Israeli intelligence 'intercepted Syrian regime talk about chemical attack'

[Catherina]

Israeli intelligence 'intercepted Syrian regime talk about chemical attack'

Information passed to US by Israeli Defence Forces's 8200 unit, former official tells magazine

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
theguardian.com, Wednesday 28 August 2013 09.25 BST

Israeli military intelligence provided key evidence of the Syrian regime's deployment of chemical weapons to US officials last week, according to the German magazine Focus.

The 8200 unit of the Israeli Defence Forces, which specialises in electronic surveillance, intercepted a conversation between Syrian officials regarding the use of chemical weapons, an unnamed former Mossad official told Focus. The content of the conversation was relayed to the US, the ex-official said.

The 8200 unit collects and analyses electronic data, including wiretapped telephone calls and emails. It is the largest unit in the IDF.

...

Senior Israeli security officials arrived in Washington on Monday to share the latest results of intelligence gathering, and to review the Syrian crisis with national security adviser Susan Rice.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/israeli-intelligence-intercepted-syria-chemical-talk

Everyone has gone mad. Again.

[snappyturtle]

1. Wouldn't you love to see the actual intercept?

IF this is factual, why didn't Kerry allude to it in his speech?
Telling us instead that there's 'little doubt' that Assad used
the chemical weapons. Remember when, I think it was a
post of yours, that "There's a reason" (in Kerry's speech)
was repeated several times. I gotta go back and re-read!

Bottom line, yes, everyone has gone mad and something
is very smelly.

[Catherina]

3. I don't trust any US, UK, French or Israeli Intercepts

Intercepts are too easy to cook up.

We've already been through this once before with cooked up intelligence. Our credibility is shot. The world needs something more solid this time. Like UN inspection results that incorporate their last findings which the US, the UK and France didn't like.

What a sick world we've become. Paranoid and armed to the teeth. And the most armed are the most paranoid. There's a correlation there. It reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeks.

[snappyturtle]

5. Oh, I'm not saying I would trust the intercept I just want

to see what it is that is being touted as evidence to go to war.
It probably hasn't been properly redacted yet.

I'm paranoid about the gov't....it starts out questioning, erodes
into cynicism and then blossoms into paranoia, and rightfully
so based on past dealings,

It does reek..

[Catherina]

12. We'll find out soon

and I'm sorry, I understood what you meant. I'm not being very clear tonight. It's been a rough month with everything going on, and the last 2 days have been horrific. On the brink of war again? And this time, one that could light the whole world up? The mind boggles over our rush.

[malaise]

10. +1,000

Loud scream!

[delrem]

2. It'll be disastrous if they tell the world that's their "proof", then commence bombing.

Totally disastrous.

[Catherina]

4. I hope they're not that dumb. Even Ban-Ki Moon, normally so subservient, is saying slow down

This just came out:

Weapons inspectors in Syria need time to complete job: U.N.'s Ban

THE HAGUE | Wed Aug 28, 2013 5:02am EDT

(Reuters) - United Nations inspectors should be given time to determine whether forces have used chemical weapons in Syria's civil war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in The Hague on Wednesday.

Referring to an alleged chemical weapons attack last week in which hundreds of civilians were killed on the outskirts of Damascus, Ban said the images from the more than two-year-old conflict were "unlike any we have seen in the 21st century.

"It is essential to establish the facts. A U.N. investigation team is now on the ground to do just that. Just days after the attack, they have collected valuable samples and interviewed victims and witnesses. The team needs time to do its job," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/28/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSBRE97R0BR20130828

[Alamuti Lotus]

6. Saw this a few days ago, stopped reading after "Israeli intelligence said..."

Then the same story was recycled by our resident supporter of the al-Qai'dah-supported opposition, sans the "Israeli intelligence said" angle. Same story, same claims, but the piece apparently felt it important to obscure the dubious source of the allegations. Apparently that little aspect of the story didn't help its credibility, so it has since been cast into the memory hole by the public relations foot-soldiers keeping that drum beating.

What is most interesting is that, sans the massive spin control and puffery that the story is presented with, the "intercepted conversation" doesn't support the war cause at all. At its most basic level, the conversation is between one Syrian general asking "WTF JUST HAPPENED?!" to somebody he thinks might/should know something. Really damning stuff there, indeed.

[another_liberal]

7. If you can't trust Israeli intelligence services . . .

All I can say is that if you can't trust Israeli intelligence services to give you accurate, unbiased and nonpartisan information concerning a Muslim Arab nation, then who can you trust, right?

Also note this passage from the same Guardian article:

In northern Israel, a military training exercise began on Wednesday in the Golan Heights, Syrian territory that has been occupied by Israel since 1967. There have been numerous incidences of mortar shells and gunfire landing on the Israeli-controlled Golan over the past year, prompting return fire by the IDF on occasion.

Just a coincidence that exercise, nothing special at all, I'm sure.

[nenagh]

8. Sic semper tyrannis blog interesting for military opinion..

Thanks for your posts, Catherina

[malaise]

9. How effin' neat

[magical thyme]

11. oh, well, that's all we need to know then.

[Luminous Animal]

13. Kick