What Did Israel Bomb?
Why did Israeli aircraft fly into Syria in early September? And what, if anything, did they bomb? Six weeks later, those questions remain unanswered. Reports from Syria are contradictory. Jerusalem, Washington and Tehran are still uncharacteristically quiet. And leaks to the media raise as many questions as answers.
At this point, I see three possibilities of what took place: Israel discovered and tried to set back a nascent nuclear program, it ordered the air strikes based on faulty intelligence, or that the raids are, in fact, a red herring.
Supporting the first scenario, ABC News reported Friday that an Israeli spy had produced detailed photographs of a suspected nuclear facility. And that U.S. satellite imagery provided confirmation. According to ABC News, the Israelis asked the Bush administration to destroy the complex. But, after considering options, "word came back from the White House that the United States was not interested in carrying out the raid."
Also on Friday, The Washington Post reported that Syria had begun to dismantle the remains of the bombing site, which had the characteristics of a "small but substantial nuclear reactor."
And so maybe the story is that Israel went in, as much to prove its deterrence capabilities and make up for its failures in Lebanon last summer as to destroy an imminent threat.
But, it's hard to believe that Syria, possibly with the help of North Korea, is stupid enough to think it could build a nuclear reactor and get away with it. So maybe Israel erred. Maybe it was going on only partial, flawed intelligence.
Or, perhaps, the Israelis didn't bomb a nuclear reactor. And knew it. After all, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it doesn't have information to substantiate existence of a reactor. In fact, no one has been able to produce an image that demonstrates any bombing whatsoever.
So maybe the "attack" and the leaks about a nuclear reactor are a cover for something else. The Israelis could have gone into Syria to collection additional information, planting radiation detection or listening devices. Or they could have intentionally bombed the wrong target to create a stimulus that would smoke out additional information about what Syria is up to.
Until we see evidence that Israel bombed something, it's fair to assume that there's a lot going on behind the scenes.
By William M. Arkin |
October 22, 2007; 7:43 AM ET
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Posted by: kfnbjrwjhr | November 10, 2007 1:27 PM
Where should I begin? Let me qualify my credetials as someone who works with his hands & back,...I am not a scholar. I took to heart all of all your responses and I always seem to be drawn back to history. This whole episode rings a familiar tune. I believe Israel performed this same task back in the 80's. I think it was called operation "Lighting Bolt", or something similar. They did this same thing at a spesific sight in Iran with the same media and National outcry. After the dust settled, it seemed that the reason for their attack was substantiated by everyone in the intelligence community and alot of forknowledge by other interested parties lead to Israels responce. Does the outcome of the first responce warrent a quick discredit for this one?... I only ask one question of you. If this were Americans possed with the same threat on our borders,......would we have done the same,OR MORE?????
Posted by: Tom | November 6, 2007 8:53 PM
The strange facility in the Syrian desert was not the infrastructure of a nuclear reactor but an Iranian ICBM silo. Remember that the US was hysterical about deploying anti-missile missiles in Poland? It was because of this silo and now that they persuaded themselves it was only a nuclear reactor in construction they are talking about postponing deployment. The spy that photographed the site probably perished in the bombing but the question is who dropped the bomb on him, an American pilot or an Israeli one? Thanks for your attention.
Posted by: Yossi from Jerusalem | October 23, 2007 8:56 PM
If the Syrians have nothing to hide, why don't they invite the UN to the site to show everyone that the Israelis bombed a "infant formula factory" or some such nonsense? Obviously, they are hiding something, or else they would have invited the cameras and even put a few dead bodies around with 'crying widows' for the cameras.
Remember, when the Syrian city of Hama rose up in rebellion in the 1980's, Assad surrounded it with artillary and turned it into a tomb for 30,000, so don't expect the Syrians to have been building anything but a part of their war machine.
Posted by: mendel | October 23, 2007 5:09 PM
Hey Aaron,
Stop spreading lies about mass murders. Israel is behaving nazi-like and is killing and stealing Palestinian's land. Folks like you (terrorist in my opinion) are the problem,, not the solution!
Posted by: ahro | October 23, 2007 1:27 PM
Every country is equal but some are more equal than others.
Posted by: Pragmatist | October 23, 2007 8:28 AM
What did Isreal bomb? Isreal bombs whatever it wants to.
Posted by: AJ | October 23, 2007 12:03 AM
"Evidence of a small nuclear reactor"? But nobody can find any real evidence of any bombing.
A small nuclear reactor would require three easily detectable artifacts that would be hard to make go away.
The first is a source of electrical power. The power lines must come from a sizable power station, and would be traceable in appropriate satellite photography. (The U. S. would have EW Power transmission signatures for the power line if your correspondents know how to find them.)
The Second is a reliable source of cooling water. For Syria this means an easily identifiable lake, almost certainly man made. It will stand out on Google earth like the Eastern Seaboard lights in early WWII. Check all of the possible lakes for necessary power lines on their shore. The Reactor Site must be tangent to both of them.
