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

[Walkingfeather]

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

This is the other quote I would love to hear the Who What where why and especially.... HOW?

[txhurl]

We’ve been following this for about a week, but the nuke angle is kinda new.

[sofaman]

the lack of information too is remarkable. I read that the IAF flew in from 2 directions.,...across Syria, jamming the Syrians' Russian made Pantsyr-S1 air defense missile system, and across Turkey.

Your point re. the Saudis etc is well taken. There is no love lost at present by Egypt, Jordan and the Saudis for Syria, since Assad started playing footsie with AquaVelvanijad. This may account for the crickets chirping.

I sure hope that you're right that we may begin making high impact surgical strikes in the near future. And I agree with your assessment of the impact of such strikes.

I can tell you that the Israelis have made enormous changes within the military establishment. They are not the same IDF that lurched through the last Hizbollah campaign.

Interestingly, they (the IDF) have had a surge in the number of Israelis who have signed up as career military, especially among the more religious Israelis, which is an interesting trend. This indicates an understanding, particularly among the Orthodox community of the dangers Israel is facing.

Additionally, many of this new influx have volunteered for Special Forces.

The chain of command has been totally retooled, training has been stepped up, training procedures have been corrected. The Israelis have not been messing around.

The smartest thing that they have done is to bring Barak in as Defense Minister. He's a schmuck politically, but he is enormously savvy militarily.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Suspicious lack of complaints -— frommany quarters.

But - IF - the commando team failed, or if they were cqptured or the planes were shot down, then we’d have heard about it certainly.

So, perhaps it is a success.

[bruinbirdman]

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

The Rooskies have a deal to sell about 50 new anti-aircraft systems to Syria. Iran has a deal to get 10 of those from Syria.

In any event, if the Syrians have any of them operable, I guess Iran has just learned what their value is.

yitbos

[jeltz25]

We can observe and listen all we want but if the Shahab bases, the IRGC bases, the nuke facilities, the sub bases, the naval assets, etc... are all still there what good does it do us?

There comes a time when you have to stop watching and start acting

The other positive is that that can all be done with virtually no casualties and much higher public support

[sofaman]

"In any event, if the Syrians have any of them operable, I guess Iran has just learned what their value is."

They're all operational. And they're worth bupkes, apparently.

[sofaman]

Agree totally. The time to act is now.

[miele man]

Perhaps a HALO jump, e.g., high altitude, low opening parachute jump.

[Southack]

It wasn’t nuclear.

We’ve been tracking and boarding all ships from North Korea with suspicious cargos.

It was a No Dong missile base that was destroyed in Syria.

[jeltz25]

Having a guy who blasted his way through the streets of Beirut in a wig and a dress does tend to make one go for the gusto.

I thought given Gates’ CIA background he might be more apt for this, but he was in the DI and I guess has no zeal for the game.

Unfortunately for the IDF, Olmert is still in charge. Someone who takes a month to mobilize 30,000 guys, who keeps tens of thousands of troops mulling about on the border, who sends in battalion and brigade sized incursions, etc...

I’ve always felt that regardless of US action against Iran, Israel will never let them go nuclear. The difference is that Israel is probably limited to an Osirak like strike that takes out 1 or 2 locations whereas the USAF and Navy can totally eliminate Iran’s military infrastructure in a matter of days.

[Bean Counter]

That’s the most comprehensive explanation I have seen to date on what might have happened. It’s troubling because we still don’t know exactly what the Syrians/NoKos/Mullahs were up to, and doubly troubling that the American Media is too busy trying to lose in Iraq to cover this...

[Fitzcarraldo]

Suspicious lack of complaints -— from many quarters

Sometimes there is no use complaining...when promises to come to mutual aid have been made...when frantic military preparations are underway...the arab neighbors of Israel certainly know the value of surprise by now...

[sofaman]

maybe...much trickier to extract, though... which makes this mission all the more intriguing..

Just as a thought...the target was in NE Syria...the shortest distance across Syria would be for the Shaldag commandos to enter Syria across the Iraq border....

Curiouser and curiouser...

[laxcoach]

Stuff like this reminds me of something I saw in the year or so after 9-11. At the time, I was monitoring the DOD solicitations for my business. One in particular caught my eye. I think it was one from DARPA, but I'm not positive.

The gyst of the solicitation was that they wanted proposals for research into systems that could detect nuclear material below X meters (I think X=30) from a satellite.

My mind immediately started spinning as to the implications of the wording. If we had nothing to detect nuclear material from a satellite already, it would have been "up to X meters." This specifically said "below X meters."

My point is that I have wondered since then if we monitor the globe for hot material and do what needs to be done. It's the stuff in bunkers, like in Iran, that frustrates our efforts.

[denydenydeny]

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.

Suggests a successful Israeli disninformation campaign.

[steel_resolve]

because they had a small force of israelis on ground they OWN the Syrians? I am as happy as the next guy that they did this, but let’s be realistic.

[17th Miss Regt]

Where were US planes that there could be some potential for mistaken attacks? Hmmmmm.

No surprise. The site was about 50 miles from the Iraqi border. A detection at long range with no satisfactory answer could lead to a long range engagement. Remember that the Phoenix missile could engage at greater than 50 miles.

[Talking_Mouse]

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

This is the other quote I would love to hear the Who What where why and especially.... HOW?

Neither of us need to know. However, in 20 years I would love to buy beers for someone who can tell the story.

[sofaman]

also crystallizes Russian intent...