A method to the delay in briefing Congress on Syria/DPRK nuclear alliance?
posted at 10:10 am on April 25, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Eli Lake at the New York Sun thinks that the White House may want to manipulate Syria into substantive peace negotiations through deliberate timing of the exposure of the nuclear plant at Al-Kibar. Instead of releasing all the data immediately, the US has left it hanging over the head of Bashar Assad for months, keeping him from conducting a reprisal against Israel until it became so late to be pointless. Now, with the UN taking an interest in Syria’s nuclear activities, Assad may have gotten a push to get serious about peace talks with Ehud Olmert:
At the moment America has disclosed to the world Israel’s success in ending a North Korea-aided nuclear weapons project in the Syrian desert, the Syrians are saying Prime Minister Olmert will relinquish the Golan Heights.
The Israelis are offering no public comment. But Syria’s expatriates minister, Buthaina Shaaban, told Al-Jazeera that the Israeli premier had instructed Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to deliver the message. “Olmert is ready for peace with Syria on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria,” she told the Arab satellite network.
The interview aired before the White House instructed the intelligence community to brief Congress and journalists on the details of Syria’s undeclared nuclear weapons program. The briefing included a videotape of North Korean technicians building the same kind of lab reactor as the one found in North Korea’s Yongbyon facility, according to congressional sources and the Washington Post.
The public disclosure of the North Korea-Syria program changes the calculus for the president’s policies toward both Damascus and Pyongyang. Damascus will likely face a nuclear audit from the International Atomic Energy Agency and may be raising the Golan issue and the prospect of peace in hopes of distracting from its nuclear program. North Korea has agreed to, but has yet to deliver, a full declaration of its nuclear weapons program. …
The White House said it withheld the intelligence on Syria in the immediate aftermath of the bombing in part to avoid the potential of a regional war between Syria and Israel. “If Syria was forced to acknowledge the full extent of the September 6 operation, they would have to retaliate at the time,” one Bush administration official said. A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, demanded Syria come clean. “The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities.”
It’[s an interesting scenario, but not completely convincing. Assad has already run afoul of the UN over the assassination of Rafik Hariri and others in Lebanon, and that didn’t stop him from partnering with Kim Jong-Il on nuclear weapons. If the Syrians have suddenly become interested in peace, Israeli bombs likely provided a lot more incentive than the American delay in briefing Congress.
Intel committee leaders got briefed contemporaneously to the events, but the rest of the committees and leadership got nothing after the bombing run. Pete Hoekstra, one of the handful kept abreast, considers that a mistake. If it prevented a war between Syria and Israel, it wasn’t a mistake but a tactical tradeoff. Again, though, it’s hard to see Syria launching a war against Israel that it would have lost in days, with or without Iranian intervention.
This does validate one Bush statement at the beginning of the war on terror. Syria and North Korea certainly appear to be acting on an axis, helping to proliferate WMD. That has been forgotten or caricatured, but George Bush warned of exactly this kind of expansion of nuclear weapons in the first term of his presidency. The scoffers remain very silent on that point.
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looks like another war, to go “defend America’s freedoms”
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 10:17 AM
Given that there have been no shots fired between US and Syrian troops, what the hell are you talking about?
nukemhill on April 25, 2008 at 10:22 AM
insert picture of Pelosi meeting with Assad. This revelation makes the Dems in congress look like fools, atleast to anyone that was sitting on the fence over the issue.
jp on April 25, 2008 at 10:24 AM
there were no shots fired between the US and Iraq, or Afganistan, and look whee we are.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Don’t let reality get in RMC1618’s way…
HebrewToYou on April 25, 2008 at 10:26 AM
HebrewToYou on April 25, 2008 at 10:27 AM
When you have the most effective military force in the world sitting in their backyard cocked and loaded, dictators can be amazingly cooperative.
The thing that would really help is if Democrats would quit visiting Assad and giving him legitimacy, and raising his hopes that the next President will be a Democrat, which would be a godsend for him.
drunyan8315 on April 25, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Right. That’s why America withheld the intelligence in order to prevent war, and that’s why Israel is asking Syria to come to the peace negotiations table.
amerpundit on April 25, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Shots fired between the US and Iraq…
HebrewToYou on April 25, 2008 at 10:28 AM
Oh, so you’re opposed to the war in Afghanistan, too? If I’m not mistaken, a terror group protected by Afghanistan’s government killed 3,000 of our citizens.
amerpundit on April 25, 2008 at 10:28 AM
If Bush is pressuring Israel to give up the Golan Heights to Syria, it would turn a major victory into a PR coup for Syria and a death wish by Israel.
a capella on April 25, 2008 at 10:29 AM
Matt Lauer, this morning, ran a spot on this. The basic take that NBC took was that the bombing was not necessary because Syria didn’t have any fuel to put in the reactor anyway.
