In the event that negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program failed, the United States had a contingency plan to degrade the country’s facilities using a cyberattack code-named Nitro Zeus, a documentary released on Wednesday reveals.
Planning for the attack involved thousands of military and intelligence personnel, electronic implants that had been placed in Iranian systems, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.
The attack was designed to disable Iranian air defenses, communications systems, and its power grid. However, plans were halted after President Obama agreed to a nuclear accord with the country in July.
Aside from Nitro Zeus, the Pentagon also formulated an additional plan to hit the Fordo nuclear enrichment site, which is located inside a mountain beyond the reach of missile arsenals. Under the terms of the nuclear accord, the facility is prohibited from engaging in nuclear development for 15 years.
The program was uncovered during reporting for a documentary called “Zero Days,” which will debut on Wednesday at the Berlin film festival. Details on the film were contained in a synopsis sent to the Washington Examiner from the film’s production company, Jigsaw Productions. The documentary explores the progression of the United States’ cyberattacks against Iran, particularly the Stuxnet virus. That program was designed to target a facility in Natanz, but ultimately spread beyond it and for years ravaged the country’s nuclear systems.
“I mean you’ve been focusing on Stuxnet but that was just part of a much larger operation … Nitro Zeus, NZ,” an actress says in the documentary. “We were everywhere inside Iran, still are,” she says, speaking on behalf of U.S. intelligence officials.
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“I’m not going to tell you the operational capabilities of what we can do moving forward, or where, but the science fiction cyberwar scenario is here, that’s Nitro Zeus,” she adds.
