Israelis ‘blew apart Syrian nuclear cache’(Israeli SpecOps was on the ground to direct bombing )

Times Online ^ | 09/16/05 | Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv, Sarah Baxter in Washington and Michael Sheridan

[TigerLikesRooster]

September 16, 2007

Israelis ‘blew apart Syrian nuclear cache’

Secret raid on Korean shipment

Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv, Sarah Baxter in Washington and Michael Sheridan

IT was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is 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.

The Israeli government was not saying. “The security sources and IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] soldiers are demonstrating unusual courage,” said Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. “We naturally cannot always show the public our cards.”

The Syrians were also keeping mum. “I cannot reveal the details,” said Farouk al-Sharaa, the vice-president. “All I can say is the military and political echelon is looking into a series of responses as we speak. Results are forthcoming.” The official story that the target comprised weapons destined for Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group, appeared to be crumbling in the face of widespread scepticism.

Andrew Semmel, a senior US State Department official, said Syria might have obtained nuclear equipment from “secret suppliers”, and added that there were a “number of foreign technicians” in the country.

Asked if they could be North Korean, he replied: “There are North Korean people there. There’s no question about that.” He said a network run by AQ Khan, the disgraced creator of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, could be involved.

But why would nuclear material be in Syria? Known to have chemical weapons, was it seeking to bolster its arsenal with something even more deadly?

Alternatively, could it be hiding equipment for North Korea, enabling Kim Jong-il to pretend to be giving up his nuclear programme in exchange for economic aid? Or was the material bound for Iran, as some authorities in America suggest?

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.

The target was identified as a northern Syrian facility that purported to be an agricultural research centre on the Euphrates river. Israel had been monitoring it for some time, concerned that it was being used to extract uranium from phosphates.

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.

Early in the summer Ehud Barak, the defence minister, had given the order to double Israeli forces on its Golan Heights border with Syria in anticipation of possible retaliation by Damascus in the event of air strikes.

Sergei Kirpichenko, the Russian ambassador to Syria, warned President Bashar al-Assad last month that Israel was planning an attack, but suggested the target was the Golan Heights.

Israeli military intelligence sources claim Syrian special forces moved towards the Israeli outpost of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. Tension rose, but nobody knew why.

At this point, Barak feared events could spiral out of control. The decision was taken to reduce the number of Israeli troops on the Golan Heights and tell Damascus the tension was over. Syria relaxed its guard shortly before the Israeli Defence Forces struck.

Only three Israeli cabinet ministers are said to have been in the know – Olmert, Barak and Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister. America was also consulted. According to Israeli sources, American air force codes were given to the Israeli air force attaché in Washington to ensure Israel’s F15Is would not mistakenly attack their US counterparts.

Once the mission was under way, Israel imposed draconian military censorship and no news of the operation emerged until Syria complained that Israeli aircraft had violated its airspace. Syria claimed its air defences had engaged the planes, forcing them to drop fuel tanks to lighten their loads as they fled.

But intelligence sources suggested it was a highly successful Israeli raid on nuclear material supplied by North Korea.

Washington was rife with speculation last week about the precise nature of the operation. One source said the air strikes were a diversion for a daring Israeli commando raid, in which nuclear materials were intercepted en route to Iran and hauled to Israel. Others claimed they were destroyed in the attack.

There is no doubt, however, that North Korea is accused of nuclear cooperation with Syria, helped by AQ Khan’s network. John Bolton, who was undersecretary for arms control at the State Department, told the United Nations in 2004 the Pakistani nuclear scientist had “several other” customers besides Iran, Libya and North Korea.

Some of his evidence came from the CIA, which had reported to Congress that it viewed “Syrian nuclear intentions with growing concern”.

“I’ve been worried for some time about North Korea and Iran outsourcing their nuclear programmes,” Bolton said last week. Syria, he added, was a member of a “junior axis of evil”, with a well-established ambition to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The links between Syria and North Korea date back to the rule of Kim Il-sung and President Hafez al-Assad in the last century. In recent months, their sons have quietly ordered an increase in military and technical cooperation.

