U.S. Helped Israel Bomb Syria?

Posted by D. Cupples (photo by Jason Goecke) |  The Jerusalem Post reports:

"The September 6 raid over Syria was carried out by the US Air Force, the Al-Jazeera Web site reported Friday. The Web site quoted Israeli and Arab sources as saying that two US jets armed with tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a suspected nuclear site under construction.

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"The sources were quoted as saying that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes. The sources added that each US plane carried one tactical nuclear weapon and that the site was hit by one bomb and was totally destroyed.

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"At the beginning of October, Israel's military censor began to allow the local media to report on the raid without attributing their report to foreign sources. Nevertheless, details of the strike have remained clouded in mystery."

If this report is accurate, the big question is whether it was legal for the Bush Administration to take part in an attack against Syria. I can't help think of President Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia.  Just weeks ago, we learned that....

U.S. officials had known since July that Israel was setting its sites on Syria's alleged nuclear facility.  Despite two months' time and God-knows-how-many satellites orbiting the globe, the nuclear nature of the Syrian target was not confirmed before the bombing (BN-Politics).  Syria still denies that the site was a nuclear facility. 

Last month, Bush Administration officials made no mention that U.S. planes and pilots had taken part in the airstrikes.

Reactions around the blogosphere are mixed.  A Blog for All comments:

"The September 6 airstrike on a Syrian facility continues to generate lots of rumors, but this one takes the cake.... All we get is a bunch of unnamed sources, who are most likely propagandists who have nothing better to do than to come up with fanciful reasons for why the Syrians got whacked on September 6 and how they couldn't defend the site from attack. Teenagers hanging out in their parents' basements could do better."

Gun Toting Liberal commented:

"Should this prove to be the truth, and I have little doubt to its authenticity, the lesson of the Bush Administration is clear: nations who cannot be “trusted” with nukes will face nukes from a country who has PROVEN it cannot be trusted with nukes — my good ‘ole U.S. of A.... I have a huge problem with a President who wages war upon those nations his paranoia tells him are “evil”, whether or not they were included in his “Axis Of Evil” speech following the 9/11 WTC attacks in NY City. It’s unconstitutional."

In a post titled "A Pleasant Surprise," a blog called Dr. Sanity says:

"If this news report is true, then good for President Bush! It might also explain why U.S. authorities are being extremely tight-lipped about it."

See other bloggers' reactions at Memeorandum.

Comments

[Charles]

This report is Murdochian nonsense.

There are no reliable reports of detection of radioactivity. A nuke, even the smallest one, would inflict much more damage. Last I checked, Al Jazeera had not produced an English-language version, probably for good reason.