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EXTRAORDINAIRE.
YOUTH IS BACK.
firmer wrinkles
skin fade
97% 88%
PATENTED
FEATURES
16 30
FLIGHT 655
Thousands in Tehran mourn the 290 victims,
including 66 children, of the Air Iran flight shot down
by the USS Vincennes in 1988. (See page 30.)
Hacking Long Memories
COVER CREDIT
Photo-illustration by Picturebox
2020 In Tehran
Creative for Newsweek; Putin by Will Russia undermine America’s The U.S. killed nearly 300
Xander Heinl/Photothek/Getty
faith in the next presidential Iranian citizens three decades
election? Plus: Richard Clarke ago. Most Americans don’t
on the cyber-battleground. remember this—but Iranians do.
For more headlines, go to
NEWSWEEK.COM BY ADAM PIORE BY TOM O’CONNOR
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The Archives
“All the pent-up hate and violence finally erupts,” Newsweek reported
1964 of fierce race riots in New York. Steeped in racial tension, “Harlem
had been an explosion waiting for a time to go off,” as “white New York pushed
its ‘Negro problem’ out of sight, north of 110th Street, and postponed it to
another generation.” The riots were sparked by the shooting and killing of a
15-year-old African American boy by a white off-duty police lieutenant. Current
events suggest America is still waiting on that other generation to arrive.
1973
“The dramatic disclosure that Richard
Nixon had taped his White House
meetings and calls meant hard evidence
may exist to determine his responsibility
in the Watergate Scandal,” Newsweek
wrote. The existence of the tapes
threatened to make the president’s “last
line of defense untenable.”
CLO CKWISE FROM LEFT: ROY DE CAR AVA; WA LLY MC NAMEE/MAT T SULTAN/WELBECK STUDIO; G.B. TRUDEAU
1995
Newsweek defined the “new elite” as
the rising class of hard-charging and
ambitious tech-savvy professionals
who are “laying claim to an increasing
share of the national income.” They are
“the people who put Jim Carrey on
magazine covers, who renamed
blue-green ‘teal’ and keep loaning
money to Donald Trump.”
NEWSWEEK.COM
9
Periscope NEWS, OPINION + ANALYSIS
IN THE CLOUD Facebook remade the Web itself into something Zuckerberg called “more social, more personalized and more semantically aware.”
T E CHNOLOGY
Silicon Magic
How Facebook’s singular approach to data reshaped social
connections and changed the political landscape forever
In The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, Margaret O’Mara
explores how Silicon Valley came to be at the epicenter of technology in America. O’Mara,
a historian at the University of Washington, worked in the Clinton White House in the early
days of the internet. She shows how the explosive growth of social media, when paired with
data from the sites users visited online, increased engagement—and how it flourished in an
environment free from government oversight. The following excerpt describes how Facebook
came of age at a time when society was seeking greater human connection—and in turn
reshaped the political landscape in the hands of a social media master named Barack Obama.
Three billion smartphones. Two billion social media users. Two trillion-dollar companies.
San Francisco’s tallest skyscraper, Seattle’s biggest employer, the four most expensive corpo-
rate campuses on the planet. The richest people in the history of humanity.
The benchmarks attained by America’s largest technology compa-
nies in the twilight years of the 21st century’s second decade boggle the BY
planet,” quipped venture capitalist John Doerr—only to plummet to earth as the new
millennium dawned with a massive, NASDAQ-pummeling pop, leaving the carcasses
of once-shining internet companies strewn across the landscape. The rocketing rise of
Amazon felt like a fever dream, Apple had run out of product ideas, Microsoft had been
ordered to split itself in two, and Google was a garage operation whose leaders seemed
more interested in going to Burning Man than turning a profit.
How quickly things change. Fast-forward to the present, and Silicon Valley is no lon-
ger merely a place in Northern California. It is a global network, a business sensibility,
NEWSWEEK.COM 11
Periscope TECHNOLOGY
a cultural shorthand, a political Zuckerberg had a deepening sense of foreigners and religious minori-
hack. Hundreds of places around the of his place in Valley history as the ties, the “them” versus “us.” When real
world have rebranded themselves Sil- company’s wealth and influence grew. life felt terrifying, social media was a
icon Deserts, Forests, Roundabouts, In the new digs, he adopted Steve Jobs’ welcome retreat.
