Real Time Discussion thread - Many things

[American Patriot]

Syria on Nuclear “Watch List,” U.S. Says



Syria might have sought out nuclear equipment from “secret suppliers” and is currently hosting North Koreans, a high-level U.S. nuclear nonproliferation official said today (see GSN, Sept. 13).


Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Semmel made the remarks while answering questions about Israeli air strikes inside Syria last week, the Associated Press reported. The Washington Post reported yesterday that North Korea might be helping Syria to build a nuclear facility.


“There are indicators that they do have something going on there,” said Semmel, who heads the department’s nuclear nonproliferation policy work.



“We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria. We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen.”


Washington has placed Damascus on its “watch list,” Semmel said.
“Good foreign policy, good national security policy, would suggest that we pay very close attention to that,” he said. “We're watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely.”


Semmel did not name potential nuclear suppliers, but he acknowledged that North Koreans are in Syria.


“There are North Korean people there. There's no question about that,” Semmel said when questioned on the possibility that Pyongyang was supplying the materials. “Just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran.”


Semmel also declined to rule out the possible involvement of the nuclear smuggling ring once led by top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea (Nicole Winfield, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 14).

[American Patriot]

I'm confused, is this NEW??? TODAY????

Russian Bombers Enter NATO Airspace



Russia sent at three military airplanes into NATO airspace today, prompting Norway and the United Kingdom to scramble jets to meet incoming aircraft, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Sept. 7).


Two Norwegian fighter jets and then British aircraft tracked two Russian Tu-160 long-range bombers that flew through NATO airspace, defense officials said.


Officials in Finland said a Russian Ilyushin-76 transport plane also spent about three minutes in Finnish airspace.


“These kinds of (violation) must not happen,” said Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. “And when they do happen, then they need to be sorted out between the countries in question.”


Russia announced last month that it would begin sending strategic bombers on long-range flights for the first time since the end of the Cold War (see GSN, Aug. 20). Several intercepts have occurred since August, one involving U.S. fighter jets based on the Pacific island of Guam.


“All flights of our strategic bombers have been conducted in accordance with international rules,” said Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, spokesman for the Russian air force. “Our planes have flown over neutral waters without approaching air borders of any foreign nation” (Raphael Satter, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Sept. 14).

[Ryan Ruck]

I'm confused, is this NEW??? TODAY????

Checking the link at the end of the article, it sure looks like it!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070914/...QrnoqkAn6s0NUE

But, the bomber part isn't what jumped out at me. This is:

Officials in Finland said a Russian Ilyushin-76 transport plane also spent about three minutes in Finnish airspace.

IL-76 means troops

[American Patriot]

Fox news is FINALLY filling us in on the Israeli raid on Syria. Apparently, according to them this attack WAS ON A NUCLEAR SITE OF SOME SORT.

[American Patriot]

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

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.

[American Patriot]

Fox is also saying that North Korea is the people responsible for the "Syrian Nuclear Program"! Wow.

[American Patriot]

N Korean Ship 'Linked To Israel's Strike On Syria'
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 9-17-2007 | Tim Butcher



N Korean ship 'linked to Israel's strike on Syria'
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 4:52pm BST 17/09/2007



A suspicious North Korean freighter that re-flagged itself as South Korean before off-loading an unknown cargo at the Syrian port of Tartous is at the centre of efforts today to investigate Israel's recent airstrike on Syria.


Israel has not given any details on the operation in Syria

An Israeli on-line data analyst, Ronen Solomon, found an internet trace for the 1,700-tonne cargo ship, Al Hamed, which showed the vessel started to off-load what Syrian officials categorised as "cement" on Sept 3.


This was three days before Israeli jets attacked a site in the north eastern desert of Syria, not far from its border with Iraq.


Since leaving Tartous, one of Syria's main ports on the Mediterranean, the ship's trace has disappeared and it is not known whether western intelligence agencies are tracking the vessel.


"I became suspicious after the first reports from Syria about the attack so I traced all traffic into Syrian ports in the days prior to the incident," Mr Solomon said.


"There were five ships but the interesting one was the one with a connection to North Korea - the Al Hamed."


