NYT source: Israeli airstrike in Syria may have targeted nuke installations
posted at 10:30 am on September 12, 2007 by Allahpundit
“But AP,” you say, “Syria doesn’t have nuke installations.” Yeah, that’s what I thought too.
But we learn something new every day, don’t we?
Officials in Washington said that the most likely targets of the raid were weapons caches that Israel’s government believes Iran has been sending the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah through Syria…
One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria.
“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief.
An Israeli Arab paper offers a third possibility: they were targeting Syrian missile base that was being financed by Iran — and they destroyed it completely. The Israeli government isn’t talking by a source tells CNN they’re “very happy” with the operation, which may have involved ground forces. Ehud Barak is certainly making his mark lately, isn’t he?
A Kuwaiti newspaper says Assad is being pressured to respond via Hezbollah and Hamas. I thought he already had.
I leave you with another cryptic hint at the target from the same JPost article:
Also on Wednesday, the Lebanese daily Almustakbal reported that since the alleged IAF foray over Syria last week there have been severe disturbances in Lebanese communications systems and cellular frequencies.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
DPRK dumps what nuke material they have left to the highest bidder (or whomever feels threatened by the US the most) just in time for the IAEA to claim that they have dismantled their program. That way, Kim gets more money for hair gel, DPRK gets foreign aid to fight starvation (the Kim has imposed) and the jihadis get the nuke material they are desparately seeking.
What a wonderful world we live in.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on September 12, 2007 at 10:36 AM
Isn’t it telling that Israel can manage to keep a secret and we can’t? If it’d been the U.S., we’d have plastered our plan all over the front page of the NYT, the WaPo and LAT a few weeks in advance – giving Syria ample warning.
Good job, Israel. I wish the U.S. had your b*lls to just do what is necessary – damn the consequences.
pullingmyhairout on September 12, 2007 at 10:42 AM
The Summer is heating up just in time for Fall. Fasten your seat belts. Turbulence up ahead.
Ordinary1 on September 12, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Forgive me, Father, for I [think I may] have sinned.
I keep hoping that Hans Blix, Mohammed ElBaradei, and our dear Putin are visiting one of Iran’s supposedly “peaceful” nuclear weapons facilities, just as the first US JDAMs begin raining down.
Is that wrong?
/not sorry
Wanderlust on September 12, 2007 at 10:46 AM
Amazing what turning on all those high gain/multi phase Syrian tracking radars will do, didn’t do em any good though. Sounds like a few chipsets got cooked.
Limerick on September 12, 2007 at 10:47 AM
Barak is the perfect example of a man who is supremely competent as Defense Minister but a flop as PM. This should be a lesson to some of our pols: you don’t have to be president to make a contribution. In fact some people (I’m looking at you, Mitt,) will better serve the country and themselves be consciously taking a decision to serve in the executive but not as the executive.
Barak has the expertise, credibility, temperment, and drive to be an excellent Defense Minister. But those same qualities do not work in his favor as PM.
Watch Barak over the next year or so as he works over Hamas and Fatah and the Syrians. Remember that kidnapping rumor this weekend? Barak is a master of the stiletto and the scalpel, not the sledge hammer. I wouldn’t be surprised one morning to find Khaled Mashaal dead, mysteriously, without any claim of responsibility. And Barak smiling in the background.
Thomas the Wraith on September 12, 2007 at 10:51 AM
All the brilliant Liberals, who know everything, and know everything the USA does is wrong; have made a joke over the Israeli report that the WMD from Iraq had been trucked to Syria.
Israel let that info slip, but they don’t let the really good stuff spill. That’s the difference between a democratic country that wants to survive and one that has a Platonic perspective that anything is better than what we have and closer to perfection.
Hening on September 12, 2007 at 10:55 AM
It is well known that Syria has been harboring insurgents from Iraq and funneling Iranian made weapons across the border into Iraq, which have been used to kill our own troops.
The Israelis send in airstrikes. We send in Kucinich and Pelosi. Why haven’t we pummeled them a few times? Syria is getting the right message from Israel. From us …. not so much.
fogw on September 12, 2007 at 10:57 AM
New my ass. Melanie Phillips posted an article about Syria’s nuclear weapons program months ago, I could’ve sworn you linked to it.
aengus on September 12, 2007 at 10:59 AM
Could we maybe switch governments with the Israelis for a while?
