Turkey's occupation in northern Cyprus does pose a danger to Israel as much as to the Cypriots

Shay Gal wrote about how Turkey's occupation of northern Cyprus is as much Israel's problem as it is for the Cyprian citizens themselves, in ways similar to Hamas in Gaza:

Cyprus recently marked the 51st anniversary of Turkey's 1974 invasion - a lasting trauma for Greek Cypriots. For decades, Israel treated this conflict as a distant Greek-Turkish issue, but must now clearly acknowledge: Northern Cyprus is not just a Greek-Cypriot problem - it is also an Israeli one. In practical terms, Northern Cyprus functions as an international no-man's land, enabling Turkey and terrorist groups like Hamas and Iran's Quds Force unrestricted operational freedom.

Since the invasion, which killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands, Turkey's presence has quietly transformed. The area is now a forward base for Turkey's military, hosting sophisticated weapons systems, cyber surveillance, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) infrastructure capable of intercepting both military and civilian Israeli communication, alongside covert terrorist facilities supported by Ankara. According to leaked intelligence documents, senior Turkish officials characterized Northern Cyprus as an ideal location "where anything can be done without interference by police or judicial oversight".

Turkey can deploy armed drones from Lefkoniko airfield - converted from an abandoned airport into a drone base amid regional gas disputes - far more rapidly than from its mainland bases. Since May 2021, Turkey officially stationed armed Bayraktar TB2 drones there, and more advanced Akinci UAVs were publicly showcased at a military parade in July 2024. These UAVs can rapidly target Israeli gas rigs, naval vessels, and strategic sites. In addition, Turkey's advanced ATMACA anti-ship missiles, with a range exceeding 200 km, could directly threaten Israeli maritime assets, including its critical natural gas platforms. Moreover, Turkey's new Typhoon ballistic missile is capable of precisely hitting targets up to 560 kilometers away. According to Western intelligence, missile bases in Kyrenia and Famagusta are already prepared for their deployment, posing Turkey's first direct ballistic threat to Israel, with the capability of striking Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa Bay.

That strongly hints Turkey's just as willing to declare violent war against Israel sooner or later, much like Iran. And for all we know, Turkish forces quite likely built underground tunnels and headquarters on the nothern end they occupy, and that too can be very dangerous. Why, who knows how many similar locations like that were built in secrecy in mainland Europe, and even in the USA and Canada?

I have to take issue with one part here though:

It is not Israel's role or desire to liberate Northern Cyprus. However, if the threat from the area reaches a critical threshold, Israel's strategic posture must shift. Israel, in coordination with Greece and Cyprus, must prepare a contingency operation for liberating the island's north. Such an operation would neutralize Turkish reinforcement capabilities from the mainland, eliminate air-defense systems in Northern Cyprus, destroy intelligence and command centers, and finally remove Turkish forces, restoring internationally recognized Cypriot sovereignty.

Oh for heaven's sake. That's ludicrous to imply Israel shouldn't play a part in seeking to free Northern Cyprus from the jihadist poison still lurking there. By Gal's logic there, Israel shouldn't have taken part in WW2, nor come to defense of Druze/Christian inhabitants in Syria. Let's be clear. While security forces in Cyprus obviously shouldn't ignore this, that doesn't mean Israel shouldn't be ready to act upon such an issue either. Islamic jihadism is everyone's concern, and the situation's only gotten worse everywhere, including in Europe. If we fail to act on behalf of innocent non-Jews, we're failing every innocent European during WW2. And failure to act only fuels antisemitic accusations that Jews "don't care" about anyone but themselves. We can't afford such possibilities, no matter what. So, Israel should help Cyprus put a stop to the Turkish monster at the north end of the island, and not just to protect Israel itself. Even non-Jews are in danger of Turkey's own atrocities.

Update: Middle East Forum, interestingly, says that Turkey's grip on the northern area is deteriorating, and we should not reinforce it. Absolutely correct, and all must be done to get Turkey's overlords off the island.

The mask falls off Syria's new sharia-dictatorship

The Islamofascists now running Syria committed a slaughter against Christians and Alawites in the country, and now, they're further imposing sharia law:

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the jihadist terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), signed into law a “constitutional declaration” that imposes an Islamist “temporary” constitution on the country intended to create a legal framework that allows it to function while its new rulers rebuild from the civil war.

[...] In their declaration, the constitutional drafting committee emphasized the independence of the judiciary, suggesting that Sharaa will have little input in how the new government’s sharia courts behave. While that emphasis suggests robust separation of powers, it also indicates that Islamist clerics will have outsized power in the country. Sharaa himself indicated this may be the case in an interview with the BBC in December when asked if his regime would allow alcohol sales, answering that this was a “legal issue” he would not have power over.