Well then, it was just a fancy model! A hobby project, nothing more. How stupid of Israel to risk WWIII over something as innocent as an empty nuclear reactor.
Limerick on April 25, 2008 at 10:31 AM
I don’t know what parallel universe you live in, but neither Iraq nor Afganistan attacked the US, we INVADED them. and kicked their ass too.
the same “slam Dunk Intelligence” that sold us on the WMD?
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Amen to that, brother. Giving back the Golan is nuts. Maybe in 50 years or so when there’s a Syria that’s proven to be a full member of the family of nations in a positive way, but certainly not now.
If any of these rumors have even a shread of substance somewhere inside them, then Olmert continues to prove to be a numbskull…as are the Israeli electorate for not forcing new elections to get rid of this putz.
Grantman on April 25, 2008 at 10:37 AM
the same Afgan government we put in place after their war with the Soviets?
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 10:38 AM
yeah, committing one act of war after another for over a DECADE against the US is just fine and dandy. Firing out our planes, plotting to assassinate our president, Funding $20k to the famlies of Hamas Suicide bombers in Israel, some of whom killed American Citizens no less. and generally breaking a Cease Fire Agreement he signed and agreed to, then proceeded to violate, each time being a case to resume the war…means Saddam was innoncent.
paultard alert…
jp on April 25, 2008 at 10:38 AM
and put a $1 Trillion hit on the economy by some estimates
jp on April 25, 2008 at 10:39 AM
When has giving land to Islam by Israel ever served any good other than a better emplacement for rockets that are fired into Israel?
Hening on April 25, 2008 at 10:40 AM
the Taliban was not “put in place” by us, unless you count us cutting and running from the area after the Soviets fell. We backed the pro-America Norther Alliance during all that, whose famous leader was assassinated a few days before 9/11 which was no coincidence.
jp on April 25, 2008 at 10:41 AM
RMC1618,
“there were no shots fired between the US and Iraq”
Were you paying attention during the period of the sanctions between 1991 and 2003? There were dozens, perhaps more, times that Iraqi forces fired at U.S. planes flying the U.N. approved/instituted patrols.
exhelodrvr on April 25, 2008 at 10:42 AM
So RMC1618,
Who exactly do you support? I’d say there’s a 60% chance it’s Paul, 40% it’s a Democrat.
You’re not actually saying you opposed the war in Afghanistan, are you? Even Ron Paul supported that.
amerpundit on April 25, 2008 at 10:45 AM
Isreal tried to wipe the USS Liberty off the face of the Earth, then machine gunned the liferafts, killing people who tried to flee, which is a war crime.
Join the Club! take a number! right next to the nine year old kid.
and you must be a “McCainiack, a Clintonista, or an Obamian”
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 10:52 AM
A benefit, aside from bagging the reactor, was the mud pie thrown in Russia’s face. Syria and Iran had just purchased, and were operating, a Russian state-of-the-art radar tracking system. They never saw a thing. That had to give the leadership of Iran and Syria a bit of indigestion.
Limerick on April 25, 2008 at 11:01 AM
The official reports from both governments was that it was a tragic mistake. The United States apparently gave no indication that the Liberty was there, and in fact the Pentagon ordered the Sixth Fleet headquarters to keep the ship 100 nautical miles+ from the coast. The order wasn’t broadcast on a frequency the Liberty’s crew was monitoring until hours after the attack.
When it was confirmed the ship was American, Israeli torpedo boats offered to return to help. They immediately notified the embassy in Tel Aviv and providing a chopper to fly a Naval attaché to the ship. Israel payed $13 million+ to the families of the crew members.
amerpundit on April 25, 2008 at 11:05 AM
The technical term for RMC1618 is “jingoist”. The fact that he(?) is a negative jingoist (”America is the shitz and everything is our fault”) rather than a positive one (”America is da bomb and everything redounds to our credit”) doesn’t change the massive egotism inherent in the position. It still assumes that the United States is the only actual actor on the world scene, and if we don’t do something nobody will; most especially, if the United States doesn’t take military action, war does not exist.
I would give long odds that he(?) is also a “root causes” enthusiast, meaning that everything can be explained by money — people who don’t have money attack people who do, and the way to stop that is to give them money. When the people actually attacking give different explanations for their actions, they are dismissed as too ignorant to agree with RMC1618, and thus negligible.
