged "provocation," staged by Ukraine, to station Polish troops in the country.

Plus, a new Ghostwriter operation, which Mandiant is attributing publicly for the first time, published fake content about Polish criminals harvesting organs from Ukrainian refugees.

"Obviously, that's an incredibly concerning narrative that has been spread with the potential to create distrust between Ukrainian refugees and the place that they're fleeing to," Wahlstrom said.

"But in terms of the context of viewing that as a Ghostwriter operation, it is very much in line with established goals of the campaign, which include fomenting distrust or tensions between different countries in the region, including Poland and Ukraine."

As a reminder: Ghostwriter, a crew thought to be connected to Russia's GRU military intelligence service, traffics in both disinformation and destructive cyberattacks. The US government blamed Ghostwriter for WhispherGate, the destructive wiper malware strain used against Ukrainian government and private sector networks on January 15 before the land and sky bombardment began.

This same group also tried to trick people on Facebook into posting a fake YouTube video purporting to show Ukrainian soldiers emerging from a forest waving white flags.And Ghostwriter tried to hack into "dozens" of Ukrainian military personnel's Facebook accounts, according to Meta.

This gang, in particular, highlights the intersection of disinformation and destructive attacks that Russian-backed criminals have used against Ukraine since the conflict started.

While Mandiant touches on this alignment in its new report, identifying information operations that occurred concurrently with disruptive or destructive malware (like the wiper attacks at the start of the war), the authors say they can't definitively link these types of operations because of a "limited pattern of overlap."

This suggests that some of the crews behind these information operations "are at least linked to groups with more extensive capabilities," Wahlstrom added. "And what that means is the skill sets required to conduct a basic information operation vary from what you might require to develop and deploy malware."

However, both types of threats compliment each other in a warzone, he added. "If one of the goals is to create fear, uncertainty amongst the population, then having both a very visible statement, like a website defacement, and then potentially other activity that has a more destructive aspect to it that could catch headlines has a dual impact."

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Iran, China-linked gangs join Putin's disinformation war online - The Register

Iran Did the Unthinkable in a 2002 Wargame In 2002, the Pentagon convened a fictitious wargame to test a future enemy equipped with advanced technology and tactics. Dubbed the Millennium Challenge, the congressionally-mandated exercise pitted the blue U.S. team up against the red Iran-like Middle Eastern team, set in a timeframe five years in the future. The warfare practice involved both live exercises and computer simulations, which cost approximately $250 million. The games grew to encompass 13,500 service members participating from 17 different simulation locations across several training sites. Within a matter of days the red team sunk 19 blue teams ships and rendered its carrier battle group ineffective. While the rules of the game remain controversial, its outcome emphasized the detriment of group thinking and the power of innovative asymmetric warfare.

Iran vs. America A Game of Asymmetrical Warfare

In the months following the 9/11 attacks, the Bush Administration implemented its doctrine of pre-emption, meaning the U.S. could launch an offensive on an enemy before being attacked. With this in mind, the red teams leader Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper decided to beginthe wargame by pre-empting the pre-empter. The U.S. suspected the red teams smaller and inferior military would wait to be attacked first before it responded with a counterattack. Scrambling and caught off guard, the blue team was quickly overwhelmed.

According toWar on the Rocks,Once U.S. forces were within range, Van Ripers forces unleashed a barrage of missiles from ground-based launchers, commercial ships, and planes flying low and without radio communications to reduce their radar signature. Simultaneously, swarms of speedboats loaded with explosives launched kamikaze attacks.

In addition to its initial surprise attack, the red team also usedunconventionalcommunication methods that could not be detected and intercepted by the blue teams advanced technology. To signal his army, Van Riper used the minarets of mosques to project coded messages during the call to prayer. Motorcycle messengers were also instrumental in relaying tactics to each team member. The blue team assumed Iran would use the modes of communication that would allow them to listen and ambush their enemy, but Van Ripers asymmetric assault made this tactic impossible.

Overcoming the Unpredictable

After the U.S. teams quick and miserable defeat, additional constraints were placed on the red team. The control group of the gamesinstructedVan Riper that his team could not shoot down the airframes flying cover for their enemys ground forces. The red team was also prohibited from hiding their offensive weapons or from using chemical warfare against the blue teams paratroopers. With these extreme disadvantages in place, the blue team ultimatelysucceededin their mission to destroy Irans military capabilities. However, the blue teams inability to use flexibility and quick thinking in its response to the reds initial attack reflected a rigidity that would not serve the U.S. well in real conflict.

The costliest wargame in Americas history did not play out exactly how the Pentagon had hoped. While obtaining advanced technology and sophisticated weaponry is a crucial component in war, it wont necessarily guarantee a win. Innovative warfare combined with adaptability can be just as lethal.

Maya Carlin, now a Defense Editor for 1945 focusing on the Middle East, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel.