The constitution also mandates that the president of the country be Muslim, a provision that also existed in the Assad-era constitution, according to the Associated Press.

There's plenty of signs that, despite suggestions to the contrary, they intend to establish a modern caliphate. Coupled with their recent murder of Christians and Alawites, this spells much bad news in Syria.

A fact-based movie from India that's important to see

There's a new movie produced in India (via Front Page) about a horrible tragedy where Muslims brainwashed Hindu and Christian girls into serving jihadism:

The trailer of The Kerala Story was released on April 26 and has led to reactions and controversy. The film by Vipul Amrutlal Shah aims to tell the tale of how women from the Indian state of Kerala women were tricked and trafficked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the conflict zone of Syria. The film directed by Sudipto Sen traces the journey of four female college students in Kerala who become part of the Islamic State.

Kerala leader of opposition V.D. Satheesan demanded that the film should not be allowed to be released.

The film especially showcases certain cases of how ‘love jihad’ was used by ISIS to lure 32,000 women to Syria. The trailer shows how men were brainwashed to woo Hindu and Christian women of Kerala in the name of love, convert them to Islam and convince them to join ISIS and other Islamic war zones. The shocking incidents occurred between 2018-19, when a rising number of Kerala youths had come under the influence of ISIS. [...]

The movie is based on a tragedy where around 32,000 women went missing in Kerala. They were allegedly brainwashed and lured by Muslim men, who married and converted them, radicalised them and later deployed them in terror missions in India and abroad for ISIS.

All must be done to ensure that this movie continues to be available for the public to see, and that there's security and safety for the public going to view it at the movie theaters. The leftists who're calling for censorship of this film should be condemned for what they're leading to, and should cease all attacks on it, period. The filmmakers have done the right thing to tackle the issue of women being lured into horrifying situations by Mohammedans and then put in the middle of war zones, making things worse.

JPOST - VIA HOT AIR: US-ISRAELI REPORT WILL PROVE SADDAM TRANSFERED WMD TO SYRIA

HOT AIR:

Report: U.S.-Israeli study of airstrike on Syrian nuke facility will show Saddam transferred WMD

Rumors of the discovery of the holy grail of Iraq hawks surface once again. I am … how you say? Ah, yes: Skeptical.

An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday.

WE PREVIOUSLY BLOGGED ON THIS - IN RELATION TO THE ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE - HERE AND HERE.

THE NYSUN WROTE ON IT HERE - ON 2005.

AND REMEMBER THIS:

MORE HERE:

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, now director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, told reporters that U.S. surveillance satellites captured images of vehicle traffic dispersing WMD materiel to urban locations in Iraq and moving large quantities into Syria as well.

"Those below the senior leadership saw what was coming, and I think they went to extraordinary lengths to [dispose, destroy and disperse] the evidence," said Gen. Clapper.

"By the time that we got to a lot of these facilities...there wasn't that much there to look at. There was clearly an effort to disperse, bury and conceal certain equipment prior to inspections."

Gen. Clapper added that there is "no question" that people and WMD materiel were moved by truck convoys into Syria.

So... they went to Syria. AND WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

MAYBE WE WILL SOON SEE MORE PROOF THEY WENT TO SYRIAN?

STAY TUNED...

LIKE CLOCKWORK: DAYS AFTER DEMOCRATS VISIT ASSAD, HIS STOOGES IN LEBANON ATTACK HIS FOES IN LEBANON - THIS TIME: US EMBASSY EMPLOYEES

• DEMOCRATS ONCE AGAIN PAY HOMAGE TO REAL DICTATORS AND HURL NASTY EPITHETS AT IMAGINARY ONES - LIKE BUSHITLER.

• WHAT ARE THE FRUITS OF THIS APPEASEMENT?

• JUST WHAT YOU'D EXPECT - IF YOU'RE SANE; HERE'S NEWS OF THE MOST RECENT EXAMPLE:

• ONE OF OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY GURU'S ZBIG BRZEZINSKI WENT TO LICK ASSAD'S ASS-AD LAST WEEK.
• ZBIG IS ONE IN A LONG LINE OF DEMOCRAT APPEASERS WHO HAVE PAID HOMAGE TO THIS EVIL DICTATOR.
  
• HERE'S THE RESULT OF THIS MOST RECENT HOMAGE: IHT:

  A bomb evidently meant to destroy a U.S. Embassy car exploded as the vehicle passed by Tuesday, narrowly missing the car but wounding its Lebanese driver and a fellow passenger and killing at least three civilians traveling in the car behind, according to local reports, aid workers at the scene and State Department officials in Washington.
  
  The bomb exploded on a coastal road just north of Beirut in an industrial district called Bourj Hammond. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
  
  Other reports and aid workers said that at least 20 other people had been wounded, including bystanders and people working in nearby shops and offices. At the scene, glass littered the road and the police had sealed off the area. Two cars were badly damaged in the attack, but the American car - a large, four-wheel-drive armored vehicle - sustained much less damage.
  
