What's weird is that this thing doesn't appear to be aimed at a particular geopolitical bloc: Iran and Israel are affected, along with Saudi Arabia (a major US ally in the region), Sudan and Syria (rogue and unstable, to different degrees), and Lebanon (stable, but hosts a lot of anti-Israeli sentiment). Seeing as the US's adventures into digital tactics have been somewhat... underwhelming in the past, it's possible (although I don't think very likely) that they created something like this and then ended up spreading it far wider than they had originally intended. However, it's possible this is a hacktivist attack that has something to do with the Arab Spring, a general attempt by some country to spread chaos, or -most likely- a very well-put-together cybercrime operation- even though money was not directly taken, this information would have a lot of value, and it cut a very wide swath through the region.

More about gathering information about who's saying what to whom. The U.S. would seem to me to be the most likely to have done it.

Likely in terms of motivation, possibly, assuming they didn't intend for it to be as wide-reaching as it was. But the most sophisticated cyberattack in history coming from these guys seems unlikely, especially given that the US has little to no history of doing anything in that arena before (the religious references in the Stuxnet file names suggest it was at least masterminded by Israel if not actively developed there).

Notice the 2 names for 1 of the targets.  And I don't mean Saudi Arabia.

Yes... well, didn't want to turn this "political", but there really aren't anything but terror links in that entity which are worthy as intelligence targets.

Certainly nothing of any scientific or technological or military value.... as opposed to the other "entity".

Just thought it was "interesting."

It is... and you were spot on for noticing.

Update 1:

The Israeli Vice PM Moshe Ya'alon was quoted in an interview:

"Israel has been blessed with a prolific hi-tech sector that opens possibilities in both the business and security fields,” said an enigmatic Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon Tuesday morning, responding to a question as to whether Israel could be behind the sophisticated computer virus “Flame.”

- http://www.timesofisrael.com/yaalon-on-flame-virus-the-west-is-using-all-the-means-at-its-disposal-to-prevent-a-nuclear-iran/

The article went on to say, (and paraphrase Ya'alon) that:

"...several Western countries that possess advanced technologies and see a nuclear Iran as a significant threat could be behind the large-scale cyber attack that infiltrated thousands of computer systems in Iran and across the Middle East.

“Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take various steps, including these, to hobble it,” he said.

Ya’alon agreed with experts’ estimates that only a state could possess the resources necessary to develop such an advanced cyber weapon and noted that Western countries were doing all they could to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon."

Kaspersky has put up a questions and answers page for Flame

http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193522/The_Flame_Questions_and_Answers

Obama order sped up wave of cyber attacks against Iran

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=3&pagewanted=2&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimespolitics&pagewanted=all

Stuxnet was developed the US and 'escaped' ...

'“Should we shut this thing down?” Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president’s national security team who were in the room.'

Updated:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156557#.T83nxTyjN8E

Actually any Western European country.  America is the prime suspect because we are number 1.  But the bug seems to be ham handed, so that indicates a less sophisticated approach.

Dr. Guy, wouldn't that just mean it was government programmers who made it?

After I wrote my comment, I thought some might take it the wrong way - ham handed.  What I meant by that is had the US made it, it would have been tight and focused, not scatter shot.    That a government may have done it is probably right.  But It does not look like a top tier intelligence agency, rather a smaller one hoping to pick up anything.

Where is that coming from? Is there a reference?