Israelis 'blew apart Syrian nuclear cache'

[snappyturtle]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2461421.ece

I hope this isn't a dupe but I haven't read anything here on DU about the Israelis hitting a nuclear cache in Syria. I just heard that they invaded air space....Syrians forced them back, and so on. But this???

-snip-

"At a rendezvous point on the ground, a Shaldag air force commando team was waiting to direct their laser beams at the target for the approaching jets. The team had arrived a day earlier, taking up position near a large underground depot. Soon the bunkers were in flames.

Ten days after the jets reached home, their mission was the focus of intense speculation this weekend amid claims that Israel believed it had destroyed a cache of nuclear materials from North Korea.

The Israeli government was not saying. “The security sources and IDF soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,” said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. “We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.”

-snip-

More at above link.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. 17 hits for the past week in GD

for a search of keywords Syria and nuclear . Yeah, there's a bit about it ...

[LeftCoast]

2. I wouldn't trust any story about this incident

Way too many people have too much to gain by making up stories.

In any case, this particular story seems a bit off. The Syrians did not react at all as if they had some sort of nuclear shipment destroyed.

[snappyturtle]

7. Would they? That was one point in the article. nt

[shireen]

3. i heard abt. this over the weekend too

The US and Israel have refused to talk about it, or even acknowledge that it happened.

If it is a nuclear cache, bombing it is such a brilliant, incredible, genius, clever move! Spread the radioactive gunk across the population and spread out the casualities who will die a slow agonizing death. Fabulous!
:sarcasm:

[Beelzebud]

4. Is that supposed to make them sound reasonable? How much radiation did they release?

Attacking nuclear materials doesn't make them go away, it just releases them into the environment.

I'm not saying they actually had nuclear materials, because I think Israel is just following our lead here, but if that is the story, then how does it look good for Israel?

[LeftCoast]

5. Now is not the time for suspension of disbelief

I'm just sayin'.

[Roland99]

6. Bah..it'll just mix in with that non-existent DU (Depleted Uranium) dust.

[snappyturtle]

10. Well Israel doesn't want nukes in it's neighborhood....other than their own. nt

[Flabbergasted]

8. Bullshit.

[The Magistrate]

9. It Remains The Case, Ma'am, That There Is Not A Shred Of Positive Evidence

Backing claims of nuclear materials in Syria from North Korea, or that such were the target of this raid.

Nothing in this article rises above the level of speculation, though the author makes strenuous efforts to make it appear otherwise.

[snappyturtle]

11. THAT'S the interesting point....why would the author do this?

This started out as an innocuous fly over and has kept evolving....and for none of the parties wanting to talk about it and keep it hush hush...what do you think the deal is? The only reason I posted this is because I really don't know what's going on. Thought someone here at DU might know more.

[leftchick]

12. "Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?"

I read this yesterday.....http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2170188,00.html

<snip>

But the rumours were in circulation, not just in Israel but in Washington and elsewhere. In the days that followed, the sketchy details of the raid were accompanied by contradictory claims even as US and British officials admitted knowledge of the raid. The New York Times described the target of the raid as a nuclear site being run in collaboration with North Korean technicians. Others reported that the jets had hit either a Hizbollah convoy, a missile facility or a terrorist camp.

Amid the confusion there were troubling details that chimed uncomfortably with the known facts. Two detachable tanks from an Israeli fighter were found just over the Turkish border. According to Turkish military sources, they belonged to a Raam F15I - the newest generation of Israeli long-range bomber, which has a combat range of over 2,000km when equipped with the drop tanks. This would enable them to reach targets in Iran, leading to speculation that it was an 'operation rehearsal' for a raid on Tehran's nuclear facilities.

Finally, however, at the week's end, the first few tangible details were beginning to emerge about Operation Orchard from a source involved in the Israeli operation.

They were sketchy, but one thing was absolutely clear. Far from being a minor incursion, the Israeli overflight of Syrian airspace through its ally, Turkey, was a far more major affair involving as many as eight aircraft, including Israel's most ultra-modern F-15s and F-16s equipped with Maverick missiles and 500lb bombs. Flying among the Israeli fighters at great height, The Observer can reveal, was an ELINT - an electronic intelligence gathering aircraft.

What was becoming clear by this weekend amid much scepticism, largely from sources connected with the administration of President George Bush, was the nature of the allegation, if not the facts.