  Initial reports suggested that the bomb had been placed under a car on the side of the road but this could not immediately be confirmed.
  
  In Washington, the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that two embassy employees, including the driver, had been in the vehicle damaged in the blast. The driver was slightly wounded and the other staff member was fine, McCormack said. He said no American diplomats or U.S. citizens had been in the car.

  AS I PREDICTED BEFORE ZBIG'S BIG ADVENTURE IN DAMASCUS - (ZBIG'S DAMN-ASS-KISS IN DAMASCUS) - USUALLY WITHIN DAYS OF ONE OF THESE "DEMOCRAT-DICTATOR" LOVE SESSIONS - ASSAD ASSASSINATES A LEBANESE FOE TO CELEBRATE.
  
  NOW HE'S SO EMBOLDENED HE'S HAVING HIS HENCHMEN IN LEBANON ATTACK AMERICANS.
  
  THESE ARE THE FRUITS OF APPEASEMENT: APPEASEMENT ONLY REWARDS THE EVIL-DOERS AND ENCOURAGES THEM. ZBIG'S TRIP ENCOURAGED ASSAD TO BE AND TO DO MORE EVIL.
  

IF OBAMA "THE APPEASER" IS ELECTED - (OBAMA, WHO WILL MEET ANYWHERE, AT ANYTIME WITH ANY ENEMY OF THE USA - WITHOUT ANY PRECONDITIONS), THEN IT WILL BE AS IF GREAT BRITAIN HAD THROWN OUT CHURCHILL IN 1941 AND RE-ELECTED CHAMBERLAIN!

[ASIDE: A STUDY IN CONTRAST: AS OBAMA GURU ZBIG JETTED TO LICK ASSAD'S ASS-AD, BUSH ORDERED MORE SANCTIONS.]

• WHICH POLICY IS MORE EFFECTIVE?

• ASK CHAMBERLAIN.

LEBANON 'S DUELING MEMORIALS: HARIRI VERSUS MOUGHNIYAH

Nothing could display the disparate contrasts and deep divisions within Lebanon more than the upcoming memorials for two of Lebanon's most well-known sons - one good and one evil: HARIRI VERSUS MOUGHNIYAH.

BOTH WILL BE COMMEMORATED ON THURSDAYS, (coincidentally Valentine's Day).

TVNZ: Hezbollah to hold mass funeral - [FOR THE EVIL MOUGHNIYAH]

Feb 14, 2008 12:23 PM

Lebanon's Hezbollah holds a mass funeral for its assassinated commander Imad Moughniyah, one of the United States' most wanted men, in Beirut to calls of revenge against its sworn enemy Israel.

Big crowds are expected in Beirut's Shi'ite Muslim southern suburb to bid farewell to Moughniyah, a guerrilla seen as a legend by Hezbollah but on the US most wanted list accused of killing hundreds in attacks on Israeli and Western targets.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, accused Israel of killing Moughniyah on Tuesday by planting a bomb in his car in Damascus. Israel denied any links to the attack while Washington welcomed his death.

Reflecting deep divisions in Lebanon, Moughniyah's funeral will take place a few hours after a rally by the anti-Syrian ruling coalition to mark the third anniversary of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Beirut.

OMAN OBSERVER: Lebanese set to mark Hariri killing

BEIRUT — The streets of Beirut a day before a scheduled mass rally to mark the February 14, 2005 assassinaton of then-premier Rafik Hariri, were tense on Tuesday and anger could be heard in peoples’ comments about the political speeches they hear daily from the country’s leading rival parties.

“We want to be governed by the state and not by religious warlords, sheikhs, or priests,” shouted Ahmed Mortada, a moderate Lebanese Shiite in one of Beirut’s streets. “Both the opposition (led) by Hizbullah and the majority are now threatening each other with war ... as if we (people) are their war toys and they can play with us as they like,” said Souad Hamdan, a Muslim who does not belong to any rival party.

“The political life in this country has gone below zero. The leaders are using radio and television to lash at each other, and the streets are boiling (over) with their followers,” she added. Souad was referring to fiery speeches by the head of the ruling majority, Saad Hariri, and his ally Walid Jumblatt, who threatened the opposition “if you want war...we are ready for it.”

The tough rhetoric has ignited tensions between the followers of both parties in a country already tense over a long-standing political deadlock. Clashes between followers of the late Hariri and those loyal to Hizbullah have erupted here and there. At least two people were wounded on Sunday in a gunfight between Druze supporters loyal to Jumblatt and a pro-Syrian Druze group in Aley, east of the capital.