Foreign diplomats who follow North Korean affairs are taking note. There were reports of Syrian passengers on flights from Beijing to Pyongyang and sightings of Middle Eastern businessmen from sources who watch the trains from North Korea to China.

On August 14, Rim Kyong Man, the North Korean foreign trade minister, was in Syria to sign a protocol on “cooperation in trade and science and technology”. No details were released, but it caught Israel’s attention.

Syria possesses between 60 and 120 Scud-C missiles, which it has bought from North Korea over the past 15 years. Diplomats believe North Korean engineers have been working on extending their 300-mile range. It means they can be used in the deserts of northeastern Syria – the area of the Israeli strike.

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.

[txhurl]

Thank you.

[BurbankKarl]

Dont you remember the posts on this and other sites about IMINENT ACTION by the IDF a bit ago? Talking about the farmes had all left the fields, etc.

[VeniVidiVici]

For once, Russia did the right thing by misleading Syria, albeit unintentionally.:-)

There were several articles posted here that said Israel was getting ready to attack Syria and pointed to the buildup at the Golan as proof.

Perhaps I should pay more attention to what some so readily discount.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

ping to #120...

[AmericanInTokyo]

A furious split is developing at the highest levels of the Bush Administration, with regard to this news. One side wants to "let is slide" because to raise a stink at this point in the game will essentially scuttle all the delicate, house-of-cards type "progress" that has been made with the DPRK over the past two years of outright appeasement and Six Party talks, and letting them repeatedly cross "Red Lines" without punishment.

Others, the "White Hats", however, see this recent IAF bombing of DPRK nukes in Syria (and I agree) as an EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO SCUTTLE ENTIRELY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S RECENT CLINTON-TYPE overtures and naive engagement of the DPRK, and move to cut Pyongyang off further.

One can expect quite a Monday morning in the President's national security briefing.

It will be interesting to see where President Bush himself ends up on it, for it will be his final decision. Whatever happens, the policy carried out in the next few days, weeks and months, will be based on his direct orders.

What approach and reaction will he take?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Correct. What they were reitereating were WP, Fox TV and Jerusalem Post story collage. I expect Chosun Ilbo to go with it soon, though, wouldn’t you agree, TLR??

[Fitzcarraldo]

Despite tensions, Israelis departing Golan Heights THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 30, 2007

JERUSALEM - The Israeli army has decided that war with Syria is unlikely and is rotating forces out of the contested Golan Heights after months of cross-border tension, security officials say.

The decision followed months of growing tensions along the frontier, a plateau on Israel's border with Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Speculation that Syria might initiate a war there was rooted in concerns that it had been emboldened by the performance of Lebanese guerrillas in their conflict with Israel last summer.

Media reports of impending war this summer alternated with announcements by Syrian and Israeli leaders that they had no interest in hostilities.

The Israeli security officials, who asked not to be identified, said Syria's military had reduced its war readiness, but offered no details because the exact steps taken by the Syrians were classified.

Israeli forces scheduled to hold maneuvers on the Golan Heights will now be moved away from that border to the country's south to further reduce friction, the officials said.

Israel captured the strategic heights in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed them. Israel and Syria haven't fought a war on the Golan since 1973. Syria has demanded that Israel return the heights in return for peace, but negotiations broke down in 2000 over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal.

Separately yesterday, three young Palestinian cousins were killed by Israeli ground forces in Gaza in what army officials said was an attack on rocket launchers aimed at southern Israel. The deaths could complicate peace efforts just a day after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met in Jerusalem. The Israeli army said it attacked people handling rocket launchers in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Syria 'fires on Israel warplanes'

Thursday, 6 September 2007, 16:25 GMT 17:25 UK

Syria 'fires on Israel warplanes'

Syria has said its air defences opened fire on Israeli warplanes after they violated its airspace in the north of the country.

Syrian officials said the defences forced the jets to drop ammunition over deserted areas and turn back, according to the official news agency, Sana.

Israel's military said it would not comment on the reports.