He said he cross-referred to other maritime databases to establish the ship was not a regular visitor to the Mediterranean but had come through the Suez Canal in late June.


It had registered itself for the Suez transit as a South Korean vessel but Mr Solomon said this was standard procedure for North Korean ships seeking to avoid international constraints on North Korea.


Records showed the vessel docked at Tartous on July 28 before going back to sea and then returning to the port on Sept 3. "Since then there is no trace so I have no idea if she has gone up into the Black Sea or is still in the Mediterranean or whatever," Mr Solomon said.


Israel has not given any details on the operation.


Last week, US officials suggested that North Korea had sought to export some of its nuclear technology and equipment to Syria but the Israelis had been tipped off, so they arranged a pre-emptive strike on a sensitive shipment.


Mr Solomon said the Al Hamed was owned by a North Korean business until a few months ago when ownership changed hands to an as yet unidentified new owner.

[American Patriot]

Records on N. Korean ship docked in Syria were altered
By Yossi Melman

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.

Yesterday, the Washington Post published an article citing an American Mideast expert, who said a shipment that arrived in Syria three days before the alleged Israel Air Forces strike was labeled as cement, but that Israel believed it carried nuclear equipment.

Following the Washington Post report, Solomon returned to the three sites, and discovered that all mentions of the North Korean flag on Al Hamad had been deleted, and that the ship?s flag was now registered as "unknown.|

The official site of Syria's Tartous Port, www.tartousport.com, had reported that Al Hamad, flying a North Korean flag and carrying cement, entered the port on September 3.

Syria said IAF planes entered its airspace on September 5.

According to the site, the ship had passed through Tripoli port in Lebanon, Solomon said.

He then found a site, www.e-ships.net, that said Al Hamad was registered as a 1,700-ton ship intended for general cargo and flying a North Korean flag. The ship had been built in 1965 and had had several owners, according to the site.

In addition, Solomon found on the Web site of Egypt's Transportation Ministry, www.MTS.gov.eg, a record that Al Hamad had docked in Damietta Port Said in the Nile Delta about a month earlier, on July 28. However, this site registered the ship as flying a South Korean flag.

Haaretz was able to access the Tartous Port Internet site until yesterday afternoon, after which it went offline for several hours.

[American Patriot]

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/u...-nine-schools/

School Terror Threat: Postcards With Threatening Cartoon Sent To Nine Schools
Stop The ACLU ^ | 17-Sep-07 | Jay777

Posted on 09/17/2007 2:24:25 PM MDT by Jay777

Please be aware!!!

Investigators in Marion County, Fla., are searching for the author of nine postcards sent to different schools on the same day, with the words ‘Jihad-Boom” and cartoons drawn by hand, of a building being blown up with people inside.

Investigators released the postcards with the threatening drawings on them Monday in hopes of generating leads in the case. Officials said that the postcards are made up of various and traditional themes, and each one has a distinctive hand-drawn cartoon on it. Several of the threats arrived on postcards featuring Walt Disney World. Detectives said the threat-maker crossed his or her No. 7s and attached a suffix to the address. Six of the nine postcards spell the word “Jihad” correctly, while the others are incorrect.


The U.S. Postal Service said that the postcards were all mailed to the schools from the Ocala-Gainesville mailing district before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A $10,000 reward has been issued to anyone who provides information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for using the postal service to mail the threatening postcards to schools.

There are other factors that should concern folks as well...

(Excerpt) Read more at stoptheaclu.com ...

[Jag]

Bush setting America up for war with Iran


By Philip Sherwell in New York and Tim Shipman in Washington

Last Updated: 2:29am BST 17/09/2007

Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. Dick Cheney ('The Man') with George W Bush Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran's nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail. Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran. Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action. In a chilling scenario of how war might come, a senior intelligence officer warned that public denunciation of Iranian meddling in Iraq - arming and training militants - would lead to cross border raids on Iranian training camps and bomb factories.

A prime target would be the Fajr base run by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force in southern Iran, where Western intelligence agencies say armour-piercing projectiles used against British and US troops are manufactured.