The streets also witnessed clashes between Hariri supporters and followers who support parliament speaker Nabih Berri. Christian opposition leader General Michel Aoun has accused the ruling majority of having created “a climate of fear” which can trigger clashes at any moment and push the situation out of control.

BAHRAIN TRIBUNE/AFP:

Lebanon braced yesterday for a mass rally by supporters of the Western-backed government to commemorate the third anniversary of ex-premier Rafik Hariri’s murder amid mounting street clashes with the opposition.

Pro-government leaders have called on hundreds of thousands of supporters to converge today on Martyr’s Square in central Beirut, near the beachfront site of the car bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on February 14, 2005.

The rally was to be held on the same day that the Lebanese resistance group Hizbollah, an important member of the opposition, was to bury one of its top commanders killed on Tuesday in Syria, in a car bombing blamed on Israel.
The Hariri anniversary protest comes amid high tension in Lebanon which has been without a president since November, in its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Street clashes between the government and the opposition camps and mudslinging among rival politicians have raised fears of civil strife...

STRIFE OR WAR.

• THERE'S ONLY ONE GOOD WAY TO END THESE STARK DIVISIONS WITHIN LEBANON: DESTROY HIZBALLAH - (WHICH IS AFTER MERELY ALL A BUNCH OF GENOCIDAL JIHADO-STOOGES FOR ASSAD AND IRAN).
• THESE TWO MEMORIALS MAY VERY END IN VIOLENCE AND RE-IGNITE LEBANON'S CIVIL WAR.
• HOPEFULLY, THIS TIME IT WILL END WITH HIZBALLAH BEING UTTERLY DEFEATED.

SATELLITE PHOTOS REVEAL SYRIA REBUILDING WMD SITE BOMBED BY ISRAEL

NYTIMES: Syria Rebuilding on Site Destroyed by Israeli Bombs

The puzzling site in Syria that Israeli jets bombed in September grew more curious on Friday with the release of a satellite photograph showing new construction there that resembles the site’s former main building.

New construction at a disputed Syrian site that Israeli and American analysts judged to be a partially built nuclear reactor.

Israel’s air attack was directed against what Israeli and American intelligence analysts had judged to be a partly constructed nuclear reactor. The Syrians vigorously denied the atomic claim.

Before the attack, satellite imagery showed a tall, square building there measuring about 150 feet long per side.

After the attack, the Syrians wiped the area clean, with some analysis calling the speed of the cleanup a tacit admission of guilt. The barren site is on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, 90 miles north of the Iraqi border.

The image released Friday came from a private company, DigitalGlobe, in Longmont, Colo. It shows a tall, square building under construction that appears to closely resemble the original structure, with the exception that the roof is vaulted instead of flat. The photo was taken from space on Wednesday.

• I GUESS THEY REALLY WANNA PLAY WHACKAMOLE.
• I SAY: OKAY: COUNTING DOWN: TEN... NINE... EIGHT...
• SERIOUSLY: CONCRETE USED IN CONSTRUCTION COULD HIDE A LOT OF SINS.
• I BETCHYA THEY INVITE INSPECTORS WHEN THEY'RE DONE.

BOTTOM-LINE: TRANSPARENCY IS CENTRAL TO INTERNATIONAL SECURITY.

ASSAD'S TYRANNICAL TERRORIST-ENABLING REGIME HAS NO TRANSPARENCY, AND THIS IS WHY WE MUST ACT PREEMPTIVELY: BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY.

IRAN HOLDS THE NATION OF LEBANON HOSTAGE

BBC:

The Lebanese opposition group Hezbollah has said openly that it will not allow a president to be elected unless it gets a third of the cabinet seats.

This would give Hezbollah and its allies a veto over key decisions.

The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, blamed the US for obstructing a solution to Lebanon's political crisis by opposing such a move.

The western-backed Lebanese government has repeatedly rejected the opposition's demand for powers of veto.

The government has proposed reforming the cabinet to give the president a casting vote.

Hezbollah and its allies have been demanding a third of the cabinet seats since the 2006 war with Israel - which Hezbollah regards as a victory - but until now they had not publicly linked the issue to a presidential vote.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who is aligned with the government, said Hezbollah was making impossible demands and was more loyal to Syria and Iran than to Lebanon.

• Lebanon won't have slef-determination and self-government until Hizballah is neutralized.
• Hizballah won't be neutralized until Syria is essentially isolated.
• Syria won't be isolated until Iran is neutered.

If the Bush and Condi are too timid to remedy this situation then it's time to find someone who will.

Left alone, Hizballah, Syria and Iran will only get stronger.

And the costs of defeating will only go up.
FASTER! PLEASE!

FRANCE HALTS DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH SYRIA

BBC: France to halt links with Syria

President Sarkozy wants Syria to use its influence in Lebanon

France is to suspend diplomatic contacts with Syria, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced.