Steppes and Wadis as they seek to famous habit of holding “walk and But Facebook and other social
capture some of the original’s magic. talk” meetings behind Facebook’s networks also filled a cultural void
building to a sweeping view of the created by a half century of political
ENTER FACEBOOK birthplace of so many of the Valley’s liberation and economic dislocation,
Facebook was a little more than iconic names: Shockley and Fairchild, the vanishing of bowling leagues and
five years old when it moved into a Intel and Apple, Netscape and Google. church picnics and union meetings
building on the fringe of the Stan- He would point out these sites, then that had glued together midcentury
ford Research Park that once had turn to his companion to make his America in conformity and commu-
housed part of Hewlett-Packard. The pitch. Facebook “would eventually be nity. Social media became a more
platform’s growth had left all its com- bigger than all of the companies” he cosmopolitan town square, one that
petitors and predecessors in the dust. had just mentioned, one prospective crossed national borders, launched
An expansionist, earnest, set-the-de- employee later recounted him saying. new voices and created moments of
faults-to-public spirit reverberated “If I joined the company, I could be part connection that could morph into
through the campus. By connecting of it all.” Time agreed that the young real-life friendships. It turned every-
the world through software, and CEO was making history, making him one into a diarist, a philosopher, an
doing so at massive scale, the com- Person of the Year for 2010. activist—even if that activism was
pany was accomplishing something merely clicking a “like” button.
the Valley had been trying to do for SIGN OF THE TIMES Both Facebook and Twitter, a
generations. Posters emblazoned Like generations of tech companies social platform originally designed
with the company’s de facto motto before it, Facebook owed its success for 140-character “microblog” status
adorned the walls surrounding Face- not only to the talents of its creators updates, became powerful mecha-
book’s expansive open-plan bullpen: but also to the historical moment nisms for political organizing and
“Move fast and break things.” in which it grew. The long-brewing communication during the Arab
In 2007, Facebook opened up its distrust of government, dislike of Spring and Occupy Wall Street move-
network to third-party apps, bring- traditional gatekeepers and decen- ments of 2011. Twitter swiftly gained
ing in games and quizzes and other tralization of American mass media a disproportionate number of African
content to its newsfeed, and allow- accelerated rapidly in the post-9/11 American users and “Black Twitter”
ing developers to tap into the trea- era, aided by the internet. Added into became a powerful platform for both
sure trove of knowledge about users’ the already frantic spin of cable TV civic activism and cultural exchange;
connections and likes that Facebook came the cacophony of online outlets the most powerful racial justice move-
NEWSWEEK.COM 13
Periscope
by arrangement with Penguin Press, a today’s tech. When I started Like all families, we are trying from Microsoft’s hometown
member of Penguin Random House LLC. this project six years ago, the to figure out the healthy to confess this, but I’m an
Copyright © 2019 by Margaret O’Mara. media and political worlds and happy way to live in a Apple user all the way.
Talking Points
"Boeing have not "BOTH DOMESTICALLY
apologised to us AND INTERNATIONALLY, IN
SUBSTANCE AND IN TONE,
personally. They I'M WORRIED ABOUT THE
have not reached STATE OF POLITICS."
—UK Prime Minister Theresa May
out to us at all.”
—PAUL NJOROGE, WHOSE
WIFE, MOTHER-IN-LAW AND
THREE CHILDREN DIED IN A
BOEING 737 MAX CRASH “I’m proud to
report that
our show
and Game
of Thrones
“ W H AT W I L L A L L OW I N G
Theresa May
SA M E- S EX C O U P L E S T O
FROM L EFT: MIKHAIL TER ESHC HE NKO/TASS/GET T Y; J B L ACROIX /WI REIMAGE/GET T Y; HENRY NICHOLLS/WPA PO OL/GET T Y
A D O P T C H I L D R E N L EA D T O?
I T ’ L L S I M P LY L EA D T O T H E received a
EX T I N C T I O N O F M A N K I N D.” combined 33 “ I’m wrestling with
Emmy nods.
—Valentina Matvienko, he ad of
Russia’s upper house of parliament
behavior that has more
Now, 32 were to do with middle school
than a court of law.”
for them.” —Jud ge Amy Berman Jacks on
on Trump c onfidant Ro ger
—jimmy kimmel Stone's s o cial media p o sts
Valentina Matvienko
NEWSWEEK.COM 15
Jimmy Kimmel
by Adam Piore
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALEX FINE
Russia is using classic Cold War
strategy to undermine the faith of
Americans in the next presidential
election.WILL IT WORK?
NEWSWEEK.COM 17
HAC K I N G
hree events occurring in rapid Many campaigns have already begun practic-
succession on October 7, 2016, stand ing better cyber-security hygiene—purging their
out in Robby Mook’s memory. systems of old emails and text messages every 30
The first came at about 3:30 pm. days or so and requiring workers to use two-factor
The Obama Administration issued a statement that authentication when they log in (verifying their
publicly blamed Russia for hacking the Democratic identity from two devices), says Joshua Franklin, a
National Committee and orchestrating the release of cybersecurity expert who has worked for a wide ar- HACKED
Hillary Clinton’s
the thousands of emails roiling the Democratic Party, ray of government and private institutions involved presidential ambitions
which, it said, were “intended to interfere with the US in coming up with election security standards, and took a hit when Wikileaks
election process.” In the day’s crazy news cycle, that is consulting for a number of campaigns. released campaign
chairman John Podesta’s
highly-unusual announcement never had a chance. As November 2020 gets closer, a growing army stolen emails; U.S.
