U.S. urged caution on Syrian strike

October 6, 2007

Following up on a post from a couple of weeks ago, the details are still sketchy, but we know that Israel decided to attack Syria on Sept. 6, hitting a suspected nuclear site that may have been launched with help from North Korea. ABC News reports today that the Bush administration knew about the plans, but argued against the Israeli airstrikes.

In early July the Israelis presented the United States with satellite imagery that they said showed a nuclear facility in Syria. They had additional evidence that they said showed that some of the technology was supplied by North Korea.

One U.S. official told ABC’s Martha Raddatz the material was “jaw dropping” because it raised questions as to why U.S. intelligence had not previously picked up on the facility. Officials said that the facility had likely been there for months if not years. […]

Initially, administration officials convinced the Israelis to call off the July strike. But in September the Israelis feared that news of the site was about to leak and went ahead with the strike despite U.S. concerns.

Apparently, Condoleezza Rice wanted Israel to “confront Syria before attacking,” and according to the ABC report, there were some administration officials who were concerned about the “profound consequences” of “flawed intelligence.”

Jeez, a White House launches one disastrous war under false pretenses and all of a sudden they’re on pins and needles.

As for whether the Israelis actually hit a nuclear site in Syria, Kevin Drum considers the evidence and concludes “maybe there was some North Korean nuclear technology there after all.”

Kevin, links to an Aviation Weekly story that speculates on how the Israeli Airforce, using state of the art American technology, managed to get through sophisticated Russian built Syrian air defenses. Here is Kevin.

Obviously I’m just playing amateur sleuth here, but it doesn’t seem like you’d tip your hand about the capabilities of technology like this in order to destroy a bunch of rocket launchers and North Korean Scuds. The mission had to be important enough to make it worth letting the Syrians (and the Iranians and the Russians) know that their air defenses had been compromised

But Kevin’s speculation rests on Aviation Weekly’s speculation. And here is the closing sentence of the latter.

What systems were actually guarding the Syrian site are not known.

So, there may not have been a sophisticated Russian air defense in place which would required state of the art technology to defeat.

Given the track record of BushCo, unless someone presents me with hard indisputable evidence that the Syrian site was related to a nuclear program and Korea had a hand in it, I will assume that such claims , coming for the likes of John Bolton—

The story put about by largely unnamed US sources and backed up by the former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, is that North Korea – under international pressure to scale down its own nuclear weapons programme – has recently transferred equipment or technology to Syria.

And it is this equipment – possibly at a fledgling research centre – that the Israelis hit.

–are Cheney agitprop designed to derail the Korean nuclear agreement and foment war with Iran.

  • Nice catch rege! One thing I’ve definitely learned from the whole Iraq war fiasco is that the U.S. and, presumably, our ally Israel (who we give lots of our toys to) are far too much in love with high-tech surveillance and not enough with genuine human agents on the ground. Israel showed satellite imagery of a nuclear site in Syria? Yeah, we had some of that ourselves – we had tons of satellite imagery of WMD sites in Iraq.

    Another thing I always wonder about: how quick was this attack, and how quickly did Israeli jets get back into their own airspace? If Syria isn’t on a complete war footing, one would expect that there’s a time lag between the time an unknown object is spotted on the radar and the time that a ‘kill order’ is approved. (One wouldn’t want to shoot down some commercial jet that had wandered off course.) Though I’m sure they’ve got great technology, Israel may just have taken advantage of the fact that Syria wasn’t expecting them to come flying in, bombs away.

  • When it comes to intelligence given to US agencies by the Israeli government in the past, Jpost article: “Israel gives US unreliable intel”, “Edward Abingdon, who served as US consul-general in Jerusalem during the 1990s, said the Israelis had an “agenda” and provided “selective information to try to influence US thinking.” Of course I’m sure they were absolutely truthful this time. On the mission into Syria by Israeli jets, from a newspaper from one of our other alleged allies,“Saudi paper Al Watan reported Friday that American jets were hovering in Iraqi airspace close to the Syrian border during the raid. Reportedly, the USAF jets were meant to give aerial backup to Israel in case IAF warplanes would come to any harm.”

  • While I automatically discount everything I hear from our unsalubrious maladministration and don’t really believe that Syria had nukes — from N Korea or anyone else — there *is* something that sticks in my craw. And that’s that Syria, and the rest of the Middle East, were silent. WTF? Israel makes an unprovoked incursion like that and the only country to object is North Korea???

  • So Israel strikes Syria for allegedly obtaining nuclear technology from North Korea.

    North Korea, in others words, exported nuclear technology. But at the same time the country is getting fuel oil from the US for agreeing to “disable” its nuclear facilities.

    What am I not getting here?

  • If this was, as some of the facts warrant, a legitimate strike against a nuclear facility, then one can only wonder why US intel had no knowledge of the facility’s existence.

    That wondering, if the issue is contemplated in a manner that takes into consideration not only this president’s whimsical dismissal of intel prior to 9/11/01, but likewise gives credence to the overall pattern of “leaving the mess for the next guy to deal with,” becomes a very short walk from “point a” to “point b.”

    Thus, it becomes increasingly apparent that this administration has stepped onto a path that places the entire Republic—and its People—in harm’s way—————

    ——————-for personal gain.

    Does this not constitute treason? Indeed— methinks it does….

  • I think Kevin Drum has it backwards. I think that the Israeli air strike was not on a “nuclear” target; I think it was a real-life “test” demonstration that Russian-made radar systems could be compromised. This “test” was for the benefit of the Iranians, as well as the North Koreans. The Israelis were just a proxy for the U.S., and the tale the Condoleezza Rice urged restraint is just a “cover story.” The Pentagon now knows it can compromise the Iranian radar systems and–under orders from Dick Cheney–bomb suspected nuclear facilities in Iran. Duh!!!!!!!!!!!

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