If the account offered is accurate, we live in extraordinary times. Long nailed on the door of the US Government and possibly Israel, this is the first account of any factual provenance that says, yes, Stuxnet was what it always appeared to be; a way for the allies to disrupt the Iranian nuclear programme.

First, the less controversial part of the story; what happened.

According to Sanger's unnamed US, European and Israeli sources, Stuxnet hit the Iranians in waves up to 2010, nixing at least 1,000 out of 5,000 centrifuges in the Natanz nuclear enrichment plant.

The degree to which this caused the Iranians problems in their alleged nuclear weapon development remains a matter of speculation although Stuxnet clearly hit home against poorly-defended systems.

Now for the more startling part of the story - the plan had explicit Presidential approval.