At 4 pm, The Washington Post unveiled the infa- of private citizens, public policy advocates, politi- intelligence later linked
mous Access Hollywood Tape, on which then-candi- cians, state and local election officials and national the trove to Russian
hackers. Clockwise
date Donald Trump was recorded boasting about security agencies are racing to shore up the vast from top right: Clinton,
his own sexual harassment of women. “When patchwork of security vulnerabilities laid bare by flanked by Bill Clinton and
you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Russia’s coordinated campaign of internet mischief Senator Tim Kaine, gives
her concession speech;
Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything.” during the 2016 election. During the Mueller inves- Podesta and campaign
Within the hour, yet another media bomb tigation, Congress gave $380 million to the states to manager Robby Mook at
dropped. Wikileaks released another trove of improve their election cyber-security. Brooklyn headquarters on
June 28, 2016; Russian
emails—the first 20,000 pages of 50,000 hacked Mook has now taken a bipartisan role. In 2017, he President Vladimir Putin
emails stolen from the account of Hillary Clinton’s partnered with Republican Matt Rhoades, former in Rome on July 4, 2019.
Campaign Chairman John Podesta.
“It was so clear what was happening,” recalls
Mook, who at the time was a 35-year-old political
operative running the Clinton campaign. In time,
reporters would dig out old transcripts of paid
speeches to Wall Street banks, controversial com-
ments about Catholic voters and other documents
that turned out to be damaging to the Clinton cam-
paign. U.S. intelligence has since linked the Podesta
trove to the Russian military.
Three years later, as the U.S. gears up for a new
presidential election, Mook and other experts ex-
pect the Russians to strike again. They’ll continue
using their modern version of “agitprop” (a mash-
up of agitation and propaganda) that KGB officers—
including a young recruit posing as a translator in
Dresden, East Germany named Vladimir Putin—
perfected during the Cold War.
The overall intent of the Russians, most intelli-
gence officials and Russia experts agree, has always
been to “to spin us up, pit us against each other, sow
divisiveness and discord, undermine Americans’
faith in democracy,” in the words of FBI Director
Christopher Wray. Or as Richard Clarke, a former
member of the State Department and the National
Security Council and a seasoned Cold Warrior, puts
it: what the Russians really want is for “the Ameri-
can people to give up on our system.”
18 NEWSWEEK.COM
campaign manager for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presi-
dential campaign, to establish the Defending Digital
Democracy Project (D3P), at a Harvard University-af-
filiated think tank. The aim of the organization is to
protect democracies from cyber and information
attacks. Last month, a D3P spinoff won approval
from the Federal Election Committee, to provide
free and low-cost cybersecurity services to political
campaigns without violating campaign finance laws.
Now that Mook and his collaborators have won
that approval, more campaigns will be able to de-
ploy cutting age pattern recognition software of
the type used by banks to spot fraudulent activity
to monitor for likely spear-phishing emails and the
unusual export of large datafiles, says Crane Has-
sold, a former FBI cyber expert and senior director
of threat research at the cybersecurity firm Agari.
The precautions the campaigns are taking now
tend to address yesterday’s problems, such as the
DNC hack that was ultimately so damaging to the
Clinton campaign in 2016. The worry of intelli-
gence and security experts is what the Russians are
likely to do in 2020 that somehow was either over-
looked in the aftermath of the last two elections
or comes out of the blue. “We recognize that our
adversaries are going to keep adapting and upping
their game,” the FBI’s Wray said to the Council on
Foreign Relations in April.
To understand how Russia plans to undermine
FROM TOP : EW EL SAMAD/AFP/GET T Y; BRO OKS KR AFT/GET T Y; ANTO NIO MASIELLO/GET T Y
“What they really LivesMatter movement. She and her team followed
some of the most active Twitter accounts and
the AMERICAN PEOPLE to tion, was primarily struck by how toxic much of
the content was—and how vitriolic and polarized
give up on our system.” the debate had become, with some advocating vio-
lence and others using racist language. Then, just a
few weeks after the team published its first paper
on the topic in October 2017, representatives of
Facebook admitted to congressional investigators
to exacerbate existing
tensions by amplifying
extremes on both sides.
Pictured: Trump supporters
and critics clash near the
Mar-a-Lago resort in 2017.
NEWSWEEK.COM 21
A
STATE OF
CYBER WAR
The elections in 2020 will take place on a
CYBER-BATTLEGROUND that puts the U.S.
at a disadvantage, says expert Richard Clarke
RICHARD CLARKE HAS NEVER BEEN SHY missile or a bomb. If North Korea did
about highlighting the security vulner- a major attack, again, in the United
abilities of the United States. He came States, our public policy is we might
to national prominence by attacking bomb you.
the Bush Administration for its failure
to stop the 9-11 attacks. His new book Q. How might we lesson tensions?