Under the theory - which is gaining credence in Washington security circles - US action would provoke a major Iranian response, perhaps in the form of moves to cut off Gulf oil supplies, providing a trigger for air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and even its armed forces.

Senior officials believe Mr Bush's inner circle has decided he does not want to leave office without first ensuring that Iran is not capable of developing a nuclear weapon.

The intelligence source said: "No one outside that tight circle knows what is going to happen." But he said that within the CIA "many if not most officials believe that diplomacy is failing" and that "top Pentagon brass believes the same".

He said: "A strike will probably follow a gradual escalation. Over the next few weeks and months the US will build tensions and evidence around Iranian activities in Iraq."

	Possible flash points: Click to enlarge

Previously, accusations that Mr Bush was set on war with Iran have come almost entirely from his critics.
Many senior operatives within the CIA are highly critical of Mr Bush's handling of the Iraq war, though they themselves are considered ineffective and unreliable by hardliners close to Mr Cheney.

The vice president is said to advocate the use of bunker-busting tactical nuclear weapons against Iran's nuclear sites. His allies dispute this, but Mr Cheney is understood to be lobbying for air strikes if sites can be identified where Revolutionary Guard units are training Shia militias.

Recent developments over Iraq appear to fit with the pattern of escalation predicted by Pentagon officials.
Gen David Petraeus, Mr Bush's senior Iraq commander, denounced the Iranian "proxy war" in Iraq last week as he built support in Washington for the US military surge in Baghdad.

The US also announced the creation of a new base near the Iraqi border town of Badra, the first of what could be several locations to tackle the smuggling of weapons from Iran.

A State Department source familiar with White House discussions said that Miss Rice, under pressure from senior counter-proliferation officials to acknowledge that military action may be necessary, is now working with Mr Cheney to find a way to reconcile their positions and present a united front to the President.

The source said: "When you go down there and see the body language, you can see that Cheney is still The Man. Condi pushed for diplomacy but she is no dove. If it becomes necessary she will be on board.

"Both of them are very close to the president, and where they differ they are working together to find a way to present a position they can both live with."

The official contrasted the efforts of the secretary of state to work with the vice-president with the "open warfare between Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld before the Iraq war".

Miss Rice's bottom line is that if the administration is to go to war again it must build the case over a period of months and win sufficient support on Capitol Hill.

The Sunday Telegraph has been told that Mr Bush has privately promised her that he would consult "meaningfully" with Congressional leaders of both parties before any military action against Iran on the understanding that Miss Rice would resign if this did not happen.

The intelligence officer said that the US military has "two major contingency plans" for air strikes on Iran.

"One is to bomb only the nuclear facilities. The second option is for a much bigger strike that would - over two or three days - hit all of the significant military sites as well. This plan involves more than 2,000 targets."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...6/wiran116.xml

Jag

[Ryan Ruck]

And, a quick reminder, who is the big time player in the Syrian port of Tartus?

I'll give you two clues... It starts with "R" and ends with "ussia".

Tell me they didn't know this was going on.

[American Patriot]

LOL... No, Ryan, they didn't know... LOL

[American Patriot]

A bit more "confirmation".

NUKES IN SYRIA?
NY Post ^ | September 18, 2007 | Peter Brookes

WITH Congress' hearings on Iraq grabbing the nation's attention last week, hardly anyone took no tice of the news that Israel may have conducted a military air strike on a suspected nuclear facility in northern Syria.

Yes, that's right: a possible Syrian nuclear facility.

Originally, it was believed the early-September raid by Israeli fighters was against an Iranian weapons shipment crossing Syria en route to Lebanon, where Hezbollah is rearming at a feverish pace since its 2006 war with Israel.

But speculation on the nature of the Israeli mission into Syria has spread like wildfire - thanks to official and unofficial chatter about the strike's real target.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates refused to comment on the Sunday morning news shows. But late last week a senior State Department official involved in nuclear-nonproliferation issues told The Associated Press: "There are indicators that they [Syria] do have something going on there [at the facility that was struck by the Israelis]. We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria."

The official added: "We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...

[American Patriot]

Ladies and Gents... I think we need to go on "High Alert" here.