Israel and Syria remain technically at war and tensions between them have been rising in recent months.

The Syrian government has insisted that peace talks can be resumed only on the basis of Israel returning the Golan Heights, which it seized in 1967.

Israeli authorities, for their part, have demanded that Syria abandon its support for Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups before talks can begin.

The last peace talks between the two countries broke down in 2000.

'Enemy aircraft'

A Syrian military spokesman said the Israeli warplanes had flown into Syrian airspace at around 0100 local time on Thursday morning, Sana reported.

"The Israeli enemy aircraft infiltrated into the Arab Syrian territory through the northern border, coming from the Mediterranean heading toward the eastern region, breaking the sound barrier," he said.

They were then engaged by Syrian air defence forces in the Tall al-Abyad, an area 160km (100 miles) north of Raqqa and near the border with Turkey, witnesses said.

Israel in fact does not want peace - it cannot survive without aggression, treachery and military messages

New twist to Israel tensions

"Air defence units confronted them and forced them to leave after they dropped some ammunition in deserted areas without causing any human or material damage," the spokesman said.

Pilots sometimes jettison ammunition or extra fuel to make their aircraft lighter and easier to manoeuvre.

Syria's Information Minister, Mohsen Bilal, told al-Jazeera TV that his government was "seriously studying the nature of the response".

"Israel in fact does not want peace," he said. "It cannot survive without aggression, treachery and military messages."

Tensions

Officials in Damascus said Syrian forces last fired at Israeli warplanes in June 2006, when they flew over the summer residence of the Syrian president in Lattakia, while he was inside.

The Syrian armed forces have a wide array of anti-aircraft weapons

Over the past few months, the leaders of both countries have both stressed that they do not want war.

But both sides have also been preparing for possible conflict.

In June, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insisted his country did not want war with Syria, and that he had communicated this to Damascus through diplomatic channels.

He also repeated his warning that a "miscalculation" could spark hostilities between the two.

Mr Olmert's statement came after the Israeli military staged major exercises in the Golan Heights. Syria is also reported to have recently built up its armaments along the border.

[AmericanInTokyo]

One things is sure:

These Russkie made Pantsyr-S1E's sure bit the big one that day. Ha ha!!

[AmericanInTokyo]

German ships were said to have identified the IAF jets as they came in over the Meditteranean and entered Syrian airspace. Update.

[JSteff]

“Even the greens seem to be in league”

Yes but the “greens” is a cover name for leftists, socialist, and communists. They love algore and we know what a leftist/socialist he is.

[Tunehead54]

"On the ground, Syria’s formidable air defences went dead."

---

That's interesting - wonder if they're still dead? ;-)

[Fitzcarraldo]

At ‘0100 local time on Thursday morning’?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Tiger, check this latest update out, the gesseki Norkies are up to no good again, trying to cover their tracks"!!

Online databases tracking a ship reportedly flying a North Korean flag that docked in Syria have changed their records following a report in The Washington Post linking the alleged Israeli air strike in Syria to a North Korean shipment. Ronen Solomon, who searches information in the public domain for companies, told Haaretz he found references to a ship called Al Hamad on three different Web sites after the initial reports of the Israeli raid in Syria on September 6. These included the official sites of Syria's Tartous Port and the Egyptian Transportation Ministry. Two of the three sites said the ship was flying a North Korean flag, and the third site reported it was flying a South Korean flag. Haaretz confirmed Solomon's report.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Please scroll down to see TLR’s summary of it.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Well, that is what Der Speigel is saying. I will try to give a link.

[uglybiker]

It blowed up real good!
OOOOOOOWEEE!!

[Fitzcarraldo]

The Germans certainly could have heard the planes flying over at 0100 am, the time of entry reported in the Syrian press via BBC.

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20070906_syria_fires_on_israeli_jets/

[AmericanInTokyo]

The German ships were not just fishing trawlers, but sophisticated German intelligence ships, equipped with all necessary equipment, and part of a UN monitoring force, so they were bound to catch the 8 or so IAF aircraft going in to deliver their payloads.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Good info, thanks.