BobW --- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Ha'aretz - September 23, 2007
> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/906334.html
>
>
> Report: IDF raid seized nuclear material before
> Syria air strike
> By Haaretz Service
>
> Israel Defense Forces commandos seized nuclear
> material of North
> Korean origin during a raid on a secret military
> site in Syria before
> the Israel Air Force allegedly bombed it this month,
> British
> newspaper The Sunday Times reported Sunday.
>
> The report, based on what the newspaper called
> "informed sources in
> Washington and Jerusalem," said the air strike was
> carried out with
> United States approval after Washington was shown
> evidence the
> material was nuclear related.
>
> The paper quoted Israeli sources as saying Israeli
> special forces had
> been gathering intelligence for several months in
> Syria, and had
> located the nuclear material at a compound in the
> country's north.
>
> In another report, Newsweek quoted Uzi Arad, a
> former senior Mossad
> official and ex-policy advisor to then-prime
> minister Benjamin
> Netanyahu, as saying of the reported operation: I do
> know what
> happened, and when it comes out, it will stun
> everyone."
>
> Netanyahu stirred anger among aides to Prime
> Minister EhudOlmert last
> week when he appeared to confirm reports of the
> operation - about
> which Israeli officials have maintained a rare
> silence - during an
> interview with Israel Channel One Television.
>
> The Sunday Times reported that diplomats in North
> Korea and China
> believe a number of North Koreans were killed in the
> strike, based on
> reports reaching Asian governments about
> conversations between
> Chinese and North Korean officials. The officials
> noted that
> ballistic missile technicians and military
> scientists had been
> working for some time with the Syrians.
>
> According to the report, the Bush Administration was
> given Israeli
> intelligence suggesting North Korean personnel and
> nuclear-related
> material were at the Syrian site over the summer,
> but the
> administration demanded "clear evidence of
> nuclear-related activities
> before giving the operation its blessing."
>
> As a result, the newspaper said, IDF commandos
> "almost certainly
> dressed in Syrian uniforms" seized samples of the
> nuclear material
> and took them back to Israel for testing. The
> sources confirmed that
> the samples were identified as being from North
> Korea.
>
> According to the Sunday Times, the site - near Dayr
> az-Zawr - now
> lies in ruins following the IAF strike.
>
> The report said the operation was personally
> directed by Defense
> Minister Ehud Barak, who according to The Sunday
> Times is said to
> have been largely preoccupied with it since taking
> up his post on
> June 18. The newspaper quoted military experts as
> saying that the
> operation probably could not have taken place under
> former defense
> minister Amir Peretz.
>
> Syria has said IAF planes violated its airspace and
> fired missiles at
> targets on the ground, but both Damascusand
> Pyongyang have vehemently
> denied the reports of nuclear cooperation.
>
> The Sunday Times also quoted an Israeli intelligence
> expert as
> saying, "Syria has retaliated in the past for much
> smaller
> humiliations, but they will choose the place, the
> time and the target."
>
> The IAF dispatched several fighter jets toward Syria
> Saturday, after
> a Syrian airplane disappeared from the Israeli radar
> screens, army
> sources said.
>
> The jets returned to base after they ascertained
> that the Syrian
> plane had crashed.
>
> Barak: Israel must operate as though war is around
> the corner
> Israel must act as though the next war is right
> around the corner,
> Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday at the
> state's official
> commemoration of soldiers killed in the Yom Kippur
> War.
>
> Barak said that the lesson from the 1973 war is that
> "on security
> matters, we cannot be deceived by apparent and
> imagined calm. We need
> self-control, vigilance, and an experienced and
> stable hand at the
> helm."
>
> The defense minister also said that "on matters
> pertaining to our
> national security, the strength of Israel must be
> alert and fit at
> all times. We must always cultivate and enhance the
> decisive and
> quality advantage of this strength, along with the
> warrior spirit and
> the tools of war."
>
> Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday morning
> during a cabinet
> meeting that the "security establishment operates
> incessantly in all
> sectors and brings the most successful of
> achievements.
>
> "Many times, these achievements are not exposed to
> the public, but
> this doesn't mean that successful operations are not
> carried out."
>
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