Pay attention to the news carefully, especially what you're finding here.

Something is about to happen.

Russia Says U.S. Attack on Iran Would Be Catastrophic (Update2)
By Sebastian Alison and Henry Meyer





Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. military strike on Iran would have ``catastrophic consequences,'' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said.
``Bomb attacks on Iran would be a wrong move leading to catastrophic consequences,'' Losyukov said in an interview with newspaper Vremya Novostei, published on the ministry's Web site.


Losyukov's remarks come two days after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the world should ``prepare for the worst'' in the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, and that ``the worst is war.'' In Moscow today, Kouchner said everything must be done to avoid war and called for all sides to ``negotiate, negotiate, negotiate without a break.''


Iran says it's pursuing a nuclear research program to generate energy. The U.S. accuses it of enriching uranium to make a nuclear bomb. The State Department is trying to rally support for a third round of United Nations sanctions against Iran at the Security Council in New York.


Kouchner, who met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today, said the international community should work on drawing up sanctions on Iran ``to show our determination'' to achieve a peaceful resolution to the crisis.


Russia won't back new sanctions, Lavrov said after the talks. ``We are very concerned about reports that military action against Iran is being seriously considered,'' he said.


Nuclear Reactor


Russia has been building a nuclear reactor at Bushehr in Iran for more than a decade. Construction has slowed in a dispute over payment, although Iran wants it completed as quickly as possible. Losyukov said there are plans to evacuate Russian workers in Iran should they come under attack from a U.S. military strike.


Russian President Vladimir Putin is due in Tehran on Oct. 16 for a meeting of leaders of the countries bordering the Caspian Sea, and Losyukov was asked if Putin might be in danger from U.S. attacks if he attends. ``I think they will refrain before the summit, otherwise they'll have very serious problems,'' he replied.


A U.S. attack on Iran would destabilize the Middle East and lead to ``an extremely negative reaction'' in the Islamic world, Losyukov said, adding that ``use of force would be a serious diplomatic and political mistake.''


Dan Plesch, director of the Center for International Studies and Diplomacy at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said a preemptive strike would damage U.S. relations across the region.


``If they do it, they'll destroy everything,'' he said in an interview in London. ``You can destroy Tehran and you will lose Turkey and Egypt, in terms of political action. The U.S. and the Europeans should take a regional approach with a UN Security Council resolution and get Israel involved.''


To contact the reporters on this story: Sebastian Alison in Moscow at Salison1@bloomberg.net ; Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net ;
Last Updated: September 18, 2007 10:01 EDT

[American Patriot]

Intense alarm about NoKo nuke materials in Syria
American Thinker ^ | 9-19-07 | James Lewis

Caroline Glick points out alarming implications of the September 6 Israeli raid on a claimed North Korean nuclear materials site in Syria. If official leaks about the IAF raid are true, the North Koreans have again reneged on their solemn promises to the Six-Nation Group to retreat on their own nuke program. Instead, they have secretly shipped nuclear weapons materials, possibly off-the-shelf fissile uranium or plutonium, to Syria, in close collaboration with Iran.

Here is what we know, and what we can infer.

1. On September 6, the Israel Air Force (IAF) bombed a Syrian site near the Iraq border, soon after a North Korean ship docked with a claimed cargo of "cement." The NoKo ship flipped its ownership identity more than once before it docked in Syria. Israeli, American and European sources hint that the Syrian site was a supposed agricultural research station that in fact was used to store nuclear materials. The site was reportedly destroyed.

2. The scheduled six-party meeting between the NoKos and China, the United States and three other nations was immediately canceled.

3. It is believed that Iran is closely involved in Syrian-NoKo weapons cooperation. The Axis of Evil is alive -- minus Saddam Hussein and Iraq. By themselves neither Syria nor North Korea have the finances to support an aggressive build-up, such as the one Syria has been conducting with new Russian air defense systems, missiles, possibly off-the-shelf nuclear components, and chemical weapons that recently led to a chemical warhead explosion in which dozens of Iranian and Syrian engineers and officers died, according to Jane's Defence Weekly.