They could make it a reality TV show: Leader Swap. They can have Dubya for a year, we’ll take Olmert. Or Peres. Or how about Netenyahu, he already passes for American.
We won’t need them for a long. I’d guess a year would be plenty of time to deal with a few of our little problems.
Professor Blather on September 12, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Gotta love Russian technology. It can’t track our allies aircraft but it will mess up the communications grid of the users country. Get Iran now before they adapt.
Overheard at Syrian radar site:
“Quick. Call headquarters and tell them our radar couldn’t track the enemy jets!”
“I can’t! The phone system is down!”
“Use the radio idiot!”
“It’s down too!”
(collectively) “HELP!”
Guardian on September 12, 2007 at 11:08 AM
We don’t want Olmert, or Peres. Look up the word “tsuris” in any Yiddish dictionary. Or a not-so-Yiddish one.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on September 12, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Hmmm, you wouldnt by any chance be thinking along the line of oh I dont know, giving Murtha, Pelosi and Kennedy the Mordechai Vanunu treatment would you?
doriangrey on September 12, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Everybody wins!! Oh…. err….
Personally, I’d rather pack up the House and Senate. Wonder who (or what) we could get in trade?
lan astaslem on September 12, 2007 at 11:23 AM
Two pigs and a goat tops.
KelliD on September 12, 2007 at 11:25 AM
Put the crack pipe down and back slowly away from it…nobody in their right mind would ever give us that much for our congress, hell the real question should never have been what can we get for them, but how much do we have to pay to get someone else to take them……
doriangrey on September 12, 2007 at 11:29 AM
had that same thought yesterday about our Dennis on the road to Damascus.
JiangxiDad on September 12, 2007 at 11:38 AM
There are two parts to this war. One is the resolve that Israel has shown. The other is communicating why this resolve is necessary. Sadly, Israel’s voice isn’t load enough, and President Bush comes off as a buffoon.
Sorry to inject this thought on a presidential campaign type of thread, but it seems relevent in my small, dim mind. I can’t help but think that Giuliani or Romney will be far more effective at communicating to the world why resolute action is needed than would some other candidates. Fred just won’t come off well enough in the wake of Bush’s dubious legacy and we must sell our case if we are to win this war.
thuja on September 12, 2007 at 11:40 AM
Waiting for Pelosi and Kucinich to comment on this action.
/spit
LakeRuins on September 12, 2007 at 11:42 AM
“We” didn’t send in Dennis the Menace or San Fran Nan–our enemies did. Also, will assume that the Bush admin. and the Turks were in on this. Call it US war by proxy.
JiangxiDad on September 12, 2007 at 11:44 AM
Another thought…….Israel to GW…….look, about those WMDs….X marks the spot.
Limerick on September 12, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Actually I think the Israeli’s would be just a little more circumspect about it, more like…Excuse me Mr. Gate’s your are not privileged to be looking at that map with all the big bright red x’s on it…Oh and by the way, what ever became of your search of Saddam’s WMD???
doriangrey on September 12, 2007 at 11:58 AM
actually dorian I was thinking more on the lines of ‘ya scared?’ or ‘watch this, George’.
Limerick on September 12, 2007 at 12:03 PM
Awww, I love Israelis. Ehud Barak is getting higher and higher in my estimation with every day. And he was already pretty high up there considering he helped with an operation in Beirut in a DRESS!
Perhaps we should think that Israel is also hitting the WMD’s stockpiled in Syria from ol’ Saddy Hussein. Just saying.
mjk on September 12, 2007 at 12:08 PM
I really want to jump on the enthusiastic bandwagon shown by the majority of the posts so far. I really want to believe that Israel is once again showing the daring and resolve of 1967, Osirak, and Entebbe. I really want to hope that perhaps their action may galvanize similar backbone in the U.S. and help beat back the surrender left in this Country. Alas, I despair that the West no longer has the will to fight the long fight, and to accept a leader who offers nothing but blood, sweat and tears. I hope I am wrong, and I for one will not submit.
ncc770 on September 12, 2007 at 12:16 PM
IDF armor has entered Gaza. Hamas and their partners in jihad have threatened suicide attacks against “Zionists everywhere”. Stay tuned.