The Fifth Domain: Defending Our Coun- A. In Europe with arms control in the
try, Our Companies, and Ourselves in 70s and 80s and strategically between
the Age of Cyber Threats (Penguin,July the Soviet Union and the US during
2019), written with Robert Knake, is a the Cold War, we did two things. First,
deep dive into how digital technologies we did risk reduction measures, where
might be used against the U.S. and what if you see something that bothers
we can do to protect against them. you, some unusual activity, you’ve got
Clarke has decades of experience to someone you can immediately call to get
back up his opinions. He worked in US an answer. Once, we had a missile
State Department during President Ron- launch that kind of went crazy
ald Reagan’s administration and was Bill and I thought the Russians
Clinton’s chief counter-terrorism adviser might’ve misinterpreted where
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GET T Y
on the National Security Council. He it was going. I called them and said,
also served as a special advisor on cy- ‘Hey guys, want you to know we had a Russians can affect our electric power
bersecurity to George W. Bush. News- little problem with our missile’.” We grid—and you can imagine that other
week’s Adam Piore caught up with him also did confidence building mea- critical systems are also vulnerable.
recently to discuss how nation-states sures—transparency activities and ways
are weaponizing cyberspace and what it that you can be part of or observe the Q. How does the 2020 election look
means for national security. activities on the other side. from the standpoint of cybersecurity?
No one’s developed a risk reduc- A. It’s easier and cheaper to be the at-
Q. You’ve said that the U.S. has tion measures or confidence building tacker than it is to be the defender. The
low-grade simmering cyber con- measures for cyber war yet, but I think attacker can choose where to attack; the
flicts with Russia, China, and Iran. they’re doable. The more we create cri- defender has to defend everywhere. The
What do you mean by that? sis instability by getting into each other’s attacker can probably spend a couple
A. We’ve attacked Iran as recently as power grids and things like that, the hundred bucks to buy malware on the
last month with cyber attacks. That’s more we need risk reduction measures dark web. To defend against that, you’re
a straight forward example of simmer- and confidence building measures. going to have to spend hundreds of
ing war. With Russia, we have more thousands of dollars. Hackers can be a
or less admitted that we’ve recently Q. Russia doesn’t seem to have much relatively small team in another country
penetrated their power grid. That’s incentive to have confidence building and defenders have to be present in
what I mean by simmering cyber war. and risk reduction measures. counties around the United States. So
A. You may be right, I don’t know. But there really is an offense preference.
Q. Will the next major shooting war be we should at least try.
provoked by a cyber attack? Q. How optimistic are you that our demo-
A. It could very well be. When Hamas, Q. What should the U.S. be doing to cracy can survive threats from Russia?
a terrorist movement in Gaza, was protect itself against these threats? A. We have been, for the last 250 years,
doing cyber attacks on Israel earlier A. We’re not doing enough on the a fairly resilient country, not brittle.
this year, the Israelis responded by defensive side—we’re sitting in a glass We’ve gone through some terrible
dropping a bomb on the Hamas cyber house. It makes it really difficult to situations and bounced back. But that
facility. The Pentagon’s policy for the go to the president and say, ‘Hey, we doesn’t mean that will always happen.
last four years has been, if there’s a want to retaliate on the cyber attack’
significant cyber attack in the US, we when we know that the Chinese can Q. So are you optimistic or pessimistic?
hold the right to respond to that with a affect our natural gas pipelines and the A. I’m concerned.
22 NEWSWEEK.COM
HACKING
Trolls actually
had very parallel
ramp up their efforts to “divide the left.” With a O P E R A T I O N S that
crowded field of candidates vying for attention,
trolls may adopt personas aligned with specific posted almost
candidates, infiltrate discussions and then, when- exactly the same
ever possible, use their positions to attack other
Democratic candidates (likely supported by other number of tweets
personas created by the trolls in the cubicles next
to them) and depress the eventual vote. on both sides,
“You’ll see them mimicking regularly the “resist” with this common
and other sorts of Democratic personas, and start
denigrating the other candidates,” she says. “And goal of U N D E R M I N I N G
especially once the Democrats choose a candi-
date, they’ll denigrate the chosen candidate, and trusted media.
say, ‘Oh this person doesn’t represent us. We can’t
vote for them. Therefore, I’m not going to vote’.”
NEWSWEEK.COM 23
2016 attacks—and why we should be so worried
about our 2020 vulnerabilities: Russian efforts to
penetrate our election infrastructure.
before with VR Systems to use their electronic poll sent “spear-phishing” emails to 122 local elections
book systems. Greenhalgh reached out to the De- officials who were the firm’s customers (personal-
partment of Homeland Security. ized emails, in other words, designed to trick them
“They were very interested,” she recalls. into clicking on links or opening attachments that
Nevertheless, it wasn’t until this June that the would allow hackers to penetrate accounts). And
DHS revealed in an interview with The Washing- that the same Russian military unit had probed at
ton Post they finally planned to conduct a forensic least 21 state systems, looking for vulnerabilities.
analysis of the laptops used during the election—a The Mueller Report itself noted that in August
request North Carolina elections officials did not 2016 Russian military intelligence had managed “to
make until months after the election, insisting install malware on the company network” of one
they could carry out an investigation on their own. unnamed voter registration technology vendor in
In the interim, Mueller and his team filed indict- the United States. That company is widely suspect-
ments detailing the activities of Russian intelli- ed to be VR Systems, Greenhalgh says.