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How Iran Defeated the U.S. Military In a War (Thankfully it Was a Simulation) - 19FortyFive

In 2001, Iranian authorities captured Saeed Hanaei, dubbed the spider killer in local media, after he murdered 16 women in the eastern city of Mashhad. The man took full responsibility for the killings, claiming he targeted prostitutes for the protection of my religion. He was eventually executed for the crimes, but not before conservative Iranian media and extremist locals elevated him to a kind of folk hero and defended his stated cause.

Filmmaker Ali Abbasi was a college student in Tehran at the time and baffled by the response. It was insane, he said in a recent interview with IndieWire, but even more surprising was how long it took for police to capture Hanaei, even though his murders followed such an obvious pattern that suggests he could have been stopped much sooner. If this happened in Nebraska or whatever, it would be national news for a long time until they caught him, Abbasi said. I was scratching my head but there are a lot to things to scratch your head about in Iran.

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It took Abbasi, who later moved to Denmark, two decades to create a work that clarified his response. His new movie about the murders and their fallout, Holy Spider, arrives in competition at Cannes with a more provocative context than the many other Iranian films that have premiered there over the years. The drama captures a seedy side of Iranian life that its powerful Ministry of Culture would never allow, including the routine of the sex workers who Hanaei (Bajestani) kills, and examines the rampant misogyny that likely played a part in the delay of his capture. Abbasi ended up shooting the movie outside the country to navigate those concerns.

The filmmaker first started thinking about the project when he saw the 2002 documentary And Along Came a Spider, which includes footage of Hanaei attempting to justifying his murderous behavior. In a really strange way, I felt sympathy for the guy, really against my own will, Abbasi said. I think there was a psychotic element to the pleasure-seeking aspect of his murders, the twisted sexuality and whatnot, but there was also this strange innocence about him. It was more about how a society creates a serial killer.

Story continues

The movie, with its naturalistic storytelling and real-life plot, might seem like a far cry from Abbasis 2018 debut Border, a haunting fantasy about the plight of a troll woman coming to grips with her ostracized identity. (It was nominated for an Oscar in Best Makeup and Hairstyling.) But Abbasi was keen on connecting the dots between the two films. There is a theme of alienation and being an outsider in both of them, he said.

In the process of writing Holy Spider, Abbasi took some liberties with the true story, and added the fictional role of a female journalist (Zahra Amir Ebrahimi) who investigates the murders and realizes how little interest there is in capturing the culprit. Her story becomes a conduit for exploring how religious bias impacts everyday life for women across the country. The misogyny didnt start with the Islamic Revolution, Abbasi said. The limitations that have been in place for women in Iran for the past 50 years are crazy.

Abbasi ended up shooting the movie in Jordan, a solution that ultimately sat better with him than shooting on the streets of Mashhad and attempting to circumnavigate censorship by submitting an incomplete script, as some filmmakers have done.

Holy Spider

I dont believe in fooling them into something, he said. That also legitimates censorship in a strange way. In an Iranian movie, womens faces are always wrapped with cloth, and any sort of touching would be, of course, out of question. I have absolutely no interest in becoming an activist or whatnot, but I will not change these things. He has been frustrated by the impact of censorship on other movies from the country. With some movies, they act as if its normal for women to sleep with this headscarf in their bed, he said. Its fucking not normal. Even the most religious women that I know from my own family dont do that. Thats a parallel alternative reality that is induced by the state and used to hurt people.

While Abbasi said he was excited for his Cannes premiere, Holy Spider brings serious risks for its Iranian cast. Hanaei is portrayed by Bajestani as a tragicomic war veteran whose murderous sense of purpose sits at odds with his pedestrian family life, and his decision to star in the project is a gamble for the veteran Tehran-based stage actor (war veterans are considered above reproach in Iran). Im really afraid of the consequences, Abbasi said. He is taking an insane risk. If this was an American thriller, it would be panned or praise, sell or not sell, but its not like the actor would be in danger of going to prison.

The movie also invites controversy in Iran for the casting of Ebrahimi, who was once a major TV star in the country before a sex tape scandal in 2006 that led to public humiliation and her decision to resettle in France. The backlash also forced her to reboot her career, and when Abbasi first encountered her, she was working as a casting director. That was her initial job on Holy Spider, until the filmmaker realized that she was well-equipped to take on the role of an individualistic woman navigating male-dominated spaces. We adapted the part to her, Abbasi said. She brought some of the stuff from her own private life, the experience shes had after this private video leak and added it to the character. I dont think it was as interesting before she did that.

But the biggest hurdle was figuring out the Hanaei character and explaining his paradoxical nature to potential financiers. Over time, Abbasi found a natural point of comparison. At some point when we were doing our financing runs for more European investors, I started talking about Travis Bickle, Abbasi said, referencing the iconic Taxi Driver anti-hero. Here was someone who found a meaning in war, and then came back, and that meaning evaporated.

Mashhad, meanwhile, was a case study for a city overrun by crime, in part because of drug trafficking that has resulted from its proximity to several other countries borders. The widespread corruption throughout the city meant that police turned a blind eye to many injustices, including the spider killers initial murders. It was not like it was a serene place and then one guy killed 16 women, Abbasi said. If you put it in that context, then youre like, OK, you have a probably understaffed police force which is dealing with all this stuff, so nobody really gives a shit about some street prostitutes being killed when theyre trying to stop drug cartels.