Links will be restored only when France has proof that Syria is not blocking progress towards installing a consensus president in Lebanon, Mr Sarkozy said.

Lebanon has been without a president since November, as rival pro- and anti- Syrian factions argue over who should fill the post.

• THIS IS PROGRESS, BIT LET'S FACE IT: ASSAD SHOULD HAVE BEEN WHACKED ALREADY.

• AT LEAST THE WEST LOOKS LIKE WE'RE UNITED AND WE'RE GONNA STOP PUSSY-FOOTING AROUND.

SYRIA THREATENS SPAIN

Yahoo/AFP:

Syria's secret service has reportedly threatened Spanish soldiers in Lebanon in a bid to block the extradition of suspected arms dealer Monzer Al-Kassar to the United States.

The Spanish intelligence service, according to a memo cited by the newspaper El Mundo, fears that troops on UN deployment in south-east Lebanon could be targeted if the Spanish cabinet ratify a judicial verdict and send Kassar to the US.

General Assef Schawkat, chief of Syrian military intelligence, wrote to his opposite number in Spain: "If you think we are going to ignore the affront inflicted by north-American henchmen on our brother (Kassar), you don't really know us and [you] are no friends of the Syrian people."

Dated end-July, the note also refers to Schawkat delivering a thinly-veiled threat during a discussion with Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.

Around 1,100 Spanish soldiers serve in the UN interim force in Lebanon installed after the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Six Spanish soldiers were killed during a bombing there in June.

Syrian native Kassar, known colloquially as the "Prince of Marbella" where he has been based for the last decade, is wanted in the US on suspicion of arranging arms deals for leftist FARC rebels in Colombia.

• ASSAD IS A PUTINESQUE THUG WHO SHOULD BE NEUTRALIZED.
• HE THREATENS MORE THAN SPAIN AND THE UN; HE THREATENS LEBANON AND ISRAEL.
• IT SEEMS TO ME THAT BUSH AND RICE HAVE REALLY BEEN SUCKING UP TO ASSAD INSTEAD OF CONFRONTING HIM.
• IT SEEMS TO ME LIKE BUSH AND RICE HAVE BEEN SURREPTITIOUSLY FOLLOWING THEIR BUDDY BAKER'S ISG PLAN, MORE OR LESS...
  

OUR FOREIGN POLICY NEEDS LESS BAKER AND MORE BOLTON!

Did the NIE on Iran's nuclear weapons program change so dramitically this Autumn because of the Israeli airstrike against Syria?

WEEKLY STANDARD/THOMAS JOCELYN:

... on July 11, 2007, roughly four or so months prior to the most recent NIE’s publication, Deputy Director of Analysis Thomas Fingar gave the following testimony before the House Armed Services Committee (emphasis added):

Iran and North Korea are the states of most concern to us. The United States’ concerns about Iran are shared by many nations, including many of Iran’s neighbors. Iran is continuing to pursue uranium enrichment and has shown more interest in protracting negotiations and working to delay and diminish the impact of UNSC sanctions than in reaching an acceptable diplomatic solution. We assess that Tehran is determined to develop nuclear weapons--despite its international obligations and international pressure. This is a grave concern to the other countries in the region whose security would be threatened should Iran acquire nuclear weapons.

This paragraph appeared under the subheading: "Iran Assessed As Determined to Develop Nuclear Weapons." And the entirety of Fingar’s 22-page testimony was labeled "Information as of July 11, 2007." No part of it is consistent with the latest NIE, in which our spooks tell us Iran suspended its covert nuclear weapons program in 2003 "primarily in response to international pressure" and they "do not know whether (Iran) currently intends to develop nuclear weapons."

The inconsistencies are more troubling when we realize that, according to the Wall Street Journal, Thomas Fingar is one of the three officials who were responsible for crafting the latest NIE. The Journal cites "an intelligence source" as describing Fingar and his two colleagues as "hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials." (The New York Sun drew attention to one of Fingar’s colleagues yesterday.)

So, if it is true that Dr. Fingar played a leading role in crafting this latest NIE, then we are left with serious questions:

* Why did your opinion change so drastically in just four months time?

* Is the new intelligence or analysis really that good? Is it good enough to overturn your previous assessments? Or, has it never really been good enough to make a definitive assessment at all?

* Did your political or ideological leanings, or your policy preferences, or those of your colleagues, influence your opinion in any way?

Many in the mainstream press have been willing to cite this latest NIE unquestioningly. Perhaps they should start asking some pointed questions. (Don’t hold your breath.)

Posted by Thomas Joscelyn

I SUGGEST AN ANSWER: THAT THE SEPTEMBER 6TH I.A.F. AIR-STRIKE AGAINST THAT SECRET SYRIAN/NORTH KOREAN MILITARY SITE "NEUTRALIZED" THE IRANIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM.