gence operatives, and then issued his long-awaited VR Systems has acknowledged that Russian hack-
report. They confirmed that in the weeks before ers, in an apparent attempt to penetrate its voting
the 2016 elections, Russian intelligence agents systems, sent email phishing attacks to employees
not only attempted to hack VR Systems, they also and customers. It insists that none of its employ-
ees’ email accounts were compromised and that
it promptly warned all its customers of the attack.
think that politics and “No one indicated to us that they had opened the
email,” the company said in a statement. The com-
there’s G R I D L O C K , nothing gets done. pany says it has cooperated all along with law en-
at each other’s throats.” forcement and has tightened its cyber-security.
In the meantime, Greenhalgh’s concern over the
vulnerabilities of the election infrastructure have
only grown. In fact, during the 2018 mid-term
FROM TOP: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/WASHINGTON POST/GETTY; CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY; DREW ANGERER/GETTY
NEWSWEEK.COM 25
HACKING
NEWSWEEK.COM 27
The private vendors in charge of producing and
programming voting machines and maintaining
registration databases—and even in some cases
tallying election night returns—are not regulated.
“We don’t know basic things like who they employ,
THE
THREAT
MATRIX
SOCIAL MEDIA
THE NEXT THING ing at alternative ways to influence the election, or Clarke’s biggest concern is that the Russians will
Security experts worry
directly interfere in voting this time.” penetrate voter rolls in key swing states and create
about new, more insidious
methods of spreading Intelligence officials have already identified one chaos aimed at strategically depressing the vote
disinformation, including relatively new weapon. In his testimony before enough to raise more questions about the legiti-
doctored videos called
Congress, Coats warned that the Russians might try macy of the election outcome.
“deep fakes.” Adam Schiff,
Chairman of the House to sow chaos with “deep fakes”—doctored videos In the end the most powerful tool we have to
Intelligence Committee, that depict things that never happened. Software combat the efforts has little to do with technol-
said: “The most severe
is now widely available that makes it easy to paste ogy. While die-hard Clinton loyalists continue to
escalation might be the
introduction of a deep a person’s face on another person’s body. A chilling maintain that the scale of the 2016 hacks consti-
fake—a video of one of foreshadowing came in May when a low-tech doc- tuted an unprecedented attack on our democracy,
the candidates saying
tored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring many seasoned Cold Warriors prefer to place it
something they never
said.” Top left: Democratic picked up millions of views on Facebook. in a larger context. By historical standards, some
presidential candidates “The most severe escalation might be the in- argue, our bellicose Slavic foes have employed far
on the second night of
troduction of a deep fake—a video of one of the more aggressive tactics . There was a time, after all,
the first debate of the
2020 election; Left: candidates saying something they never said,” when they controlled unions and could mobilize
Representative Schiff. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said thousands to agitate on their behalf.
last spring. “If you look back at how impactful the “None of this works because they’re good,” says
Mitt Romney videotape about the 47 percent was, Edward Lucas, a British writer and security policy
you could imagine how a videotape that is more expert, whose many books include The New Cold
incendiary could be election-altering. This may be War: Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West. “It
the future we are heading into.” all works because we’re weak.”
NEWSWEEK.COM 29
NOT FORGOTTEN
In 1988, the USS
Vincennes shot down
a civilian aircraft,
Iranian Air Flight 655 ,
killing 290 people.
BY T O M O ’ C O N N O R I M AG E BY G L U E K I T
NEWSWEEK.COM 31
he downing of a U.S. spy drone, volatility of the Iran-Iraq War, during which the U.S.
the near launch of military ac- sought to protect Kuwaiti vessels in the Persian Gulf.
tion against Iran and recent un- The war often spilled over into these narrow, stra-
claimed attacks against nearby tegic waters, where the guided-missile frigate USS
oil tankers in the past months Stark was bombed by a modified Iraqi warplane,
have not only set off tensions in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 sailors in May 1987, and fellow warship
but invoked memories of an even deadlier time in USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine in April 1988. POWER PLAY
the two rivals’ troubled history three decades ago The U.S. blamed Iran for the Roberts incident Top left: Iraqi soldiers in
1988 during the war with
when the U.S. killed nearly 300 Iranian civilians. and conducted one of the largest naval operations Iran. Top right: Ceremonies
The U.S. and Iran have never officially fought a since World War II, destroying a number of Iranian in Dover, Delaware for
war. But they’ve engaged in bouts of violence since ships and killing dozens of sailors. sailors killed during an
Iraqi attack on the USS
the CIA-backed coup that reinstalled Iran’s mon- Less than two months later, on July 3, 1988, Ae- Stark in 1987. Right: A
archy in 1953 and the 1979 Islamic Revolution that gis-armed guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes Norwegian owned tanker
ousted that leadership for the current cleric-led gov- opened fire at what its crew would later claim they attacked in June; Iran has
denied any wrongdoing in
ernment. The following decade would prove com- thought to be an attacking Iranian F-14 fighter jet. that incident and others
plex for Washington and Tehran amid the regional In fact, the aircraft was Iran Air Flight 655, a Dubai- in the Gulf of Oman.
