US, Israel, Syria, Korea and (maybe) Loose Nukes

Is it sloppy journalism that the date of the attack doesn’t appear in the article, or a deliberate attempt to distance our “loose nukes” (Aug, 29) episode with the Sept. 8 event in Syria? The Israelis sure are worried about releasing details, despite some thinking it would “enhance” the Israeli government’s image as powerful and in control of things. But their power comes at our cost. Read on, citizens, courtesy of Haaretz...
Israel, U.S. plan to release details on Syria attack
By Barak Ravid and Amos Harel
Israel and the United States are coordinating the release of details on the air force strike in Syria last September, which foreign reports claim targeted a nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. American officials may reveal details of the strike later this month during congressional hearings.
Even though the defense establishment in Israel is opposed to any publication of details of the attack, the Prime Minister's Bureau and U.S. President George W. Bush's administration are of the opinion that it is now possible to reveal details because there is little chance of a conflagration as a result of a Syrian decision to avenge the attack.
[...] Intelligence analysts in Israel maintain that any further release of the details on the strike will contribute to the already tense situation between Syria and Israel, which has been exacerbated in part because of Hezbollah's plans to avenge the assassination of the group's terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyah.
Any official release of the details of the attack and the nature of the installation may push Syria's Bashar Assad into a corner and put pressure him to respond, say intelligence officials.
[...] The hearings at the House Intelligence Committee may be held in the coming weeks. Congressmen have included in the bill on the intelligence budget that American intelligence agencies will not be given large portions of their budget unless they reveal in full the details of the strike in Syria and the nuclear cooperation between Pyongyang and Damascus.
This has led U.S. and Israeli officials to conclude that American officials will release details of the strike during the hearings.
Talks between the U.S. and North Korea are schedule to resume tomorrow in Singapore. One of the American conditions for lifting the sanctions on Pyongyang is for it to expose its nuclear collaboration with other countries, which North Korea maintains does not exist. According to South Korean media sources, Pyongyang has agreed to provide the U.S. with information on its nuclear cooperation with Syria, on condition that Washington will not make this public. The same sources stated that the U.S. has given North Korea a list of engineers that are suspected of involvement in the construction of the installation that was targeted in Syria. [...]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/971914.html

Only the Traitors Know

BTW: The original post for the story below, USAF struck Syrian Nuclear Site, has been deleted from Jerusalem Post. Today’s search in the newspaper comes up with this story of how secretive the Syrians are that their own military didn’t know about the facility. Right!
Jerusalem Post, Nov 3, 2007 13:28 | Updated Nov 3, 2007 13:32
'Syrian politics helped IAF air strike'
The secrecy under which Syria kept its nuclear development may have contributed to the success of Israel's alleged air strike against a nuclear facility in September, Aviation Week reported on Saturday.
Quoting unnamed Israeli sources, the report stated that due to internal politics within Damascus, the site was so highly classified that even the Syrian military was unaware of its existence. Accordingly, proper air defenses were never erected, thereby leaving the area vulnerable to aerial attack.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380724188&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
So who bombed Syria? And what exactly did they bomb? And who’s government is so secretive that other branches don’t know what’s going on?
Only the traitors know.

The Loose Nukes Story Has a New Wrinkle

I knew there was more to this story. Let's hope it gets reported.
Nuke transportation story has explosive implications
By ROBERT STORMER
Special to the Star-Telegram, Posted on Sun, Oct. 07, 2007
The procedure is to separate the warhead from the missile, encase the warhead and transport it by military cargo aircraft to a repository -- not an operational bomber base that just happens to be the staging area for Middle Eastern operations. [emphasis added]

http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/259201.html

See past posts: September 13, 2007, This was No Accident: Nuclear Weapons are Different and September 7, 2007, Heads Up re Stand Down

Sept. 14--It Must Be Stand Down Day!

I originally ran this Sept. 4th, but since today is the 14th, we have a replay.

US Air Force does Putin the favor of flying its own nuclear bombers over America

Part of: Nuclear USA , Russian nuclear weapons and testing

http://www.bellona.org/news/1159877123.81

Now, does anyone give a shit about this:

Nuclear Bombs Mistakenly Flown Over US

By PAULINE JELINEK, The Associated Press September 05, 2007

http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2007/09/nuclear-bombs-mistakenly-flown-over-us-2

The Air Combat Command has ordered a command-wide stand down on Sept. 14 to review procedures, officials said. They said there was minimal risk to crews and the public because of safety features designed into the munitions.

Remember the last stand down? Six years ago? September 11? 2001?
Is anybody out there?

This was No Accident: Nuclear Weapons are Different

This strange story might not ever get coverage, but should. Nuclear missiles flying from North Dakota to Louisiana without anyone knowing about it? Don't forget Friday's "stand-down." (See my Sept. 7th post "Heads Up re Stand Down" for a report on this decision by Air Combat Command.

Written by Dave Lindorff Monday, 10 September 2007

I would say that the chances that those Advanced Cruise Missiles and their W80-1 nuclear warheads were loaded accidentally on that B-52 are exactly zero. So the question is: who ordered this flight, and why?

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2366&Itemid=81