"Of course, missile defense is always bullshit – it never really works, but is just intended to provide civilian reassurance long enough to get the war started, when the usual jingoism can kick in."
BobW --- Andy F <andy274 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,330752083-119093,00.html>
>
> Was Israeli raid a dry run for attack on Iran?
>
> Mystery surrounds last week's air foray into Syrian
> territory. The
> Observer's Foreign Affairs Editor attempts to
> unravel the truth behind
> Operation Orchard and allegations of nuclear
> subterfuge
> Peter Beaumont
> Sunday September 16, 2007
>
> Observer
> The head of Israel's airforce, Major-General Eliezer
> Shkedi, was
> visiting a base in the coastal city of Herziliya
> last week. For the
> 50-year-old general, also the head of Israel's Iran
> Command, which
> would fight a war with Tehran if ordered, it was a
> morale-boosting
> affair, a meet-and-greet with pilots and navigators
> who had flown
> during last summer's month-long war against Lebanon.
> The journalists
> who had turned out in large numbers were there for
> another reason: to
> question Shkedi about a mysterious air raid that
> happened this month,
> codenamed 'Orchard', carried out deep in Syrian
> territory by his
> pilots.
>
> Shkedi ignored all questions. It set a pattern for
> the days to follow
> as he and Israel's politicians and officials
> maintained a steely
> silence, even when the questions came from the
> visiting French Foreign
> Minister, Bernard Kouchner. Those journalists who
> thought of reporting
> the story were discouraged by the threat of Israel's
> military censor.
>
> But the rumours were in circulation, not just in
> Israel but in
> Washington and elsewhere. In the days that followed,
> the sketchy
> details of the raid were accompanied by
> contradictory claims even as
> US and British officials admitted knowledge of the
> raid. The New York
> Times described the target of the raid as a nuclear
> site being run in
> collaboration with North Korean technicians. Others
> reported that the
> jets had hit either a Hizbollah convoy, a missile
> facility or a
> terrorist camp.
>
> Amid the confusion there were troubling details that
> chimed
> uncomfortably with the known facts. Two detachable
> tanks from an
> Israeli fighter were found just over the Turkish
> border. According to
> Turkish military sources, they belonged to a Raam
> F15I - the newest
> generation of Israeli long-range bomber, which has a
> combat range of
> over 2,000km when equipped with the drop tanks. This
> would enable them
> to reach targets in Iran, leading to speculation
> that it was an
> 'operation rehearsal' for a raid on Tehran's nuclear
> facilities.
>
> Finally, however, at the week's end, the first few
> tangible details
> were beginning to emerge about Operation Orchard
> from a source
> involved in the Israeli operation.
>
> They were sketchy, but one thing was absolutely
> clear. Far from being
> a minor incursion, the Israeli overflight of Syrian
> airspace through
> its ally, Turkey, was a far more major affair
> involving as many as
> eight aircraft, including Israel's most ultra-modern
> F-15s and F-16s
> equipped with Maverick missiles and 500lb bombs.
> Flying among the
> Israeli fighters at great height, The Observer can
> reveal, was an
> ELINT - an electronic intelligence gathering
> aircraft.
>
> [...]
>
> --
> Andy
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