[The Magistrate]

15. Probably Not, Ma'am

The Israeli Air Force knows how to use drop tanks, and navigate at long distances. Eight aircraft is a pretty minor force, being about half a squadron only. Most ELINT types are basically passenger jet airframes stuffed with electronic gear, and they are very vulnerable to enemy action. It is unlikely one would be brought along on any raid into Iran. The one truely unusual feature in the report, if it is to be believed, is the unusual degree of security in the preparation of the raid, but there are many possible explainations for such measures.

[The Magistrate]

13. My Own View, Ma'am

Is that the raid was aimed at a shipment of longer-range rockets from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon, at a discovered point in their transit through Syria.

Things get more interesting from there.

For all its bellicosity, the Syrian regime has a survival interest in regional stability, being a very poor fit with jihadi types of either Moslem strain. The ruling clique there is Alawite, a very small sect viewed as heretical by both Sunni and Shia fundamentalists. A general convulsion in the region, such as would follow any U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran, would be dominated by jihadi militants, and these would be as willing to strike against the Syrian regime as anything else, to expell the heretics from power and put 'true Islam' in charge of that state. The Syrian regime's alliance with Hezbollah and Iran is one of forced convenience. They are not really too comfortable being in the middle of Iran and Hezbollah, particularly since the activation of Hezbollah against Israel is one of the likely Iranian counter-strokes in the event of a U.S. attack on Iran, and their co-operation in the transit of weapons giving that teeth makes them a major target of Israeli response in such an event. It seems within the bounds of possibility to me that the Syrians themselves may have tipped Israel to a weapons shipment of unusual power, covering themselves in both directions, saying to Israel, 'See, we helped," and to Iran and Hezbollah, 'Look what those cunning Israelis managed to do despite our best efforts to help you." Such a thing would need to be kept deeply in cover by all concerned, and so clouds of smoke and wild stories would be of great help. One of the best ways to conceal a thing is to provide the searcher other things to look at.

[snappyturtle]

16. Oh wow! The "plot" thickens! Thanks...this is almost too much

to grasp....at least for me!

[The Magistrate]

17. That Is The Joy Of The Middle East, Ma'am

Nothing is quite what it seems on the surface, and no one knows where the bottom is....

[snappyturtle]

18. I find it fascinating. I just wish it weren't so life and death. nt

[Flabbergasted]

20. Question?

How likely is it to find an arms shipment at night and then bomb this shipment?

If you believe the likelihood of an attack on Iran, the oppurtunity to test Syria's defenses and provide demonization of Syrians in the process I don't think is far fetched.

[The Magistrate]

22. No One 'Finds' Things, Sir, In a Matter Like This

This would not be a sortie seeking to discover targets of opportunity, this would be a directing of machines to a known point, discovered by some intelligence endeavor on the basis of which the mission was planned, and quite likely including an infltrated commando team to mark the target precisely for the homing weapons. The means by which such a target could have been discovered are various, and a few moment's reflection ought to suggest several to you.

[superkia]

26. First thing I read was that they blew a whole in the desert.

They probably did just that, so they could say they blew up some nuclear weapons or whatever the U.S. and Israel came up with. I don't buy it, I think its just the war machine making sure it has somewhere to be so it can keep business booming.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Rex]

14. People are playing fast and loose with our civilization.

Greedy people who love to hate and kill.

[Megahurtz]

21. Warmongers.

Just itchin' to push and bully and start a fight. Assholes.

[Beerboy]

23. Lots of people could be talking, but there's silence all around.

If true, it's an impressive operation. It seems lifted from a comic book though.

[Holly_Hobby]

24. N Korean ship 'linked to Israel's strike on Syria'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/17/wsyria117.xml

[snappyturtle]

25. Thanks so much for this "new" information....lots of pieces to this

puzzle! Here is a part of the link's article I found interesting.

Last week, US officials suggested that North Korea had sought to export some of its nuclear technology and equipment to Syria but the Israelis had been tipped off, so they arranged a pre-emptive strike on a sensitive shipment.

When I first starting reading about this incident I got the impression that the Israelis were getting a feel for the Russian supplied Syrian defense system as a prelude to a possible attack on Iran. More recently, however, the tide is turning towards the talk of nuclear materials having been involved. I guess we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open!