Posted on 06/30/2006 2:03:26 PM PDT by wannabegeek
For the first time ever, the Israeli government is releasing top secret documents detailing the secret plans, strategies and implementation of their heralded raid on the Iraqi nuclear facility in 1981, one of the most daring and successful military strikes ever. Faced with a nuclear threat from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Israel resolved to eliminate a French-built, Baghdad-based reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium. Risking certain international condemnation and the loss of aid from the United States, the IDF utilized their eight newly delivered F-16 fighter jets to bomb the reactor in the heart of Baghdad. The story of the planning of the raid is just as gripping as the raid itself and includes tales of international spies, targeted assassinations, blackmail and prostitution – everything one would expect in a fictional spy novel, only this story is true.
Watch it online at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2295792449224502914
44 min. 18 sec. TRT.
No one.
Bump for later viewing.
We're getting close to the time when the New York Times will realize we're at war....
I think they already know.
They're fighting for the other side.
(((PING)))
I read a book on this raid, the prep/training the IDF did was amazing. I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the book.
I watched "Raid on the Reactor" last night. WOW!! It was one of the most amazing air strikes ever. BTW- one of the pilots on the reactor mission was the Israeli astronaut killed in the Columbia tragedy.
This book laid out almost every detail of the preparation for this attack. Very good read. I'm not sure what is in these newly released documents that's not already in this book.
A lot of the planning for this raid was how to get the F-16s to Iraq and back to Israel without running our of fuel. Radical measures were taken to strip weight etc. and even then the plant was barely in range.
Unless Israel has since developed air refueling capability the Iran nuclear sites are all out of range to the Israeli Air Force.
I'm almost ready to agree with you. Not quite, but almost.
Israel's Air Strike Against The Osiraq Reactor: A Retrospective
Most of Iran is within the strike radius of the recently delivered F-15I.
Furthermore to my prior reply, what if after their mission, rather than running out of fuel over hostile territory, the Israeli planes ditch at a pre-determined location in the Indian Ocean where an Israeli sub or ship will pick them up?
If IAF can retrofit F-16 with drappable external tank, they can also make their F-15I's to do aerial refueling with Gulfstream flying over Caspian Sea.
I don't think the IAF needs mid-air refueling for F-15I strikes at iran. The fuel problem is with earlier models of the F-15. I think the Israelis have developed their own F-16 variant capable of ranging over most of Iran.
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