Abbasi said that he didnt think Iranian audiences would be shocked by Holy Spider if they got a chance to see it. Look, a lot of people in Iran have had access to Western media and cable TV since early 2000s, he said. And also the internet. Its not like nobody has seen half naked pop stars. People are used to seeing Julia Roberts making out with George Clooney many times over.

But he acknowledged a radical aspect to the representational value of the movie. What they arent used to is seeing somebody like themselves making out with someone else like themselves in their own language, in a setting that reminds them of their own life, because thats a mirror of their own reality, he said. Thats really the transgressive element here that would not translate to a Western audience.

All of which means that he hopes Holy Spider will make it back to Iran, regardless of how official channels choose to respond, even if an unauthorized censored version hits the market. Realistically, there is zero chances of this version getting a release there, he said, but Im sure itll find a way of doing it anyway.

Holy Spider

Holy Spider arrives in the midst of several new chapters in Abbasis career coming together at once. He has been developing a gender-swapped adaptation of Hamlet starring Noomi Rapace in the lead role, in addition to another new feature that may be announced during Cannes. At the same time, hes contending with a filmmaking identity defined in part by his latest project, which isnt the easiest sell. Abbasi said hes fine with that as he evaluates his next stage. His recent experience directing episodes of HBOs upcoming video game adaptation The Last of Us helped him understand his reticent to tackle more U.S. studio gigs.

I didnt know there were so many rules and regulations that come with studio work, he said. Now I understand why things are so complicated and so expensive. I might be culturally Iranian, but Im a European filmmaker by sensibility. So working in the Hollywood system is a little bit like working in Iran for me. I cant do it.

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Holy Spider Shows a Side of Iran the Country Doesnt Want You to See - Yahoo Entertainment

File photo shows the interior of the Natanz Nuclear Facility in central Iran (Photo by Tasnim News Agency)

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has announced the country's complete self-sufficiency in the nuclear fuel cycle, saying the Islamic Republic is now working on producing nuclear fuel with 60% purity.

Iran started the process of enriching uranium to 60% fissile purity at an above-ground nuclear plant at Natanz, the UN nuclear agency confirmed in April 2021. It made the step in response to an explosion that damaged equipment at the underground Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz. The country had previously only reached 20% purity.

"The efforts of the enemies by committing sabotage in the field of nuclear technology have made it the frontline. Our scientists stood up at the order of the Leader who said, 'Build yourselves'.

"They acted on the issue of 20% fuel, which was needed by Tehran's research reactor, and today we produce not only 20% fuel but also working on producing 60% fuel," Mohammad Eslami said on Wednesday.

The official touched on the crucial production of radiopharmaceuticals, saying the country is now moving toward using nuclear medicine in plasma therapy.

Eslami also touched on the "very important" role of heavy water which the enemies try to forbid Iran from using by accusing it of seeking to produce nuclear weapons.

He said if it had not been for the strategies of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, "we would have not gotten into nuclear technology and fallen far behind by now".

Eslami said, "The country's development plans must move without interruption, and the efforts of the country's scientists and youth must be spent for the great goals of the country, and we must endure hardships and vicissitudes to reach the peak."

He also said science and technology is the field of empowerment, but international organizations have sought in recent years to make the fields of aerospace, nuclear technology, information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology an exclusive avant gard domain for a few select countries and prevent others, including Iran, from achieving them by creating obstacles.

More here:
Nuclear chief: Iran working on producing 60%-enriched fuel - Press TV

KARACHI: Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTF) has sent a strong kyorugi contingent to Iran to attend an International Kyorugi Taekwondo Training Camp, the PTF said on Thursday.

The three-week camp being held from May 18 to June 6 is aimed at providing international exposure and training to the fighters ahead of the upcoming 7th Asian Poomsae, 25th Asian Kyorugi and 2022 Chuncheon Korea Open International Taekwondo Championships at Korea, the PTF said.

PTF has also praised Combaxx Sports for its continuous support and patronage to sports by establishing this high-level International Taekwondo Training Camp at Iran.

Omar Saeed, President South Asian Taekwondo Association (SATA), has also supported PTF in preparation of Pakistan players for international events, the PTF said. The PTF chief Col (retd) Wasim Ahmed also thanked Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and Combaxx Sports for their support in this regard. He also thanked the IPC Ministry for issuing of timely NOC for this visit and its continuous support by establishing national training camp for preparation for the forthcoming events.

Squad: Shahzaib, Haroon Khan, Muhammad Iqbal, Hamzah Omar Saeed, Abubakkar Usman, Arsalan Arshad, Zoya Sabir, Officials: Yousef Karami (head coach), Shahzada Muhammad Asif (assistant coach), Najia Rasool (female coach).

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PTF sends strong kyorugi contingent to Iran - The News International