The Americans and Israelis then needed to design a payload, the actual instructions that would spin the rotors and destabilize the centrifuges. And they would need a way to convince Natanz’s technicians that all was well, even as their centrifuges spun into oblivion. There could be no fingerprints. No accidental misfires. And no impulsive strikes. The code would need to lie dormant, undetected, over time, so as not to blow their cover. Meeting even one of these needs was a feat. Meeting them all in tandem, over months and years, under cover of darkness, was an espionage coup of such
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