That Israeli Air Strike....

[Roscoe]

‘So close to war’

We came so close to World War Three that day

James Forsyth and Douglas Davis
Wednesday, 3rd October 2007

On 6 September, when Israel struck a nuclear facility in Syria

A meticulously planned, brilliantly executed surgical strike by Israeli jets on a nuclear installation in Syria on 6 September may have saved the world from a devastating threat. The only problem is that no one outside a tight-lipped knot of top Israeli and American officials knows precisely what that threat involved.

Even more curious is that far from pushing the Syrians and Israelis to war, both seem determined to put a lid on the affair. One month after the event, the absence of hard information leads inexorably to the conclusion that the implications must have been enormous.

That was confirmed to The Spectator by a very senior British ministerial source: ‘If people had known how close we came to world war three that day there’d have been mass panic. Never mind the floods or foot-and-mouth — Gordon really would have been dealing with the bloody Book of Revelation and Armageddon.’

According to American sources, Israeli intelligence tracked a North Korean vessel carrying a cargo of nuclear material labelled ‘cement’ as it travelled halfway across the world. On 3 September the ship docked at the Syrian port of Tartous and the Israelis continued following the cargo as it was transported to the small town of Dayr as Zawr, near the Turkish border in north-eastern Syria.

The destination was not a complete surprise. It had already been the subject of intense surveillance by an Israeli Ofek spy satellite, and within hours a band of elite Israeli commandos had secretly crossed into Syria and headed for the town. Soil samples and other material they collected there were returned to Israel. Sure enough, they indicated that the cargo was nuclear.

Three days after the North Korean consignment arrived, the final phase of Operation Orchard was launched. With prior approval from Washington, Israeli F151 jets were scrambled and, minutes later, the installation and its newly arrived contents were destroyed.

So secret were the operational details of the mission that even the pilots who were assigned to provide air cover for the strike jets had not been briefed on it until they were airborne. In the event, they were not needed: built-in stealth technology and electronic warfare systems were sophisticated enough to ‘blind’ Syria’s Russian-made anti-aircraft systems.

What was in the consignment that led the Israelis to mount an attack which could easily have spiralled into an all-out regional war? It could not have been a transfer of chemical or biological weapons; Syria is already known to possess the most abundant stockpiles in the region. Nor could it have been missile delivery systems; Syria had previously acquired substantial quantities from North Korea. The only possible explanation is that the consignment was nuclear.

If Israel’s military strike on Dayr as Zawr last month was surgical, so, too, was its handling of the aftermath. The only certainty in the fog of cover-up is that something big happened on 6 September — something very big. At the very least, it illustrates that WMD and rogue states pose the single greatest threat to world peace. We may have escaped from this incident without war, but if Iran is allowed to continue down the nuclear path, it is hard to believe that we will be so lucky again.

Finish your assignment: (3 pages) http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magaz...that-day.thtml

[Ron61]

Roscoe,

Last night on the History Channel they had a segment that was shown for the first time. It showed the site before the bomb raid with the big building that was a nuclear reactor and after the Syrians had time to clean up the rubble. The satellite photo almost made the ground around where the reactor had been look like glass.

Ron

[Roscoe]

[Ron61]

Thats the pictures the TV showed. Looks as if they did a good job.

Ron

[427 S/O]

Either that bomb reduces everything to 'dust' or, it's before the structure was built?. The former I hope....

[Ron61]

Perry,

The big square in the first picture was the big building that housed the materials. I think the Syrians cleaned up the rubble from the way the TV show talked about it. It seems they have some in between pictures but won't release them.

Ron

[Roscoe]

New commercial satellite photos show that a Syrian site believed to have been attacked by Israel last month no longer bears any obvious traces of what some analysts said appeared to have been a partly built nuclear reactor.

Two photos, taken Wednesday from space by rival companies, show the site near the Euphrates River to have been wiped clean since August, when imagery showed a tall square building there measuring about 150 feet on a side.

The Syrians reported an attack by Israel in early September; the Israelis have not confirmed that. Senior Syrian officials continue to deny that a nuclear reactor was under construction, insisting that Israel hit a largely empty military warehouse.

But the images, federal and private analysts say, suggest that the Syrian authorities rushed to dismantle the facility after the strike, calling it a tacit admission of guilt.

"It's a magic act — here today, gone tomorrow," a senior intelligence official said. "It doesn't lower suspicions; it raises them. This was not a long-term decommissioning of a building, which can take a year. It was speedy. It's incredible that they could have gone to that effort to make something go away."

[Roscoe]

I wonder how much radiation exposure the workmen had?????

Roscoe

[bomelia]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

I wonder how much radiation exposure the workmen had?????

Roscoe

Been wondering the same thing... if the strike was based on soil samples, then that are has got to be off limits for a long time. Also, so close to the river means its got to seep into the environment.

Mike

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by Roscoe

I wonder how much radiation exposure the workmen had?????

Roscoe

I thought the nuclear material was seized before the bombing...

( Israelis Bomb Nuke Site??? )

If there was much nuclear material present during bombing we might otherwise expect the Chernobyl effect.


...

[VRM]

Originally Posted by Wes Tausend

I thought the nuclear material was seized before the bombing...

( Israelis Bomb Nuke Site??? )

If there was much nuclear material present during bombing we might otherwise expect the Chernobyl effect.


...

It only takes about 150 pounds of U235 to have critical mass. It is quite possible that an Israeli strike team carried it out. Creating 150 pounds of U235 is another question. It takes years operating a few thousand centrifuges to get that. Iran has announced (and the IAEA has verified) that they have enriched to about 3-4%. 5-6% is ideal for power reactors. You need about 90% to get a bomb.

Steve

[bomelia]

Hmm, If they were up to "peaceful" things, they would have had photographs of people wearing "baby milk" shirts doing the cleanup. No, this was something nefarious. Israel would have been blasted in the UN.

Nope. Syria was up to something.

Mike

[Ron61]

Probably hiding the nuclear bomb that North Korea sent them.

Ron