bound civilian Airbus A300 with 290 people on derwater mines in the Persian Gulf amid the Tanker
board—all of whom were killed. War phase of the Iran-Iraq War. The event is perfect
“The incident still resonates with Iranians,” Reza H. propaganda fodder for the Iranian regime and does
Akbari, program manager at the U.K.-based Institute not bode well for America’s image in the country.”
for War & Peace Reporting, told Newsweek. “Once The U.S. quietly expressed regret and offered
a year, the country’s state media rebroadcasts the $213,103.45 in compensation per passenger, but
tragic footage of the plane’s wreckage and civilian the U.S. military has never admitted fault, nor disci-
bodies floating in the Persian Gulf. For a few days, plined any of its own for the deadly incident.
heart-wrenching images of family members crying “I will never apologize for the United States—I
over the loss of their loved ones and painful facts don’t care what the facts are,” then-Vice President
like the number of children on board are reviewed. George H.W. Bush told an August 1988 campaign rally
“The story matches well with the Islamic Repub- less than a month after the incident, widely consid-
lic’s 40-year-narrative of labeling the U.S. as a heart- ered his response to the Iran Air Flight 655 downing.
less imperialist power,” he said. “To this day, signif- “I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy.”
icant portions of the country’s authorities do not An official report released weeks later by Navy
believe the event was an accident, but a deliberate Admiral William Fogarty determined that USS
message sent to Iran over its decision to plant un- Vincennes commanding officer Navy Captain Will
FROM L EFT: MIKE NELSON/AFP/GE T T Y; BET T MA NN ARC HIVE /GET T Y; AFP/GET T Y
IRA N
FROM TOP : MAJ ID SAEEDI/GE T T Y; BET TM ANN/GET T Y; GALLO IMAG ES/COPERNICUS SENTINEL 2017/ORBITAL HORIZON/GET T Y; ABOLFATH DAVARI/AFP/GET T Y
the incident in 1992, however, Newsweek compiled
an extensive account of how the hours leading up
to Iran Air Flight 655’s destruction unfolded, de-
tailing a chaotic scene that—based on declassified
documents, video and audiotape from the involved
ships and over 100 interviews—largely pointed to
Rogers being at fault and the Pentagon attempting
to cover its tracks. The investigation, conducted
alongside ABC News’ Nightline, determined, among
other things, that the USS Vincennes had strayed
into Iranian territory in an apparent violation of in-
ternational law—just as Iran claimed the U.S. Navy’s
spy drone did so last month before being shot down.
Navy Admiral William Crowe, former chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, challenged the findings of the
report in his testimony later that month in July 1992
to the House of Representatives. He said his “main
criticism of the ABC-Newsweek treatment, however, is
the inflated and outrageous rhetoric employed on the
basis of very slim and often mistaken information.”
Crowe also disputed that the USS Vincennes was
in the wrong for entering Iranian territory amid a
reported exchange of fire with the Islamic Republics’
gunboats, arguing that “a warship acting in self-de-
fense has the right under international law to enter
the aggressor waters to defend itself.” He concluded
that the Navy “did not, I emphasize did not, at any
time cover up, conspire or conduct a secret war, be-
yond the knowledge of our leaders, and you who are
charged as the safekeepers for all the American people.”
In the years since, the story of Iran Air Flight
655 was largely forgotten in the U.S., apart from
the occasional retrospective feature. In Iran, how-
ever, its tragic legacy lives on. Not only of those
killed on board, but as Akbari said, “of sad memo-
34 NEWSWEEK.COM
want to ever be in the same position,” Akbari said.
After the downing of the civilian plane, Wash-
ington has continued to lead efforts to isolate Teh-
ran, compelling Iranian leaders to seek regional
allies. It managed to shore up ties with Iraq fol-
lowing the 2003 invasion by the U.S., an operation
in which the Pentagon forced out the very same
Iraqi leader it supported in the 1980s based on
intelligence that later proved false.
In April, the Trump administration claimed that
Iran was responsible for the deaths of more than
600 U.S. troops during the Iraq War and the presi-
dent himself claimed Iran’s use of homemade bombs
has “killed 2,000 Americans,” though no evidence
was presented to support these claims. The U.S. has
also argued Iran and its allied militias presented a
threat to another murky Pentagon intervention in
Syria, the lone Arab nation to back Iran in its 1980s
war with Hussein and still a crucial partner today.