Regards,
Ric
warlocketx on April 25, 2008 at 11:07 AM
RMC1618 believes that we’ve got some sort of hair trigger when it comes to the middle east. I beg to differ…..just how many attacks have we sat through from that part of the world in the past 25+ years before striking back?
Breaking news……we just fired some warning shots at Iranian gunboats who were harassing our ships AGAIN. By RMC1618’s standards, we should be invading soon. (rolleyes)
We have no reason to invade Syria, anyways, when Israel is more than capable of kicking their butts AGAIN.
The Syrian Air Force……providing easy targets for F-15s since 1982.
Chuckie on April 25, 2008 at 11:08 AM
don’t feed the trolls!
drift on April 25, 2008 at 11:09 AM
I seem to remember Bill Clinton bombing Iraq, and why does it take a more than a decade to retaliate against Iraq for firing on our aircraft? i know why, because before 2003, Iraq wasn’t part of the “War on Terror”.
well, right now i stand to cast my vote for John McCain, he may be a sellout, but he is a leather tough vet. and while Ron Paul supports what Ron Paul supports, i supported going into Afganistan to hunt Al Q. not take over the damn country.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 11:09 AM
the un is running the afghan outfit right now, not us…
drift on April 25, 2008 at 11:11 AM
Time to blockade North Korea and inspect every incoming or outgoing ship.
Jaibones on April 25, 2008 at 11:14 AM
then why did the surviving crew members of the USS Liberty say on camera, that the colors were flying? when they called for help from a nearby aircraft carrier, why after the jets took off, were they orderd to return? and NSA tapes listining from a spy plane pick up the Isreali pilots telling their controllers repeatedly that they could see it was an American ship in international waters.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Makes you wonder how the decision making process in Syria works. You have to be pretty stupid to try to build a nuclear reactor 125 miles from the Wailing Wall. What the hell did they think was going to happen to it?
Limerick on April 25, 2008 at 11:26 AM
RMC,
“why does it take a more than a decade to retaliate against Iraq for firing on our aircraft?”
That is a valid question; just don’t start the discussion off with a lie about “no shots fired.”
exhelodrvr on April 25, 2008 at 11:32 AM
Well Ric, The US while bieng one of the stars of the play, is of course not the only participant. but as we are all imperfect, we therefore have an imperfect country, with imperfect leaders. me saying the US leadership fugedup isn’t an indictment against the nation itself, but is my expression of frustration visa vi past events.
of course war exists without US involvement, but not for long.
i don’t know why one would give money to people attacking other people for thier money, but i would certaintly be opposed to such efforts.
regards, Robert.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 11:32 AM
man, it’s not easy defending yourself from all sides
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 11:33 AM
people like RMC1618 can read facts all day and it never penetrates the thickness of their Dhimmitude.
kirkill on April 25, 2008 at 11:35 AM
“why does it take a more than a decade to retaliate against Iraq for firing on our aircraft?”
Because President Clinton was too busy with his own personal pleasures at the time.
kirkill on April 25, 2008 at 11:36 AM
Because President Clinton was too busy with his own personal pleasures at the time.
he was firing his own shots you could say…
drift on April 25, 2008 at 11:38 AM
But…but…it’s Friday…
Connie on April 25, 2008 at 11:39 AM
why exactly did we wait 25+ years to strike back?
i don’t even know where you’r coming from with that.
I agree.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 11:39 AM
well, Kirkill, i don’t know what “Dhimmitude” means, but i’m sure it’s frightining.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 11:43 AM
Huh?
Wow. Are you already forgetting what you typed a little over an hour ago?
Chuckie on April 25, 2008 at 11:59 AM
To borrow a line from Power Line
A message is hidden because RMC1618 is being ignored.
You seem to forget that in 1998, the Clinton Justice Department, in their indictment of bin Laden, specifically stated that he and Iraq were working together.
Del Dolemonte on April 25, 2008 at 11:59 AM
alright, it’s hard to type in a saractic tone. looks like i gave people too much credit.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Worth repeating, care to retract some of your statements RMC?
right2bright on April 25, 2008 at 12:02 PM
He then proceded to do what with this information?
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 12:03 PM
Since Syria and Iran are allies, the real question is, what have the North Koreans done for the Iranian nuclear and missile programs?
