=== The achievement of the Sept. 6 operation should not be taken lightly: Someone detected a North Korean delivery of nuclear-related material to Syria. ===

That's a powerful and serious accusation. Care to provide some proof? Because without solid proof it is hard to distinguish that statement from an OVP disinformation campaign.

sPh

The author is suggesting we believe Israel's intelligence and military community is not run by a bunch of incompetent, blind, blithering idiots.

=== The author is suggesting we believe Israel's intelligence and military community is not run by a bunch of incompetent, blind, blithering idiots. ===

Respectfully I would disagree. Israel likes to poke Syria and run disinformation campaigns/psyops themselves. This could be a very well-done disinformation campaign by the Israelis or by the OVP. Voting US citizens require some actual evidence before making a judgment - and actual evidence has been non-existent in this incident.

I am not simply going to take the author's word for it.

sPh

Why do you REQUIRE evidence? Do you vote in the Israeli elections?

One thing I don't get - if this really was an Israeli attack on North Korean and/or Iranian nuclear related material in Syria (or Hizbollah related weaponry) why would Israel keep quiet about this?

I have heard another theory: that perhaps this was an attack on a Russian-supplied anti-missile system. "if Russian technicians or military personnel were at risk in the strike, then for obvious reasons Israel would have no interest in advertising the nature of the target, the Russians would have no interest in admitting their presence, and the United States would be quite happy with the result. If not Russians, then the target had to be some other nationality that is not supposed to be in the Middle East, and which Israel would be reluctant to reveal."

For now, this is all pure speculation of course. But if *both* Israel and Syria are keeping quiet about the nature of the target, then this must have been something sensitive to both countries

I find this theory quite interesting. Here is a link to the Haaretz and "Aviation Leak" articles on the subject: <link>

I find it hard to believe that Syria has begun to put together a nuclear arsenal and the US and Israeli governments are quiet about it. All we hear is "this paper reported that that paper reported that an anonymous leaker says it was a bombing of nuclear material". And the Israeli censors forbid their press from doing any stories on what happened, other than simply reprinting what the foreign press is saying. Gosh, it must be true then, another "slam dunk".

But the fact that the Israelis can take out a Tor-M1 system so easily is clearly a shot across the bow of Iran. That would make sense.

Do we know that Syria got their hands on a Tor-M1 system or two? Aren't they mobile? How come they didn't retaliate? Does Israel have stealth tech?

The nuke angle is plausible on the one hand: 1) a transfer of material happened prior to the current Pyongyang deal and the North Koreans fessed up, 2) this was the reason why Syria was lumped in the Axis of Evil - all are bent on acquiring nuclear tech and are not friendly towards US interests, and implausible on the other hand: we've been screaming nukes nukes nukes about Iraq, Lybia, Iran and N. Korea but never about Syria as far as I'm aware.

What I'm trying to say is - it may take years (if ever) to find out what this strike was about for definite.