4. But the plot thickens with reports of Iranian high-quality forged dollars, which have reportedly been used to pay for the Iranian nuclear weapons program. According to Glick:

"One of the inheritances the mullahs received from the Shah of Iran after they overthrew him in 1979 was a US-supplied Intaglio currency printing press. Since at least 1989 this printing press has been used to produce so-called "super-notes."

"Super-notes are highly sophisticated counterfeit US bills that are nearly undetectable. The advent of the supernotes forced the US Treasury to print new currency twice in a decade. In 1992 a Congressional Task Force concluded that the bills which proliferated in Lebanon's Hizbullah and Syrian-controlled Beka'a Valley were of Iranian and Syrian origin. In 2005, the first super-notes were intercepted in the US. They were sourced to North Korea."

(Note: The Beka'a Valley was widely reported to be the destination for Saddam Hussein's WMDs, smuggled out of Iraq by Russian Spetznaz troops during the American assault on Baghdad. It was under Syrian control at that time. Saddam's WMD's might have been moved to Syria when the Beka'a Valley became less secure for the Syrians during last summer's Hezbollah War.)

"According to a report Sunday in Yediot Aharonot, Iran has financed its purchase of nuclear and other materiel from North Korea through the provision of super-notes to Pyongyang. The US believes that Pyongyang itself procured a Swiss-made Intaglio press sometime in the 1990s. Intelligence services agree that Iran, Syria and North Korea collaborate closely in their currency counterfeiting operations.

"In 2003, the State Department concluded that the North Korean regime had sustained its economic viability principally through counterfeit currency operations." 5. So far, all these points are supported by public reports. We can infer the following:

a. The NoKo agreement with the United States, China, and South Korea to reduce its nuke program in exchange for economic aid is now dead.

b. The United States is now making urgent representations to China to move against the NoKos in order to protect its credibility as a guarantor of the agreement. As a major trading partner, China's credibility matters to its own rulers.

c. The United States may have provided targeting intelligence to the IAF for its bombing raid on the "agricultural research station." The IAF raid also showed that recent advanced Pantsyr air defense systems purchased by Iran and Syria can be defeated. Both Syria and Iran are therefore much more vulnerable to air attack than they seemed to be before the raid.

d. Iran, Syria and North Korea have therefore fulfilled the predictions of their worst critics. That is why the Germans and the French have publicly given up on their diplomatic efforts to get Iran to back down on its rush to nuclear weapons.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who carries great credibility on the Left in Europe, has just warned that "the world should prepare for war over Iran's nuclear programme," according to the BBC News, which quoted Kouchner as saying, "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war."

For a change, both the French and Germans are actually facing danger, rather than denying its existence. Kouchner said,

"We have decided while negotiations are continuing, to prepare eventual sanctions outside the ambit of UN sanctions. Our good friends, the Germans, suggested that."

6. A final point. Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the fanatical president of the Khomeinist regime in Tehran, is flying to New York to speak at the UN General Assembly next week. We do not know what he will say, but chances are that he has been sent by the Supreme Guide of the Mullahcracy to see if any of Iran's credibility can be rescued from this mess. On the public evidence, that now seems unlikely, suggesting that stronger sanctions against Iran are due soon. If the UN Security Council fails to adopt strong economic sanctions, the Europeans appear to be on board for a separate Coalition of the Willing effort to squeeze the Tehran regime.

Iran is a truly malevolent regime. It's been caught in the act, along with Syria and North Korea. Ahmadi-Nejad will try to brazen this one out at the UN next week. We have previously speculated that Ahmadi-Nejad may not be emotionally capable of losing face in public, and we may see that next week, if he is confronted with the incriminating evidence. We may see a classic Hitler-like rage attack. If the Iran regime decides to backtrack, they may need to get rid of Ahmadi-Nejad, who looks to be out of control.

Whether this rogue regime trio can be made to see reason is very doubtful. They have not done so before, after being given numerous opportunities.

[American Patriot]

Israeli Attack on Syria Could Presage Strike on Iran
NewsMax.com ^ | September 18, 2007 | NewsMax.com Staff

Reports surfaced this week that Israel had launched an air attack against a site in Syria believed to be a nuclear-related facility containing material delivered by North Korea.