NNtrancer on April 25, 2008 at 12:04 PM
NO, because it’s not the war “against” Afganistan, it’s not the war “with” Afganistan, it’s the war “in” Afganistan. does anyone else here think that we could have done a more efficient job of hunting Al Q. with special forces, Delta forces and other tactical teams instead of a massive ground invasion? “Here we are Osama!, we’re coming, just hold on over there”
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 12:08 PM
It will take billions and billons of dollars and millions of man hours to get that question answered. Not that it should, just that it will. We have to let the international community do what it does best, nothing.
Limerick on April 25, 2008 at 12:10 PM
I’d guess, from the USS Liberty rant, that RMC is a standard Bircher anti-semitic isolationist ( the type that gravitates towards the LP because they don’t have the sense to kick them out ).
He’s kinda lost at sea since Paul has pretty much given it up.
Will we get a Troofer rant next?
Kristopher on April 25, 2008 at 12:22 PM
The big problem is that we as a western culture do not understand how they even think. Things that are “common sense” and reasonable to us have a completely different connotation over there.
That being said I don’t think small special forces actions would work over there. As we have seen in the past:
1. They think bombs and cruise missiles from afar are cowardly and such tactics are dishonorable and deserve derision.
2. The common folk over ther are more than willing to sell our small forces down the river to the Taliban/AQ because they know the baddies are there in force and will enforce their edicts with lethal effeciency.
The only way to make this work is to convince them that we are there in force and will do more than pass through, burn their crop, and move along. They know that the Taliban/AQ can backfill any area we pass through, unless we have enough forces there to keep them from coming out of the mountains and taking over en masse.
What we should be doing is to give them a legal method for selling their crop (opium, which could be used to make medicinal morphine the wrold over), instead of burning their fields and saying “sucks to be you.”
Once they have a method of making some money and actually have something worth saving/fighting for, I believe they will come around. Long story short, you cannot do that kind of stuff with small units of SF
dvldog1142 on April 25, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Anything to keep the weaponry of the Apocalypse out of the hands of fatalistically demented and theocratically deranged.
profitsbeard on April 25, 2008 at 12:50 PM
anti-semitic? alright @sshole, now you’ve slanderd me, and i’m not going to take your shiz. for whatever reason you think the testimony of the USS liberty crew members are “my opinion” or “made up” that’s fine, i don’t care. you can call me a “troofer (whatever that is) a moron, a clown, a cretin, it’s ok i’m tough enought to shrug it off. but the minute you start throwing around names like “anti-semitc” or “racist”, or “bigoted”(i know you didn’t call me those other names , i’m usnig them as synonomous references) that’s when i get pissed off.
i don’t know what a Bircher is, or what “the LP” is, and i don’t care. and since the past year, i’ve never been more land-locked and sober.
So, since i don’t know you, i’m not going to call you any of those mean names, like the one you “guessed” i might be. i know you feel comfortable here on Hot Air when you have everybody else here ganging up on me, regardless of the many times i’ve kept within the “accepted views and opinions”. and the second i dissent, they turn on me like a pack of starved cannibals.
and i’ve seen it before, one person posts a statement that many of the others disagree with, and instead of offering intelligent, persuasive counter arguments, they just call them names and dismiss them. and i’ll concede this that that is not a common occurance, but i’ve seen it before, and now it’s my turn.
So Kristopher, be carefull, don’t let them smell blood, or they’ll be on you like Jeramia Wright on a Spike Lee movie. if you have an opinion that you know might get you ganged-up on, hide it, keep it secret.
Follow the herd mentality Kristopher, it’s so much easier that way.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 12:59 PM
alright dvldog1142, i accept your counter argument, so i offer my response:
don’t care. and that’s just my opinion.
at the same time, it’s not our fault their culture hasn’t evolved to the 21st century. and i think attacks on civilians are cowardly, dishonorable, and deserve derision. that dosen’t seem to stop them.
if the common folk over there have found out our special and Delta forces, then something is already wrong.
So then it dosen’t end, we come in, and just occupie until local forces are willing and able to take the mission. which leads to the other questions: how long would it take for the local forces to be willing and able enough to take the mission? and, is the end result justified by the loss of American blood and treasure?
and on those two questions, reasonable people can disagree.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 1:17 PM
You don’t appear to know about many things pertinent to the topic(s) at hand–not even the ones you bring up yourself.
baldilocks on April 25, 2008 at 1:27 PM
so Baldi wants some too.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Hmmm … not cluefull enough to be a Paul’tard or a Bircher.
Lunatic, or a troll I guess.
Either way, not worth bothering with any further.
Kristopher on April 25, 2008 at 2:04 PM
I apologize for the “lunatic” ad-homimun.
I will stand behind the rest of my statement.