WHERE SADDAM'S WMDS WENT

No doubt this won't get much attention by the MSM as it contradicts what they want to believe, but here's what happened to Saddam's WMDs in past years (via IRIS Blog):

According to foreign reports, Israel destroyed a nuclear weapons installation in Syria in September. Never has a larger story been pushed under the rug by so many so quickly. What are we to make of this?

Over the weekend former federal prosecutor and the head of the non-governmental International Intelligence Summit, John Loftus, released a report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. His report was based on a private study of captured Iraqi documents. These were the unread Arabic language documents that US forces seized, but had not managed to translate after overthrowing Saddam Hussein in 2003.

After a prolonged battle between Congress and then director of US National Intelligence John Negroponte, President George W. Bush ordered those documents posted on a public access Web site last year. They were taken down after it was discovered that among the Iraqi documents were precise descriptions of how to build nuclear weapons.

As Loftus summarized, "The gist of the new evidence is this: Roughly one-quarter of Saddam's WMD was destroyed under UN pressure during the early to mid 1990s. Saddam sold approximately another quarter of his weapons stockpile to his Arab neighbors during the mid-to-late-1990's. The Russians insisted on removing another quarter in the last few months before the war. The last remaining WMD, the contents of Saddam's nuclear weapons labs, were still inside Iraq on the day when the coalition forces arrived in 2003. His nuclear weapons equipment was hidden in enormous underwater warehouses beneath the Euphrates River. Saddam's entire nuclear inventory was later stolen from these warehouses right out from under the Americans' noses."

Loftus then cites Israeli sources who claim that the Iraqi nuclear program was transferred to the Deir az Zour province in Syria.

LOFTUS'S REPORT jibes with a report published on the Web site of Kuwait's Al Seyassah's newspaper on September 25, 2006. That report, which I noted last November, cited European intelligence sources and claimed that in late 2004 Syria began developing a nuclear program near its border with Turkey. Syria's program, which was run by President Bashar Assad's brother Maher and defended by an Iranian Revolutionary Guards brigade, had by mid-2006 "reached the stage of medium activity." The Kuwaiti report stated that the Syrian nuclear program was based "on equipment and materials that the sons of the deposed Iraqi leader, Uday and Qusai transferred to Syria by using dozens of civilian trucks and trains, before and after the US-British invasion in March 2003."

The program, which was run by Iranians with assistance from Iraqi scientists and scientists from the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union, "was originally built on the remains of the Iraqi program after it was wholly transferred to Syria." These reports and several others like them which have surfaced over the past several years tell us interesting and disturbing things.

So it was good then that the IAF blew those nuclear plants in Syria to smithereens. Read the whole article, as it tells a lot of important information.

BUSH AND HIS KEY CONSERVATIVE (AND DEPENDABLE) EUROPEAN ALLIES WILL MEET THIS WEEK

BUSH WILL MEET WITH SARKOZY AND THEN MERKEL IN DC THIS WEEK. OUR TWO MOST DEPENDABLE ALLIES IN OLD EUROPE.

• YES: FRANCE IS NOW DEPENDABLE. LIKE GERMANY UNDER MERKEL.

• THEY HAVE BEEN EXCELLENT ON IRAN AND SYRIA.

• BETTER THAN THE DEMOCRATS.

BREITBART/AFP:

US President George W. Bush rolls out the red carpet next week for French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, eager for their views on Iran's nuclear program and Russia.

The high-stakes week of diplomacy, which will also see Bush host Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, comes as Washington seeks more sanctions against Tehran and worries about the health of democratic reforms in Moscow.

Bush will host his French counterpart at the White House on Tuesday for an official dinner, then squire him on Wednesday to the Mount Vernon estate of the first US president, George Washington.

The two leaders were expected to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French soldier and diplomat who played a key role in the American revolution.

Merkel was to get an even juicier diplomatic plum, arriving Friday for a weekend stay at Bush's beloved "Prairie Chapel" ranch in Texas, a prize reserved for especially close allies.

Bush and his guests will have a full diplomatic plate: "Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Middle East peace process, Kosovo, Burma, Afghanistan and Darfur, Trade, NATO, transatlantic relations, climate and energy security" are also on the menu, according to White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

But the issues of Iran -- which denies US charges that it seeks nuclear weapons and has bucked international pressure to freeze uranium enrichment -- and Russia -- including Moscow's relations with Tehran and its cloudy political future -- will dominate.

• I SUSPECT THAT BUSH, SARKOZY AND MERKEL WILL AGREE ON A FRAMEWORK FOR DEALING WITH IRAN AND SYRIA OVER THE NEXT SIX MONTHS.

• BUSH WILL KEEP THESE TWO IN THE LOOP, AS WE WILL NEED THEM FOR THE PENULTIMATE STAGE.