The Sept. 6 air strike generated surprisingly little outcry from the rest of the world, and not as much press as might be expected.

But it could have major implications: Some see the attack as a warning to Iran that Israel will not allow a nuclear-armed adversary in the region.

The strike was carried out several days after a ship with North Korean cargo docked in a Syrian port, according to current and former American and Israeli officials. The cargo was transferred to the site Israel later attacked, the officials told the New York Times.

North Korea has previously sold weapons and missile technology to Syria as well as Iran, but it has never been caught exporting nuclear-related material to either country.

Details about the raid remain elusive. But as the officials spoke anonymously, China abruptly canceled plans to host diplomatic discussions in Beijing on North Korea’s intentions to disband its nuclear facilities. China’s move was seen as an attempt to avoid a possible confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea over its alleged nuclear support for Syria.

The officials disclosed that the Israeli government notified Washington about the air attack before it was launched, but it is unclear whether the U.S. supported the strike or advised against it.

It is also unclear if the U.S. agrees with Israeli intelligence’s assessment that the targeted site was nuclear-related.

But American and Israeli officials “who have received briefings from Israeli sources said Monday that the raid was an attempt by Israel to destroy a site that Israel believed to be associated with a rudimentary Syrian nuclear program,” the Times reported.

North Korea strongly denied that it has provided Syria with secret nuclear cooperation, claiming on Tuesday that the charge was fabricated to block progress in the North's relations with the U.S.

In any case, the Israeli attack is bound to send a message to Iran about its nuclear ambitions. An analysis in the Jerusalem Post indicated that Israel “will be seen in a few key capitals as the force that will not allow nuclear proliferation in the region.”

The Post also noted “the resounding lack of condemnation – either in Europe or even in the Arab world – to Israel’s alleged attack…

“The world, for the most part, dislikes the idea of a nuclear Middle East. Witness French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s recent comment that France should prepare for the possibility of war over Iran’s nuclear program.”

Kouchner said in an interview on Sunday: “We must prepare for the worst … The worst, sir, is war."

Iran insists it only wants to master nuclear technology to produce electricity, but it has yet to comply with United Nations demands that it halt uranium enrichment and other work that could lead to weapons production.

Regarding Israel’s motives for the strike in Syria, the Post observed: “It’s one thing to harbor terrorists who want to destroy Israel … but it is something different entirely to get into the same nuclear bed with North Korea.”

[American Patriot]

Official: U.S. tracking North Korea shipments bound for Syria
cnn ^ | September 18, 2007 | By Barbara Starr

The U.S. military and intelligence community have been tracking several shipments of material they believe have left North Korea and are destined for Syria or may have already landed there, a Pentagon official confirmed.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...

[American Patriot]

N Korean denies link to Israel's strike on Syria
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 9-18-2007 | Tim Butcher

N Korean denies link to Israel's strike on Syria

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 12:02pm BST 18/09/2007

North Korea has strongly denied allegations from unnamed American intelligence sources that its regime provided nuclear technology and expertise to Syria.

The allegations came after Israel's covert airstrike in northern Syria, with US sources suggesting the target was some sort of shipment of nuclear-connected material provided by Pyongyang.

Israel has not given any details on the operation in Syria

While North Korea has been providing arms for years to Syria, most notably customised Scud missiles, this was the first allegation about a transfer of know-how for weapons of mass destruction.

No hard evidence has been forthcoming and while Syria has complained about the airstrike no journalists or independent witnesses have had access to the target zone creating an information vacuum that has attracted feverish speculation.

North Korea moved today to deny the allegations of any nuclear link.

"This is sheer misinformation," the North's official KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

"(North Korea) never makes an empty talk but always tells truth.

"The above-said story is nothing but a clumsy plot hatched by the dishonest forces who do not like to see any progress at the six-party talks and in relations with the US."

North Korea stood by its pledge from October 2006 that it would not engage in nuclear proliferation, the spokesman said.

North Korea last week hosted a team of nuclear officials and experts who made a rare road trip to Pyongyang and to the country's main nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of the capital, in what was seen as a gesture to improve ties with the United States.

