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Nuclear Materials vs. Non-Fissionable

There’s two ways you could look at this story. It could screw an Israeli spy.  Or, it could screw eveyone that had anything to do with that site, as they get hauled in for special attention. That sounds good, meanwhile, you can occupy yourself trying to figure why reports that are entirely opposed in all details keep coming out about this raid. ABC:  

Israeli officials believed that a target their forces bombed inside Syria last month was a nuclear facility, because they had detailed photographs taken by a possible spy inside the complex, ABC News has learned.

The Bush administration has steadfastly refused to say anything about the Israeli raid on Syria, or to confirm what was hit. But ABC News has learned of the apparent mole and other dramatic and secret details about the events leading up to the airstrike, plus the evidence that supported it.

A senior U.S. official told ABC News the Israelis first discovered a suspected Syrian nuclear facility early in the summer, and the Mossad — Israel’s intelligence agency – managed to either co-opt one of the facility’s workers or to insert a spy posing as an employee.

As a result, the Israelis obtained many detailed pictures of the facility from the ground.

Curiously, the ABC article says no commando raid, no fissionable material on the site, America urged Israel not to attack.  This Times of London article last month said commando raid brought back NK nuke material, and America approved the attack. Entirely opposed articles, though I suppose that depends on what your definitions of “fissionable,” “nuclear material” and “commando raid,” “urged not to” and “approved” are.  Either that, or someone’s messing with someone.  Question is: who, with whom, to what end? A number of possibilities, from Washington seeking cover to Israel wanting to keep the Syrians guessing and maybe make the Syrians go after their own nuke team while they’re at it.*  Or maybe they just like making up stories to tell the Brits, to see who’s chatty and how chatty they are. Or all of the above. Both articles talk about North Korean involvement, so the K’s aren’t getting anything out of this. Meanwhile, as you’ll recall, stories out of the other side keep changing, too.  Your favorite theory in comments, please.

*An earlier Raddatz report said the Israelis took satellite pics and showed them to the Americans.  This one says Israelis got ground shots, Americans got satellite shots.  Maybe some genius at Mossad decided to make good on a missed opportunity to mess with the Syrians’ minds.

Topics: Israel, Syria

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:02 am on Saturday, October 20, 2007

7 Responses to “Nuclear Materials vs. Non-Fissionable”

1. AW1 Tim Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 10:07 am

   Well,

   My theory is that the Syrian site was a processing facility for the iranian nuclear weapons program. It’s a LOT easier to bring these materials into Syria via the Mediteranean than up into I ran through the gulf. fewer US Navy ships, prying eyes, etc.

   Plus, Iran gets it’s facilities dispersed making it harder to locate and take down everything. It’s like a cancer mestastisizing. Anyway, once the material is ready, it would be quite easy to transport it to Iran via air or sea.

   The other option, of course, is that it might have been an assembly facility for Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Ira nian nuclear material and other components could be shipped out of Iran and eventually to Syria, where they could be assembled into weapons and thence used when Iran thinks best.

   With Hezzbollah close by for support, it might be a nasty surprise to both Israel and the west to find the first nuclear attacks by the mad mullahs coming from an unexpected quarter.

   respects,

2. Grimmy Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 10:45 am

   Regardless of what was at that site, this report by ABC probably got someone and that someone’s family rounded up and slammed into prison to await execution.

   No offense meant to you Jules, but when journalists play this game they and theirs should face the same as what they so blithely put onto others.

   Even if ABC made it all up, which I have no real doubt that they did in fact do, someone probably died for it.

   And, in the passing of time, if we do find that some poor schmoe of a Syrian was made to play the goat on this by the willy nilly spouting of the reporter and editors at ABC, then charges should be levied against them and all who had part in producing the story.

   Blood for blood. Too many journalists have gotten a free ride for too long and too many now exist only as blood sucking parasites.

3. RebeccaH Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 11:46 am

   I believe it will be years (maybe more than I have left) before the truth about what really happened comes out. It doesn’t matter to me, as long as Syrian and Iranian nuclear and/or bioweapon capabilities were squelched. I hope the spy or spies wasn’t compromised, but I don’t care what happens to Syrian or Iranian scientists, as they are actively working to develop weapons against us.

4. sarah rolph Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 12:06 pm

   I have to agree with Grimmy that a responsible news organization would not include this information.

   Tim’s theory makes sense. I bet we know which one of those it was. The President doesn’t completely shut up about something like this for no reason. It makes sense that this was a serious military operation. Which is potentially quite comforting.

   Here’s my wishful thinking: The Rice mission was window-dressing; she dropped by Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon on the way home and let them know they would be hearing from Mr. Cheney again soon. The US takes military action in Lebanon, eliminating the Hezbollah strongholds and the weapons in the Bekkaa Valley. (The Iranians asked for a proxy war, let them have it, but on the losing end. ) While we are in Lebanon the Israelis take out Hamas. Gaza is reannexed to Egypt and part of the West Bank is reannexed to Jordan. France and Russia quietly modify their trade with Iran to exclude the most dangerous items, and the Iranian “nuclear power” project is scrapped by the newly elected leaders of Iran in favor of an oil deal with Free Iraq. Syria, as usual, is left to twist in the wind… nobody seems to have a good fairy tale for poor Syria (with the possible exception of Nancy Pelosi).

   These days the diplomat scenes from The Hunt for Red October keep coming to mind. (”You lost track of *another* submarine?!”)

5. sarah rolph Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

   I agree with Rebecca that the important thing is to take out the threat, not to find out right away what really happened (although I do enjoy speculation, as you can see, and I enjoy reading Jules’s speculations).

   I find myself in rare disagreement with Rebecca about the fate of Syrian and Iranian scientists. I care about them. They are people, and many of them are probably not working on those weapons systems out of choice. In a repressive regime one doesn’t just say, sorry, I’d rather study food science. I think the proper focus should be on toppling the political class. It’s a terrible thing if civilians have to die. Even the military personnel in some of these countries are little more than slaves, as we have seen in some of the pitiful engagements in which they surrendered en masse.

   I think it is proper to extend the benefit of the doubt to all humans, until proven otherwise, that they would rather be on our side if they could, the side of freedom and reverence for life.

6. A Blog For All Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 12:47 pm

   A Crack in Wall of Silence on Israeli Airstrike

   No one wants to provide too many details about how the Israelis knew that this was a nuclear facility, although this report suggests it was because the Israelis had a man on the inside who not only provided details, but photographs. If this is all tr…

7. Purple Avenger Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

   50:50 the mole story intentionally originates with Mossad. Nothing like a nice paranoid faux mole hunt to keep the Syrians occupied for a while gazing at each others navels looking for that which doesn’t exist.

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