Israel Strike Syrian Nuke Facilities?

Some people seek to only entertain, others to inform. Me, i like to just write about what matters to me, because what the heck, I'm the editor of this space, right?? (At least until yahoo yanks it)

So some of my commenters think blogs should be "meaty" or substantial...opinions that are just as valid as any other.

Others think that only reminiscence is of value, which certainly is true of me, i admit... I look at this as a experiment in open dialog diarist ...no secret book locked in a drawer, only whatever anonymity the Internet provides, which is really zero.

So with out further introduction by me, here is a story that I do think warrants more exploration, but our media seems to have down played it..

Israel Strike Syrian Nuke Facilities?

"IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15-I's[see photo above] crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way.

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.

According to Israeli sources, preparations for the attack had been going on since late spring, when Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, presented Olmert with evidence that Syria was seeking to buy a nuclear device from North Korea.

The Israeli spy chief apparently feared such a device could eventually be installed on North-Korean-made Scud-C missiles.

“This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel,” said an Israeli source. “We’ve known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can’t live with a nuclear warhead.”

An expert on the Middle East, who has spoken to Israeli participants in the raid, told yesterday’s Washington Post that the timing of the raid on September 6 appeared to be linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying North Korean material labelled as cement but suspected of concealing nuclear equipment.

According to an Israeli air force source, the Israeli satellite Ofek 7, launched in June, was diverted from Iran to Syria. It sent out high-quality images of a northeastern area every 90 minutes, making it easy for air force specialists to spot the facility.

The triangular relationship between North Korea, Syria and Iran continues to perplex intelligence analysts. Syria served as a conduit for the transport to Iran of an estimated £50m of missile components and technology sent by sea from North Korea. The same route may be in use for nuclear equipment.

But North Korea is at a sensitive stage of negotiations to end its nuclear programme in exchange for security guarantees and aid, leading some diplomats to cast doubt on the likelihood that Kim would cross America’s “red line” forbidding the proliferation of nuclear materials.

Christopher Hill, the State Department official representing America in the talks, said on Friday he could not confirm “intelligence-type things”, but the reports underscored the need “to make sure the North Koreans get out of the nuclear business”.

By its actions, Israel showed it is not interested in waiting for diplomacy to work where nuclear weapons are at stake.

As a bonus, the Israelis proved they could penetrate the Syrian air defence system, which is stronger than the one protecting Iranian nuclear sites.

This weekend President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran sent Ali Akbar Mehrabian, his nephew, to Syria to assess the damage. The new “axis of evil” may have lost one of its spokes."

I thought these comments on the story priceless:

"World War Three has started then..."

(Zened, London)

No Zened ! WW 3 started 9/11... You forget it ??

Michel Jutharat, Marseilles, France

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

OK, so the British press is all over this story, and then I found this article, dated from July 2007:

WASHINGTON — The United States has approved an Israeli request for "accelerated deliveries" of precision-guided air munitions to Israel.

On Monday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat said the U.S. Air Force would transfer the GBU-28 bunker-busters to Israel. The newspaper said the air force would take bombs stored in Central Command headquarters in Qatar. The GBU-28 is a 5,000-pound laser-guided bomb intended to destroy concrete bunkers. This was Israel's first purchase of the GBU-28, meant for deployment on Israel's F-15I fleet.

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2453941.072222222.html

OKie dokie...so the Israeli's already had F15's, and then we provided bunker busters in July, and then there is some practice flights to make sure the pilots know how the planes handle with the new ordnance hung, and then..Oh, we're surprised they used em??