North Korea has suspended operation of the Yongbyon complex under a February deal in return for 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil from South Korea.

It is set to receive additional 950,000 tonnes by taking further disarmament steps this year.

President George W. Bush, who once lumped North Korea with Iran and Saddam-controlled Iraq on an “axis of evil”, has offered a peace treaty with the North if Pyongyang completes nuclear disarmament.

South Korea said yesterday that a new round of the six-way talks would not be held on Sept 19 as widely expected, leading to concerns that North Korea had pulled out of the talks in protest at the allegations about the Syrian link.

[American Patriot]

This is just for "The Opposite view" really, this is a skepical look at the recent incursion into Syria by Israel.



BBC: The Syria-North Korea 'connection'
BBC ^ | Tuesday, 18 September 2007, 13:37 GMT 14:37 UK | Jonathan Marcus Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News

Nearly two weeks on from Israel's incursion into Syrian airspace, the mystery surrounding the operation shows little sign of disappearing.

Israel has kept up a careful policy of silence over the accusations

Press reports suggest strongly that the Israeli jets destroyed a facility near Syria's border with Turkey.


All sorts of details of the operation have "leaked" out, but still the precise nature of the "target" remains unclear.


By far the strongest theory though suggests a North Korean nuclear connection - a linkage which the North Korean authorities have strenuously denied.





The story put about by largely unnamed US
sources and backed up by the former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, is that North Korea - under international pressure to scale down its own nuclear weapons programme - has recently transferred equipment or technology to Syria.


And it is this equipment - possibly at a fledgling research centre - that the Israelis hit.


'Political agenda'

All sorts of questions remain. Experts on North Korea's nuclear programme are highly sceptical about the alleged technology transfer.



Joseph Cirincione, director for nuclear policy at the Washington-based Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank, has gone so far as to describe the story as "nonsense".

If this sounds like the run-up to the war with Iraq, then it should Joseph Cirincione Center for American Progress

Selective leaks are being used to play up the Syria-North Korea connection, he writes on the online site of the journal Foreign Policy.


"This appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted 'intelligence' to key reporters in order to promote a pre-existing political agenda. If this sounds like the run-up to the war with Iraq, then it should," he writes.



Gary Samore of the Council on Foreign Relations, another leading North Korea nuclear expert, was less dismissive when I spoke to him, but equally sceptical.


"I know that the Israelis have been worried for some time that the Syrians were eager to get nuclear technology from North Korea," he said.


"The North Koreans are looking to liquidate at least part of their enrichment programme, and perhaps want to offload the centrifuges and so on that they obtained from Pakistan."

The alleged Israeli incursion happened near Tall al-Abyad

So the Syrians might be "dabbling" with enrichment technology, but this would not represent "a near-term threat", Mr Samore says.


"There are North Koreans in Syria in connection with missile technology," he said, but on the nuclear front "we just don't know".



One thing he saw as strange, however, was the possible location of the "target" that the Israelis may have hit.


This seems to have been very close to the border with Turkey - an odd place for a potential nuclear research establishment.


Scepticism needed

Of course much of the controversy - given the fact that the Syrians and the Israelis have said very little (which is instructive in itself) - centres on the nature of the messengers, the shadowy leakers in Washington.


Only one of them, Andrew Semmel, a senior non-proliferation official, has gone on the record, and then there is the involvement of the controversial Mr Bolton.


Critics suggest that at least some of these people have a strong desire to derail the Bush administration's current negotiations with Pyongyang.


For whatever reason, the latest round of the six-party nuclear talks involving the two Koreas has been postponed at the last minute, apparently at the North Koreans' request.


But as Mr Samore pointed out: "Just because John Bolton is using this for political purposes doesn't mean that it is not true."



This episode once again highlights the problems for the media in dealing with this kind of story, problems that were exemplified - one has to admit in retrospect- by the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.


Journalists need copy. But they also have to weigh up what they are told. Official sources cannot simply be discounted.


But on the other hand, a sufficient degree of scepticism needs to be deployed. And just sometimes, that mighty media machine has to admit that it just does not know.