Kristopher on April 25, 2008 at 2:22 PM
oh no, you’re not getting away that easy. i will not stand to be called an anti-semite, or tolerate your godamn condescension. i was fine defending my stances, but when i was attacked personally, it pissed me off. and when a bunch of faceless posters ganged-up on me, it was revealing. i’ve been coming to Hot Air for more than a year, and though the character assassination of people who disagree wasn’t new, i never realized the frustration and anger that comes with being the subject of one of these “bull-pins”.
the gang mentality is powerful, you Kristopher, could not resist.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Even Sun Tzu demonstrated the importance of knowing as much as you can about your enemy. If you can learn to understand how your enemy thinks, you can put yourself in his place and then try to predict his actions. Ignorance is not bliss, it is deadly.
The purpose of SF units is to train indigenous personnel (common folk) to fight the enemy. This was the mission conceived by JFK to allow multiplication of forces. You have to coordinate with the people to achieve this mission, which necessitates contact with them. If they see the Taliban/AQ as the more steady (albeit dangerous and controlling) influence in the region, they will continue to sell us out. I am not saying send in a million troops for 1000 years, but they need to have confidence in us to help.
Once again, not an occupation until they can build up forces, but a mission that allows for the people to have a stake in our success. If our success means to them that they have no livelihood (opium growing for now), then they have no incentive to help. As I heard in another article today “you can’t eat or drink freedom.” So we need to either find a way for their present crop to be utilized better, or help them transition to a new crop. They need to want us to succeed. I know this sounds a bit pie in the sky, but we need long term thinking to solve this.
dvldog1142 on April 25, 2008 at 3:08 PM
I guess planes crashing into buildings don’t count as shots in your universe, huh, genius? Nor do SAM-sites locking radars on American planes in No-Fly zones?
Virus-X on April 25, 2008 at 3:14 PM
You can’t insert a bunch of Special Forces groups on their own, hundreds of miles (at least) from any support, and expect them to do that kind of work, unless they have the support of the locals.
Which they wouldn’t have had yet right after 9/11.
exhelodrvr on April 25, 2008 at 3:19 PM
- because we didn’t want to rush into war? ;-)
kcluva on April 25, 2008 at 3:35 PM
so Iraq and Afganistan hijacked four commercial airlines and crashed them into WTC 1&2, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania? i thought it was rouge Islamic terrorists? that’s what the official story is right?
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 4:32 PM
and why were our planes in No-Fly zones anyways?
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 4:33 PM
good points, and i concede my using of the Special forces. but i stand by my using of Delta, and other teams that we’re not supposed to know about. but i still ask myself the question: is our role in Afganistan (however subsidised by the UN[useless nations] may be) worth our continued American blood and treasure.
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Uh, the “no-fly-zones” were established to deter Saddam’s military, not ours.
Me thinks you aren’t quite getting it, the Taliban (the ruling entity of Afghanistan at the time) is an ally of AQ and the Taliban allowed AQ to setup camps, train, plan, and execute its jihad (in particular 9-11) from Afghanistan with the blessings of the Taliban, therefore the Taliban (the ruling entity in Afghanistan) was complicit.
In addition the US gave the ruling Taliban an ultimatum, turn in Osama and AQ or we will attack you, the currently recognized government entity in Afghanistan that is supporting AQ. Perhaps the Taliban shouldn’t have called out bluff, but they did and they got their arses kicked.
Now what remains to be done is trying to lead a country (that has known nothing but war for several decades) down the path of freedom and democracy, something that takes a lot of time and effort to achieve especially for a country with Afghanistan’s history.
He did just whatCarter did, absolutely nothing! That’s the problem, when you don’t stand up to a tyrant or stand up to evil it only makes the evil stronger and because of the pacifistic ideology of Carter and Clinton we are now having to deal with Iran and its mad Mullahs and the Mad Mullahs are on the brink of having a nuclear weapon! If that fact doesn’t frighten you and that fact is not enough for you to consider the option of attacking Iran or Syria before they hitus with a nuke then you are not facing reality.
Personally, I’d rather my government attack first and be proved wrong about Iran developing nukes instead of being proven right when the the Mad Mullahs hit us first and one of our cities is destroyed under a mushroom cloud!
Liberty or Death on April 25, 2008 at 7:16 PM
If anyone you love lives in Damascus, I’d warn them to leave that city.
Red Pill on April 26, 2008 at 6:11 AM
i thought it was rouge Islamic terrorists?
RMC1618 on April 25, 2008 at 4:32 PM
?????????????????????????????????
jerrytbg on April 26, 2008 at 5:07 PM
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