Elliot Abrams, long time man about the state department, writing in Commentary about the Syrian reactor. Way back in 2007, the Israelis asked the Bush administration to receive Meir Dagan, chief of Mossad, at the White House. The Bush people asked Dagan to make his presentation to the National Security Adviser, Stephan Hadley, Elliot Abrams, and Dick Cheney.
Dagan's presentation was explosive. The Syrians were building a nuclear reactor from North Korean plans, with North Korean technical assistance.
Revelation of this hot potato led to a series of joint US-Israeli meeting on what to do. Options were military (air raid) or diplomatic (UN security council). Somehow Washington managed to keep this super juicy secret secret. Finally Bush decided to go the diplomatic route. The Israelis told Bush that going to the UN was unacceptable to them and they would have to act.
A couple of months later, the Israeli Air Force blew the reactor to bits. Afterwards Bush told the Israelis that he understood. Both the Americans and the Israelis said nothing about a reactor as the target of the Israeli air strike. Neither did the Syrians. The Syrians just bulldozed the bomb craters and the wreckage flat and pretended that nothing had happened.
I wonder if the Israeli's will dare to share such intelligence with the Obama administration when Iran's turn comes up. Or will they figure Obama will leak it to the press?
Come to think of it, there was a mysterious explosion at an Iranian nuclear facility a few days ago. Wonder who knew about that one.
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