[American Patriot]

Attacking Syria: Focusing on Iran(Israel)
humanevents.com ^ | 09/18/2007 | Chuck Freilich

Two weeks ago, Israeli air force jets apparently conducted a secret raid in Syria. Uncharacteristically, Israel has remained totally mum on the issue, a clear indication of the importance it attaches to it. Speculation in the media has been rampant, covering the entire gamut of possible targets, including an attack on a Syrian or Iranian arms shipment to Hizballah and the destruction of a nuclear facility that North Korea is now reported to have supplied to Syria.

We may never know what exactly happened, but a few points are worth emphasizing. The Middle East is increasingly going nuclear. The Iraqi program has been stopped, at least for the foreseeable future and Libya, having learned from the Iraqi precedent, voluntarily agreed to dismantle its program, in exchange for renewed relations with the US. The Iranian program, however, is rapidly reaching the critical turning point. Israel, long been thought to be a nuclear power as well, views an Iranian nuclear capability as a threat to its very existence. The Sunni regimes, including Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, even Jordan and others, are petrified at the very thought that their Shiite neighbor may soon be able to use its nuclear capabilities to further advance its hegemonic aspirations and dictate events in the region. In response, they are now giving increasing attention to possible “civil” nuclear programs of their own. “Civil” nuclear programs, as we know, have a pesky tendency to morph into military ones.

The thought that Syria, an unofficial, but de-facto member in nefarious standing in the “axis of evil”, may have an active nuclear program, far more advanced than heretofore known, is particularly worrisome. Rabidly dictatorial, already armed with a massive arsenal of chemical weapons, Syria has long been a regional spoiler. It is today an ally of Iran’s, with an increasingly close “strategic” military relationship. Together with Iran, Syria arms and gives various other types of support to Hizballah, Hamas, the insurgents in Iraq and other highly “savory” groups. Tensions along the border between Syria and Israel have also grown in recent months, increasing the risk of a military clash.

A multi-nuclear Middle East is a nightmare scenario the likes of which the world has yet to face. While it would not pose the threat of an end to humanity, as in the Cold War, in some ways a nuclear Middle East poses even greater dangers, if only because of the far greater prospects that nukes might actually be used. This would certainly be true in the case of a multi-nuclear Middle East. For the US, moreover, the danger of being drawn into a nuclear crisis would rise exponentially.

Iran is of course the greatest worry. A nuclear Iran would place most of the world's oil -- simply the world economy and western way of life -- under the threat of a regime whose extremist ideology is inspired by an aggressive interpretation of the divine word and an implacable opposition to Western values. Vociferously anti-American, despite attempts at rapprochement, Iran is explicitly committed to the destruction of Israel and developing the capabilities to do so.

The US-led diplomatic effort to bring the Iranian nuclear program to an end appears to be rapidly running its course. After months of talks in the Security Council, the US is now making a major push to convince the other members to join it in a third resolution condemning Iran, one which would, hopefully, impose sanctions with would finally have some true “teeth.” Russia and China remain recalcitrant and even if they ultimately agree to adopt some resolution, it is clear that the sanctions they agree to will be the bare minimum they believe they can accede to, without forcing the US to act independently, outside of the restrictive confines of the Security Council. In any event, it is highly unlikely that they will agree to further steps and to cooperate with the US in imposing the kind of overwhelming sanctions that might just be sufficient to actually get the Iranians, who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the continuing their nuclear program, to acquiesce.

What this means is that sometime in the near future, quite possibly during the upcoming election year, American policymakers will be faced with the decision of how to truly deal with the Iranian threat. Various options still remain before one has to contemplate direct military action, such as US sanctions against the Revolutionary Guard, a primary political and economic force in Iran, which would have a major effect on Russian and Chinese economic interests and possibly encourage greater cooperation on their part in the Security Council, multilateral Western sanctions against Iran, an oil embargo and even a naval blockade. Given the pace of Iranian nuclear development, however, the time for this is limited.

In 1981 Israel destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Osirak and in so doing did the world a great favor. It may have done so again, at a much earlier stage, in Syria. The time for effective action against Iran is rapidly approaching.