Left Flank

On Seymour M. Hersh's "Strike in the Dark", about as twisting a narrative as possible, I would go one further. It's less than what's already out there. Racing through the corridors if elected and bureaucratic hackdom distracts...

Sometime after midnight on September 6, 2007, at least four low-flying Israeli Air Force fighters crossed into Syrian airspace and carried out a secret bombing mission on the banks of the Euphrates River, about ninety miles north of the Iraq border. The seemingly unprovoked bombing, which came after months of heightened tension between Israel and Syria over military exercises and troop buildups by both sides along the Golan Heights, was, by almost any definition, an act of war.

Hersh should have stopped here, as wiser souls do. Besides, let's gear up for the Iran meme.

The possibility of a North Korean-supplied nuclear reactor keeps getting play in American papers, despite the lack of corroboration, Bush administration denials and concern about the ramifications on Six-Party talks, and plenty of other interesting revelations. Now, the LAT is amplifying the NYT's Sunday article, where unnamed American and foreign officials talked about hazy intelligence.

Many details remain unclear, most notably how much progress the Syrians had made in construction before the Israelis struck, the role of any assistance provided by North Korea, and whether the Syrians could make a plausible case that the reactor was intended to produce electricity. In Washington and Israel, information about the raid has been wrapped in extraordinary secrecy and restricted to just a handful of officials, while the Israeli press has been prohibited from publishing information about the attack.

The New York Times reported this week that a debate had begun within the Bush administration about whether the information secretly cited by Israel to justify its attack should be interpreted by the United States as reason to toughen its approach to Syria and North Korea. In later interviews, officials made clear that the disagreements within the administration began this summer, as a debate about whether an Israeli attack on the incomplete reactor was warranted then.

The officials did not say that the administration had ultimately opposed the Israeli strike, but that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates were particularly concerned about the ramifications of a pre-emptive strike in the absence of an urgent threat.

But, what does seem interesting is another theory about what Israel did to Syria's air defenses, and what continues to happen in Israel. After all, that the Bush administration's worst enemy is its own infighting is no secret.

President Bush goes to the United Nations, and all the Chosun Daily hears is «North Korea is a 'brutal regime' «!

Actually, I thought his speech was dead on, and I would support all his recommendations, particularly a UNSC seat for Japan and reforming the UN Human Rights Commission. And, actually, «brutal regime» is a polite insult. Obviously Michael Gerson is much needed.

Running down the article's summary (for wired South Koreans recovering from five days of holiday over-eating, alcohol consumption, games, housework, and more alcohol), the latest episode in the Dayr az-Zawr airstrike drama, is Washington's imposition of sanctions on a North Korean missile company (more info at KT). Is this all that comes from all the speculation about nukes the past few weeks?

So - what was attacked near Dayr az-Zawr?  It's possible it was North Korean «nuclear material» recently shipped to Syria, i.e., stuff to make radioactively «dirty» warheads, but nothing to make a real nuke with as the Norks don't have real nukes (see Why North Korea's Nuke Test Is Such Good News, October 2006).

Another possibility is it was to take out a stockpile of long-range Zilzal surface-to-surface missiles recently shipped from Iran for an attack on Israel.

A third is it was a hit on the stockpile of Saddam's chemical/bio weapons snuck out of Iraq and into Syria for safekeeping before the US invasion of April 2003.

But the identity of the target is not the story - for the primary point of the attack was not to destroy that target.  It was to shut down Syria's Russian air defense system during the attack.  Doing so made the attack an incredible success.

Syria is shamed and silent.  Iran is freaking out in panic.  Defenseless enemies are fun.

Someone needs to work on those headlines. And, stop taking off for five days. Or, shoving all that news into one report.