THE ULTIMATE STAGE IS A PREEMPTIVE ATTACK - AND WE DON'T NEED NOBODY'S HELP FOR THAT.

SATELLITE PHOTO REVEALS SYRIA BEGAN BUILDING SITE IN 2003 - was it nuclear, or did it hold Saddam's WMD?

NYTIMES - VIA HOT AIR:

The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it.

The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria while planning and executing a war in Iraq, which was later found to have no active nuclear program.

A senior American intelligence official said yesterday that American analysts had looked carefully at the site from its early days, but were unsure then whether it posed a nuclear threat.

In the time before the Iraq war, President Bush and his senior advisers sounded many alarms about Baghdad’s reconstituting its nuclear program. But they have never publicly discussed what many analysts say appears to have been a long-running nuclear effort next door.

• FIRST, if this really was a nuclear site, then it points out that our intelligence services REALLY SUCK - especially the traitorous VALERIE PLAME whose specific responsibility this was. (It also UNDENIABLY proves how difficult it is to ever know with certainty what a tyrannical regime wants to keep secret. Tyrannical regimes like IRAN - who should realize that they are going to get the same treatment sooner rather than later).

• SECOND, maybe this was not a nuclear site. Maybe this site was constructed to house SADDAM'S WMD - which many authoritative sources argue were transported into Syria before the war. (See HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE). It is reasonable to assume that IF Assad "took in" Saddam's WMD that he'd have to build a place to keep them. Maybe this was the complex he built to house Saddam's WMD.

• International teams should be allowed into Syria at once to inspect the site.

MERKEL TO PUTIN: IRAN IS KIND OF CRAZY, SHOULDN'T GET NUKES (PLUS: YUP, OPERATION ORCHARD HIT A NUKE FACILITY)

We wonder if she had to speak very slowly and use really small words:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the possibility of stronger sanctions against Iran before she met Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who planned to travel on to Teheran from Germany. Iran, Merkel was quoted by Army Radio as telling Putin, was a danger to Israel's security. The German leader said her talks with Putin would focus on the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program and the resolution of Kosovo's status... The US push for stronger sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program has emerged as the theme likely to dominate the talks, with Putin set to visit Teheran after Monday's meeting.

So that last sentence was kind of the reason we're not particularly hopeful on this. Unless we've missed a memo, the only thing stopping the spread of nuclear technology in the Middle East right now is the occasional Israeli bombing run over Arab territory:

Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports. The description of the target addresses one of the central mysteries surrounding the Sept. 6 attack, and suggests that Israel carried out the raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state. The Bush administration was divided at the time about the wisdom of Israel’s strike, American officials said, and some senior policy makers still regard the attack as premature.

Or, more accurately, the occasional totally awesome Israeli bombing run over Arab territory. But want to guess which part of the Executive was against the attack? If you said "not the State Department", (a) you're wrong (b) welcome to MR. We're always glad to have new readers.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

Panic In Iran

I have a long post about what the recent Israeli attack on Syria portends for Iran.


The short version: if America and/or Israel is going to attack Iran the attack will probably happen in the next two months or so.

STATE DEPARTMENT GETS BRIGHT IDEA: LET'S SCREW ISRAEL EVEN MORE BY BUNDLING SYRIA INTO THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS

Sure why not? If we're already all sitting down to pressure Israel to make concessions that endanger its existence - why not go the whole distance:

Syria could attend an upcoming Middle East peace conference in Washington as part of an Arab League committee, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attends a Middle East "Quartet" briefing at the U.N. Sunday. Speaking after a meeting of the Mideast Quartet -- which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia -- Rice said Arab League members charged with following up on a Saudi-backed peace proposal were likely to be invited to the November conference. Syria is a member of that follow-up committee.

When we were taught Israeli-Arab Peace Process 101, it was an ironclad principle that Israel pushes for bilateral talks with each individual Arab enemy and the Arabs push for multilateral talks with Israel. Why? Because when the Arab states combine their "negotiating strength", they can make demands in unison: "hey Israel, you want this concession from the Palestinians? Well then you're also going to have to give back the Golan to Syria." Israel has to give something to every Arab state in order to get anything that it wants.

That's why the Saudis are already setting preconditions for their participation (nice to see major media outlets helping them out with that - teamwork). They understand that the State Department has maneuvered Olmert into an impossible situation, and they're ready to exploit it after three decades of Israel successfully resisting multilateral talks. Even Bush I and Baker, when they convened the multinational Madrid Conference, didn't successfully force Israel into large-scale multilateral peace negotiations.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

WMD ACCIDENT IN SYRIA?

JPOST - VIA WILLISMS:

'Dozens died in Syrian-Iranian chemical weapons experiment'

Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Defence Weekly report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.

According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas.

