Posted on 10/28/2008 8:59:07 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Publicly America is still saying nothing but US officials are making intriguing claims off the record.
Now, a respected Israeli intelligence expert says he has been told the operation was carried out with the knowledge and co-operation of Syrian intelligence.
Ronen Bergman, author of The Secret War with Iran, makes the claim in the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper, based on briefings with two senior American officials, one of whom he says until recently "held a very high ranking in the Pentagon".
Mr Bergman told Sky News the raid happened after America had lobbied Syria intensely to deal with an al Qaeda group conducting activity on the border.
The Syrians were unwilling to be seen publicly bowing to US pressure to tackle the group, he says, but in the end gave the Americans the green light to do so themselves.
He claims the Syrian government told the Americans: "If you want to do this, do it. We are going to give you a corridor and carte blanche. We will not harm your troops."
Mr Bergman maintains Syrian intelligence has been co-operating secretly with its US counterpart for some time in its war with al Qaeda.
There are several unanswered questions about the mysterious raid. In particular why it happened with very little apparent resistance by Syrian forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
A new twist on the week end raid .
Too good to check: Syria greenlit U.S. raid on Al Qaeda capo?
What are the chances they would have made the deal with the community organizer? No, they would have told him to pound sand. Weakness is never respected.
BTTT !!!
Heh heh heh. It’s too bad Bush didn’t have another year. I would have liked to have seen how this turned out. If Che Gueverra Jr. is elected we’ll never know.
The One will indeed be tough--on Israel. Syria will say "give us the Golan and we'll abandon Hizbollah", and Obama will make it so. Then, "surprisingly", Syria will not abandon Hizbollah.
I have no doubt there was a lot of winking going on.
We didn't take Syria off the Axis of Evil list for nothing.
yitbos
Hmmm...odd
Syria does what every terror-funding regime does; export terror worldwide, but crack down on it within their own borders, to save their own butts from the trouble they help create. Iran exports terror, but arrests members of the internal Sunni terrorist group Jundallah. Saudi Arabia exports terror, and only cracks down on terrorists when they threaten the oilfields or internal targets. Russia exports terror, but fights the Chechen rebels. Syria exports terror, but let us expel these AQ scum from this village. None of these regimes are truly anti-terror; they just want to keep themselves alive if they want to keep promoting terror.
This is pretty extraordinary is true. This will be one of the few ways that Syria has co-operated in the WOT, that the know of, and signals that intelligence agencies may be co-operating, if even at a very crude and rudimentary level. However, this is probably how Libya got started with it’s 180 on the WOT and WMD.
Iraq's outrage at the raid into Syria seemed to have all the sincerity of Captain Renault's shock, shock at finding gambling in Casablanca.
I think an investigation is needed!
We may be getting similiar green lights from the Pakistan government with very precise and real time intel along with GPS locations.
After we kill some top level camel buggering Talibani in Pakistan, the Paki leaders complain about another evil American raid on the innocent wedding parties and day care centers.
This is, however, an illustration of why formal terrorist organizations have so come to depend on sanctuary provided them by international law. That imaginary borderline in the desert (and a paucity of local Syrian security forces) enabled these men to operate blatantly in the open, so much so that they became vulnerable when those borders were violated, if "violated" is even the correct term.
There is a certain frustration inherent in being a beneficiary made publicly into a bad guy. That has, heretofore, been a price of power projection (and a useful stick to beat Bush with) but will go away with the advent of an administration more sensitive to public relations. This happened during the Clinton administration (and before that, Carter's, for exactly the same reason), with lasting damage to the intelligence community in both cases.
Interesting feedback from hotair. It could simply be as simple as was stated. Assad has long held he has enough problems just trying to stay in power. Syria is a boiling pot of all kinds of radicalism. And there are a lot of people that would not weep if the little Lion was done away with.
There are several unanswered questions about the mysterious raid. In particular why it happened with very little apparent resistance by Syrian forces.That's a terrible calumny of Syrian armed forces! Of *course* they're always ready to defend their native soil. Of course, when the shooting starts, and they're facing Israel or the US, most of the native soil is in their khakis. ;') Thanks Ernest.
I know you are right about this...wheels within wheels... survival of self is paramount... Syria is no differant... the most powerful will destroy those who do their dirty work and are no longer needed... AQ is headed for the trash heap... Bush sure helped in getting them there..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.