The Third is some kind of cooling tower or towers. You can't hide those things, either. If you want a good example Google Earth search Three Mile Island. The ones on the south end of the Island won't be in use. The ones on the north end will be in use. That way you can learn to tell the difference between an operating reactor, and an inoperable one.
It behooves all of us Americans who will be victimized by George, Dick, and their friend's lies to know what constitutes real evidence of "Nuclear Reactors", "Nuclear Fuel Production Facilities", "Nuclear Weapons Manufacturing Facilities", Nuclear Waste Disposal Facilities" etc. For all the posters who are posting Nuclear Sites and Nuclear test sites on Google Earth, please find and post usable photos of the sites as they appeared in their working days. Then the world can see for itself the lies that the Chicken Hawk Pentagon are telling us. Really valuable photos would be of the various production buildings at Hanford.
Photos of production canyons would also be appropriate.
Posted by: ceflynline | October 22, 2007 10:36 PM
I guess the US should begin bombing Ireal's nuclear weapons facilities.
Posted by: Bradley Olsen | October 22, 2007 7:12 PM
Bill
Thanks for the thoughts on this. Of course, there are so many "maybes" it makes the head spin. I am split between mistaken intelligence and knowingly boming Syria to send a message to Iran, but at this point it is so wrapped up in the puzzle palace mindgame we may never KNOW for sure.
Keep up the good work.
Jon
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Posted by: brian | October 22, 2007 3:10 PM
IT'S THE FOURTH POSSIBILITY:
ISRAEL BOMBED WORLD OPINION! and
INCITED ITS "JEWISH" CITIZENS TO LAUNCH THE NEXT WAR.
Remember:
Unlike Syria and Iran, Israel is not a signatory to NPT.
Israel is the only Mid-Eastern Country to possess Nukes;
and the West allows Israel to hold to its weapons.
Posted by: index_on_censorship | October 22, 2007 2:22 PM
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Will the GOP election theft machine do it again in 2008?
By Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
Online Journal Guest Writers
With record low approval ratings for the Bush/Cheney regime and the albatross of an unpopular war hanging from the GOP's neck, do you think that a Democratic presidential candidate will win the White House, get us out of Iraq, and end our long national nightmare?
Think again -- the mighty election theft machine Karl Rove used to steal the US presidency in 2000 and 2004 may be under attack, but it is still in place for the upcoming 2008 election.
With his usual devious mastery, Rove has seized upon the national outrage sparked by his electoral larceny and used it as smokescreen while he makes the American electoral system even MORE unfair, and even EASIER to rig. Thus the administration has fired federal attorneys when they would not participate in a nationwide campaign to deny minorities and the poor their access to the polls. It has spent millions of taxpayer dollars to install electronic voting machines that can be "flipped" with a few keystrokes. And under the guise of "reforming" our busted electoral system, it is setting us up for another presidential theft in 2008.
Thus it should come as no surprise that our exclusive investigations into the firings of eight federal prosecutors who refused to execute Rove's plans for massive disenfranchisement of Democratic voters reveal a pattern of illegalities and fraud aimed at reducing the number of minority, poor and young voters at the core of Democratic support. In the wake of major news breaks, two felony convictions have come from the rigging of the illegal Ohio 2004 vote count and recount that gave George W. Bush a second illegitimate term. Stunning new admissions from county election boards that illegally destroyed voter records will almost certainly lead to new convictions. And the multi-million-dollar electronic voting machine scam that made possible the biggest electoral frauds in US history is under massive new attack, with key states moving to scrap the machines altogether in a desperate attempt to restore American democracy -- but with the job far from done.
Rove, Neyand the undead
Indeed, the Rovian theft engine is far from dead. The media groundwork has already been laid out for the Republicans to claim that hordes of illegal aliens have registered to vote. The Bush administration has been caught ordering public agencies -- possibly in violation of the law -- to cease registering voters. In an April 2006 speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association, Rove openly alluded to the strategy of demanding photo ID and purging voter roles of poor, minority voters just as had been done in 2000 and 2004. And, as always with Bush/Rove, there is much more beneath the surface.
All that has happened to challenge the GOP death grip on the American vote count has been reported in the pages of Hustler and on the Internet at freepress.org, bradblog and elsewhere, and is being seized upon by a national grassroots movement determined to restore American democracy next year.
Nowhere has that movement been more in evidence than with the high profile firestorm surrounding Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors without legitimate cause.
Evidence continues to surface from throughout the United States about this blatant Bush abuse of executive power. But we have traced the roots of the firings to an obscure congressional hearing held at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, on March 21, 2005, and to a shadowy GOP operative named Mark F. "Thor" Hearne.
For the rest please go to:
Posted by: che | October 22, 2007 2:20 PM
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Posted by: aaron8 | October 22, 2007 11:57 AM
We can't wait for the final evidence in the form of a mushroom cloud
Posted by: Dick Cheney | October 22, 2007 11:51 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.

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