Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., November 25, 2007 Kislev 15, 5768 | | Israel Time: 02:35 (EST+7) web haaretz.com   Back to Homepage Rosner's Domain Diplomacy Defense Jewish World Opinion National Print Edition Advertising Books Arts & Leisure Business Real Estate Easy Start Magazine Week's End Anglo File

Pictures taken in September 2003 of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor. (GeoEye) del.icio.us Digg It!  new Last update - 20:26 22/11/2007 Report: IAF knocked out Syria radar during Sept. 6 strike By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service Tags: Syria, Israel, nuclear, U.S. The Israel Air Force hit a Syrian radar post near the country's northern border with Turkey on September 6, knocking out Syria's entire radar system as a prelude to striking a suspected nuclear reactor, Aviation Week & Space Technology is reporting in its November 26 edition. The radar site was hit with a combination of electronic attack and precision bombs to allow the IAF to enter and exit Syrian airspace unobserved, the report said. Subsequently all of Syria's air-defense radar system went off the air for a period of time that encompassed the raid, U.S. intelligence analysts told Aviation Week Advertisement According to the report, the United States provided Israel with information about Syrian air defenses as Israel carried out the strike. The U.S. was monitoring the electronic emissions coming from Syria during the air strike, and while there was no active American engagement in the operation, there was advice provided, military and aerospace industry officials told the magazine. However, there was "no U.S. active engagement other than consulting on potential target vulnerabilities," a U.S. electronic warfare specialist says. Syria has confirmed the air strike, but has vehemently denied reports that it targeted and destroyed an apparent nuclear facility built with North Korean assistance. North Korea has also denied any nuclear cooperation with Syria. For their part, Israeli officials have maintained silence and refused to comment on the air strike. Israeli nuclear expert: Syria site was facility for assembling nukes Tel Aviv University Professor Uzi Even, a former Meretz MK and a chemist who until 1968 worked at the Dimona nuclear reactor, told Haaretz in an interview published Thursday that he believes the evidence suggests that the Syrian site was not in fact a nuclear reactor - but rather a facility for assembling nuclear bombs. Even, who has been keeping track of nuclear issues for years, bases his analysis in large part on satellite photos widely published recently in the media and on internet Web sites. The images show that the facility lacked a chimney - which is necessary for the emission of the radioactive gases - despite the fact that evidence suggests that construction began on the facility at least four years ago. In contrast, a chimney is clearly visible in images of the reactor in Yongbyon, North Korea. "We can assume that construction began even before 2003," says Even. "In all those years, five years or even more, a chimney had still not been built? Very strange." In addition, Even contends, the facility did not have cooling towers. The pumping station seen in the photos, 5 kilometers from the site, cannot, according to him, be a substitute for such towers. "A structure without cooling towers cannot be a reactor," he says, pointing to the satellite photo from Yongbyon, in which one can clearly see the cooling tower, with steam rising from it. Another structure essential for a reactor is missing from the Syrian photos: a plutonium separation facility, which processes enriched uranium in order to turn them into plutonium. "In my estimation this was something very nasty and vicious, and even more dangerous than a reactor," says Even. "I have no information, only an assessment, but I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely a factory for assembling the bomb." Should his assessment be true, it would mean that Syria was in a far more advanced stage in its attempt to acquire nuclear weapons, in that it likely would already have the necessary plutonium, and was involved in building a bomb factory. Even's assessment is reinforced by the fact that satellite photos taken after the bombing clearly show that the Syrians made an effort to bury the entire site under piles of earth. "They did so because of the lethal nature of the material that was in the structure, and that can be plutonium," he said. That may also be the reason they refused to allow IAEA inspectors to visit the site and take samples of the earth, which would expose the nature of the site. Related articles: Inside Intel / Not a reactor - something far more vicious Report: IAF strike targeted partly finished nuclear reactor in Syria Report: IDF raid seized nuclear material before Syria air strike Netanyahu offers first confirmation of Syria operation ANALYSIS: N. Korea's past threats to spread nuclear technology Bookmark to del.icio.us After six decades A Holocaust survivor meets her rescuer for the first time in 62 years. Terror high A group led by U.S. senators seeks closure of a Saudi Islamic school in Virginia.   