A rare break in the two countries’ mutual hostility
came in the form of a nuclear deal forged in 2015 by
the administrations of then-President Barack Obama
ries from the dark days of the Iran-Iraq War.” and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Under its
At the time, major powers such as the U.S., Soviet terms, Iran agreed to severely limit its nuclear activi-
Union, France and the United Kingdom all backed ties in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions re-
FAULT LINES Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in his invasion of lief. The arrangement drew skepticism from hard-lin-
Clockwise from top neighboring Iran, a “new revolutionary government ers in both countries but was largely welcomed
left: Admiral William that had little resources and experience,” Akbari said. internationally and endorsed by China, the European
Crowe challenged a
report that said the USS “Iran’s retaliatory power was certainly no match Union, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Vincennes had, among against the United States [back then],” Akbari told Last year, President Donald Trump unilateral-
other things, strayed into Newsweek. “The reality may be the same today, but ly pulled out of the deal and left the remaining
Iranian territory; Iranians
celebrate the anniversary Iran is doing its best to raise the costs of any ag- parties struggling to salvage the agreement as ten-
of the 1979 Islamic gression by building asymmetrical retaliatory ca- sions ramped up in the Middle East. With Europe
revolution and also make pabilities. Today, Iranian officials emphasize the failing to normalize trade ties, Iranian officials
their feelings known about
U.S. President Donald country’s need for defensive capabilities, indepen- announced on May’s anniversary of the U.S. exit
Trump; Iranians with a dence and territorial integrity.” that they too would be stepping back from some
replica of Iran Air flight “Such line of thinking partially stems from inci- of their commitments, but would do so within the
655 during a memorial
ceremony; a satellite image dents such as the downing of Iran Air Flight 655. framework of the agreement.
of the Strait of Hormuz. The country’s commanders and politicians do not That same month, four commercial vessels—two
NEWSWEEK.COM 35
IRA N
Saudi, one from Norway and one from the United restraint by not downing a U.S. P-8 Poseidon spy
Arab Emirates—were damaged by explosions in the plane carrying 35 personnel that accompanied the
Gulf of Oman. Almost exactly a month later, two ill-fated drone in June.
more oil tankers—one Norwegian and one Japa- Conflict may have been averted, but Ragnar Wei-
nese—were targeted in similar incidents. Iran has landt, an adjunct professor at the Vesalius College
denied any wrongdoing, but it did open fire on the Brussels, told Newsweek, “For Iranians, the hawk-
U.S.’s unmanned surveillance drone, a decision that ish rhetoric of some pundits and policymakers in
initially led Trump to order strikes against Iranian Washington must have sounded like a bad joke. TENSIONS HIGH
Clockwise from right: A
targets. The president later attributed his last-min- “The U.S. still hasn’t formally apologized for mural on the wall of the
ute decision not to attack to fear of civilian casualties. shooting down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian former U.S. Embassy
Trump’s favored news channel, Fox News, fea- Gulf in 1988. All 300 passengers including 66 chil- in Tehran; General Amir
Ali Hajizadeh of Iran’s
tured a report that same night in which retired dren died when the USS Vincennes apparently mis- Revolutionary Guard at
four-star Army General Jack Keane discussed the took the Airbus A300 for an Iranian F-14,” Weilandt a media briefing on the
“horrific mistake” that was the downing of Iran Air told Newsweek. “And now America should go to destroyed U.S. drone;
Iranian religious chief
Flight 655. Revolutionary Guards aerospace com- war because Iran shot down an unmanned drone Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
mander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, too, said he showed that was either in or close to Iranian airspace? in Tehran in May.
36 NEWSWEEK.COM
FROM L EFT: IR ANIAN LEADER PR ESS O FFIC E/HAND OUT/A NAD OLU AGENCY/GET T Y; MEGHDAD MADADI/AFP/GET T Y; ERIC LAFFORGUE/GAMMA-RAPHO/GET T Y
How would the U.S. react if a drone operated by Iran has refused to engage in talks unless the U.S.
a hostile state came close to American airspace?” lifts sanctions, which recently went so far as to tar-
Weilandt argued that, while Rogers received his get Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khame-
award for serving on the USS Vincennes in 1990, nei—who served as president during the deadly
“millions of war-torn Iranians suffered from crip- 1988 incident. As Tehran’s embassies around the
pling American sanctions—sanctions that got even world broadcast reminders of the Iran Air Flight
harsher since.” He added: “The nuclear deal that 655 shooting in recent days, its Washington build-
Trump tore apart so recklessly last year didn’t pri- ing has since remained vacant, with diplomacy be-
marily benefit the regime in Tehran, it was primar- tween the two seeming less likely than ever before,
ily helping ordinary Iranians.” even as the State Department touted its efforts to
While the U.S. has spent much of its history with maintain the property should things ever change.
post-revolutionary Iran trying to isolate the Islamic Khamenei referred to the airliner downing this
Republic, Trump’s self-styled “maximum pressure” summer while addressing Iranian judiciary and
may, ironically, have achieved the opposite, leaving his justice officials, calling it “human rights American
own administration largely alone in its stance vis-à- style!” Noting the history of U.S. intervention in
vis Tehran. China and Russia have vowed to defy U.S. his country, he argued: “You cannot be an agent of
sanctions and, while Europe has been slower to defy progress, but only a factor in making this country
its transatlantic ally, it too launched a special trade backward. The Iranian nation will move forward
vehicle Friday to allow limited trade with Iran. provided only that you do not get involved.”