Reports of the accident were circulated at the time; however, no details were released by the Syrian government, and there were no hints of an Iranian connection.

MAYBE THE CW WERE SADDAM'S? MAYBE THIS IS WHY THE IAF WHACKED'EM?

BTW: LAST WEEK KUCINICH - THE DARLING OF THE LEFT - SAID HE WAS HONORED TO SPEND TIME WITH ASSAD.

ASSAD WAS PLANNING TO USE NUKES AGAINST ISRAEL (PLUS: THE TOTALLY AWESOME IAF COMMANDO OPERATION THAT SLOWED HIM DOWN)

So that's why he's been so confident lately:

Meir Dagan, chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in late spring with evidence that Syria was seeking to buy a nuclear device from North Korea. Dagan apparently feared such a device could eventually be installed on North-Korean-made Scud-C missiles, the paper reported. "This was supposed to be a devastating Syrian surprise for Israel,"... The report suggested intelligence including satellite images revealed a facility in Syria which may be used to build nuclear warheads.

The absolute impunity with which the IAF violated Syrian airspace obviously represents a humiliating failure for Assad. But how bad was the breakdown in Syrian counter-intelligence? This bad:

According to the report, the force included F-15s and F-16s equipped with Maverick missiles and 500 pound bombs. Flying among the warplanes at great height, The Observer reported, was an electronic intelligence gathering aircraft. According to the Times report, an IAF commando team that had arrived on the ground days earlier directed laser beams at the target for the jets.

They were hanging out for days waiting for the jets to come in, then presumably they got the hell out of Dodge without Syrian forces being able to stop them from coming in or out of the country. No wonder the Syrians are trying to buy nuclear weapons off the shelf - they're too incompetent to build them, and something tells us that their army is not really ready to go against the IDF.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

TAKE AWAY HEZBOLLAH'S COLLABORATORS, HUMAN SHIELDS: DISBAND UNIFIL NOW.

The IDC's GLORIA center held a joint video conference with the State Department on the domestic and international situation in Lebanon, bringing together Israeli, American, and Lebanese experts. It is extremely long but if you haven't been keeping close tabs on what's going on in Southern Lebanon - aka "the place where a war will probably be fought soon" - this is your opportunity to get caught up. Here's a teaser about one of the parts we're not including: "many jihadists and terrorists have been infiltrating Lebanon... with the supposed support of NGOs and money from the Gulf."

But we do want to make sure you catch this part:

It is now generally accepted that large-scale smuggling of arms from Syria to Hizballah has taken place since the ceasefire. A UN assessment team submitted its report to the Security Council to this effect... And UNIFIL has failed even to deploy on this border. Thus, Hizballah has been rearmed contrary to the UNIFIL mandate. There is also considerable evidence that Hizballah has largely rebuilt its military infrastructure from the damage suffered in the war, despite the presence of 8,800 UNIFIL and 12,000 Lebanese army forces ostensibly to prevent this... Regarding UNIFIL, it seems that its forces have accepted an extremely limited role, and a cynic could describe them as under the protection of Hizballah to an extent. It is not a question of them collapsing, but of them not doing anything. An Italian official told us that the UNIFIL forces were engaged in a number of laudable activities such as distributing toys to children, but when it came to Hizballah, he was very open: "We don't have the political will in Italy to have body bags come home."

And it's not just that UNIFIL provides Hezbollah and Syria with thousands of human shields. UN peacekeepers are also basically helpless their hostages. After bragging about how they were going to the Middle East to sort things out, the Europeans have gone from pretending to monitor Hezbollah's attacks on Israel to trying to stop Hezbollah from attacking UNIFIL itself. Hezbollah and Syria use the vulnerability of European peacekeepers to extract European diplomatic concessions in unrelated areas. Instead of being sacrificed for demonstrably misplaced European self-interest, Israeli security is now being sacrificed for transparently facile European self-delusion.

The Europeans have this image of themselves as tough soldiers who have come into Lebanon to finally put an end to all this Zionist warmongering nonsense. It's very important for them to hold on to the idea - crucially, ultimately important - that they are putting the Israelis in their place. But in reality the mostly French soldiers in UNIFIL are pathetically bad soldiers. They like to play-act at being tough military men in a brutal warzone, but they're so poorly trained that they don't even know what good training looks like. Since they can't admit their pathetic helplessness, they hysterically accuse Israel of lying when Israel provides evidence that Hezbollah is using UN facilities to attack Israeli civilians - mostly because UNIFIL can't do anything to stop them. They can't even stop their bases from getting overrun by Lebanese funeral processions. Or by little Lebanese kids.

Which is not to say that many UNIFIL soldiers are not also pathologically anti-Semitic. More precisely: many of them are resentful and pathetic weaklings who cope with their seething impotence in the tried and true European tradition of pseudo-sophisticated anti-Semitism.

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]