Thomas the Wraith on September 12, 2007 at 12:26 PM
(from the above link)
Um, Yahoo news people, no one else is going to do it. Number 1 – those borders are with ISRAEL – of course the Israelis are patrolling those borders. Morons.
Number 2 – The Palestinians don’t have planes (thank G-d).
Number 3 – Again, terrorists can swim. So the Israelis make sure they can’t swim into Israeli lands.
Are the Yahoo people going to make an issue about the fact that there are Israeli gunboats out in the Red Sea too? ‘Cause the neighbours aren’t exactly friendly.
mjk on September 12, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Until the Israeli goverment does something about the daily rocket attacks on it civillians, until they quit enabling the Palestianians by funneling them cash to prop up their welfare state I think I will refrain from jumping on the Israeli cheerleading squad. In a lot of ways they are no better then us especially after waging a half ass offensive against Hezbollah and bowing to the wishes of public opinion shaped by Hezbollah through their surrogets in the news business.
LakeRuins on September 12, 2007 at 12:32 PM
But you forget, Dennis and Nanc honestly believe they are the “We” chosen to layout our country’s foreign policy to
our enemySyria. After all, “Most Americans” trust them. We all know this to be true, because Dennis and Nancy said so.What Constitution?
fogw on September 12, 2007 at 12:34 PM
Israel should cut all electricity and water to Gaza and close the borders allowing nothing in or out of Gaza and tell the Palestinians eliminate all Hamas terrorist or we are never turning the electricity and water back on and on one is ever coming or going from Gaza again. Israel needs to quit giving her enemies the ability to attack them.
doriangrey on September 12, 2007 at 12:37 PM
Here’s the thing:
That war didn’t actually end. That thing last summer wasn’t actually a war – just a battle in a very very long war. I know people like to think that war ended last summer. It hasn’t. The Lebanese are now crushing one refugee camp after another in Hezb’allah land. The Israelis are going after the state sponsors of Hezb’allah. Oh, I don’t think the battle last summer ended the way it should have, but now that Ehud Barak is the defense guy, I don’t think half battles are going to be acceptable anymore.
And any Israelis I know were not thrilled with the way that battle ended last summer. They wanted to chase Hezb’allah all the way to Iran. Too bad that thing was fought by public opinion. I’m not sure this little hoop-de-doop will be in the least bit fought by public opinion – just by boots on the ground and the awesome IAF.
mjk on September 12, 2007 at 12:44 PM
Maybe if we replaced half of the CIA…so many came in under the Clintons, and the CIA seems to be responsible for alot of leaks and intelligence failures.
Miss_Anthrope on September 12, 2007 at 12:53 PM
Thomas the Wraith on September 12, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Mitt Romney has a lot of executive experience and I think he’ll do a great job.
Here’s a test. What cabinet post wouldn’t Mitt be good at? Which cabinet posts would you pick Thompson for?
Christoph on September 12, 2007 at 1:04 PM
Either Sec. Treasury or GAO…
doriangrey on September 12, 2007 at 1:07 PM
Iran, you be next
Captain America on September 12, 2007 at 5:18 PM
Duck season…Rabbit season…Duck season…Rabbit season…Iran season…
doriangrey on September 12, 2007 at 5:59 PM
There is a silver lining with Israel being the pariah of the UN. Since “the world” hates Israel anyway, the Israelis can do whatever they darn well please.
hadsil on September 12, 2007 at 6:27 PM
Maybe we could swap with the Iraqis; they fight with each other (like ours), they don’t do much of anything productive, but they haven’t learned (yet) to tax and spend like ours.
Hmmm. They hate us too, so can we start ignoring the UN/”world” and get on with doing this war like we should?
IrishEyes on September 12, 2007 at 7:01 PM
The latest from the Australian…
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22408053-2703,00.html
Quotes an Arab/Israeli newspaper report that the base was ‘completely obliterated’.
Sounds like Zion dropped a IAF version of the DaisyCutter on whatever the target was.
Limerick on September 12, 2007 at 9:33 PM
So do the “Truthers” believe Syria bombed itself?
sabbott on September 13, 2007 at 5:49 AM