NEWSWEEK.COM 37
Horizons SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY + HEALTH
MOONSHOTS
Through
ence and technology, highlighting their very own moonshots and how
they hope to change the world.
Aaron Meisner, the 31-year-old NASA Hubble Fellow and cofounder
the Stars
of Backyard Worlds Citizen Science project, is changing the way
humans look at the stars. Aaron has been using big data mining
techniques and a team of amateur volunteers across the world to
search for undiscovered planets and other celestial bodies, which may
include our solar system’s theorized ninth planet. These citizen sci-
Harvard-trained physicist Aaron Meisner entists are parsing through astronomical data sets and images gath-
of Backyard Worlds combines the ered by infrared-wavelength space telescopes. The ancient practice of
human touch with reams of data in the studying the universe is becoming digital, and as Aaron believes, the
NASA
hope of discovering a ninth planet discoveries are in the data, just waiting to be found.
Can you tell me about Where do you see the progression Is your ultimate goal then—your
Backyard Worlds? of Backyard Worlds going? moonshot—finding Planet 9?
The site is based on data coming in We just relaunched our website For now, it definitely is a dream
from a NASA satellite. We have over with twice as much data, so I think goal to discover a new planet in the
50,000 registered users and about the project will keep growing and outer solar system. But more gener-
150,000 actual participants. We get better. We’ve made over a thou- ally, what I like about astronomy is
upload “image blinks” of the same sand discoveries now that are being that you have the potential to have a
place in the sky and how it changes followed up with some of the big- real breakthrough discovery where,
over time, where people can look at gest and best telescopes on Earth all of a sudden, you can change the
them. They are looking for things that and in space. The question way people look at the uni-
move, basically, because it turns out is still open to whether we verse. That’s what inspires me,
people are really good at recognizing really find the one, in terms BY whether that’s Planet 9 or some
subtle motion in images and are more of potentially a new planet: other big discovery we make
trustworthy than computers. Planet 9. NOAH MILLER along the way.
NEWSWEEK.COM 39
MOONSHOTS
C LO CKWISE FRO M TOP: NASA /JPL ; COURTE SY OF A ARON ME ISNE R; THE ASSO CIATION OF UNIVERSITIES FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY
ies that are made by our volunteers.
So, in terms of societal good and sci-
entific productivity, we’ve had a lot of
success, but we’re still searching for
the one big hit.
Overall losses
natural disasters in the world last U.S. HURRICANE FLORENCE Insured losses
year occurred in the U.S.
U.S. WILDFIRE (WOOLSEY FIRE) $5.2BN
NEWSWEEK.COM 41
Culture HIGH, LOW + EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
BOOKS
Final Days
at the Beach
Reads
30 books to fill your beach bag
for the dog days of summer
NEWSWEEK.COM 43
Culture BOOKS
On Earth We’re
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NEWSWEEK.COM 45
Culture BO O K S
Nonfiction
By Charles Fishman
SIMON & SCHUSTER
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Thousands of people
had to accomplish
herculean and seemingly
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transforms her limitations How much do we really know about what’s
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Out East: Memoir of a and in doing so, sets an
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What better way to close out the season than
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NEWSWEEK.COM 47
Culture I l l u s t r a t i o n b y B R I TT S P E N C E R
P A R T ING SHOT
Stephanie Danler
Written over a seven-year period, 2016’s Sweetbitter draws heavily What has Sweetbitter’s success
from author Stephanie Danler’s own experience as a 20-something swept meant to you?
up in the hedonistic lifestyle of New York’s restaurant world. Now translated I never take it for granted. A lot of
to a drama on Starz, which returns for its second season July 14, the coming-of- success is about timing. It was
age tale follows Tess, a recent Manhattan transplant who develops an advanced the right time for a female-centric
palate for drugs, late nights and sex. Danler’s not-so-perfect and wildly relat- story; to look at the sexual politics of
able antiheroine navigates a new job, new city and a new sense of self. In the restaurants; and to talk about 2006,
television version, Tess is played by actor Ella Purnell, who Danler said had the last year before iPhones.
the part the moment they met, based on Purnell’s ability to play the character
with the grit the role demanded. Danler herself is “humbled that anyone would Are you discovering new paths for
read a single word I wrote.” Building on that success, she says the Starz series Tess in Season 2?
dramatically expanded the world she had created: “I thought a show about the I was really tired of seeing 20-year-
restaurant—and everyone inside it—was endlessly fascinating and had a longer old women portrayed as sexually
life than the drama of being 22.” mature objects. It’s a confusing time
about learning what you like and then
finding the voice to ask for it. We’re
exploring that journey this season.
“I was really
tired of seeing Can you tell me a little bit about the
memoir you’re working on now?
20-year-old It’s about moving home to California
women portrayed and confronting the legacy of my
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