1.   Premeditated and active 16:51  |  Omran 22/11/07   2.   ISRAEL: THE US POLICEMAN IN THE M.E 17:00  |  TrippleJump 22/11/07   3.   Israel attacked Syria, NOT AMERICA 17:00  |  Wendy 22/11/07   4.   blame ?? america responsible? ? 17:11  |  Gabriel 22/11/07   5.   Bravo IAF, if has been done.........!!?? 17:13  |  maurice 22/11/07   6.   Wendy - don`t blame US. 17:15  |  Omran 22/11/07   7.   Wendy: Israel talked to the USA about this ATTACK 17:20  |  POP 22/11/07   8.   Owned 17:26  |  Sabra 22/11/07   9.   Omran 17:26  |  Ehud 22/11/07   10.   US stroke with non-nuclear ICBMs, 17:28  |  Top Russian Officer 22/11/07   11.   Now I know why... 17:35  |  JLCJR 22/11/07   12.   The Syrian Silence 17:44  |  Nephtaly 22/11/07   13.   #5 Omran 17:55  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/07   14.   TO OMRAN 18:02  |  Brant 22/11/07   15.   POP # 6 18:05  |  ChanahS 22/11/07   16.   EDOMITE(CHRISTIAN) NATIONS WILL ASSIST ISRAEL IN WAR WITH ISHMAEL 18:12  |  VOICE of MOSHIACH))) 22/11/07   17.   war mongers 18:13  |  fish 22/11/07   18.   Is this man the "expert" who interpreted the Iraq WMD images? 18:27  |  Clickfool 22/11/07   19.   Syrian radar knocked.... 18:29  |  Karl 22/11/07   20.   Only in the fevered mind of a publicity-hungry Zionist nutter 18:32  |  Clickfool 22/11/07   21.   And the head of the Syrian military was promoted 18:41  |  El-Birawi 22/11/07   22.   so how many nukes did syria make before plant was bombed? 18:49  |  yahn goodey 22/11/07   23.   Did the Israeli planes attack from Turkey, if they first ... 19:04  |  Petteri 22/11/07   24.   #19 Karl 19:21  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/07   25.   Cluckfool - Why are you se excited 19:23  |  * BEN JABO 22/11/07   26.   20# Clickfool, like the barracs of Auschwitz 19:30  |  Nora 22/11/07   27.   Clickfool: nuts on your chin 19:41  |  Richard S 22/11/07   28.   Triple Jump and Israeli pawns 19:41  |  utagawa 22/11/07   29.   Clicky wrote 14 lines of quote, concluding "this man is a nutter" 19:43  |  Alan 22/11/07   30.   Now we know where Saddam hid the stuff 19:47  |  Ronnbo 22/11/07   31.   #16 Voice of Satan 19:53  |  Who 22/11/07   32.   VOICE of MOSHIACH))) #16.... YOU SOUND LIKE A CAVEMAN 20:08  |  TrippleJump 22/11/07   33.   #1 20:17  |  Moshe 22/11/07   34.   For Richard S # 21 20:54  |  Clickfool 22/11/07   35.   Iran should be next 21:00  |  B 22/11/07   36.   ISRAEL SHOULD COME CLEAN 21:18  |  Arik Silverman 22/11/07   37.   CLI(CKFOOL`S EXCELLENT ABILITY 21:29  |  Brant 22/11/07   38.   FISH #17 21:32  |  Brant 22/11/07   39.   No one here seems to have noticed 21:58  |  Yonaatan 22/11/07   40.   For Brant # 32 21:59  |  Clickfool 22/11/07   41.   The muslims are so incapable, it`s laughable 22:07  |  Erdogan 22/11/07   42.   Who we are soooo scared of you...oooooh 22:08  |  Erdogan 22/11/07   43.   Omran in the zoo 22:14  |  Erdogan 22/11/07   44.   Fish, eye for an eye, and you just got wooped 22:16  |  Erdogan 22/11/07   45.   Syrians are humiliated, go read some more hadiths now 22:19  |  Erdogan 22/11/07   46.   Israel did what she had to do and thank God she did 22:23  |  B`Galil 22/11/07   47.   #17,32&33 22:29  |  Moshe 22/11/07   48.   ChanahS 22:34  |  POP 22/11/07   49.   Tonight I give you the truth 22:37  |  dovale 22/11/07   50.   hahahaha 23:00  |  The syrian 22/11/07   51.   Were Saddam`s WMDs hidden in Syria after all: 23:07  |  Dagma 22/11/07   52.   to # 44 Dagma - No Saddam`s WMD`s 23:37  |  Steve the Pals. 22/11/07   53.   #45 Dagma - It seems you are partially correct 00:07  |  * BEN JABO 23/11/07   54.   thanks to climate change the drop in oil exports from Iran 00:31  |  vote Republican 2008 23/11/07   55.   Talkback posters defend Syria building nuclear weapons? 00:51  |  Gili 23/11/07   56.   To Clickfool: the golden silence from israel 01:04  |  Richard S 23/11/07   57.   testing Iranian air defenses was the real reason for the attack 01:31  |  zionist forever 23/11/07   58.   POP understands nothing but POOP # 42 01:39  |  ChanahS 23/11/07   59.   Owned. Biggure Failure than the Playstation 3 02:35  |  Mr kuratagi fired :( 23/11/07   60.   The Syrian - I admit it! 02:41  |  Jewboy 23/11/07   61.   Thanks God for all of us in the West for the IAF 02:47  |  Albert 23/11/07   62.   3.wendy & 39 chanah s. the U.S. has broken its own laws,in giving 03:00  |  lakshmi 23/11/07   63.   ChanahS: Why always an Ad Hominem response? 04:10  |  POP 23/11/07   64.   ChanahS, Why do you think that Israel is the USAs Terrorist State 04:19  |  POP 23/11/07   65.   pakistani bombs would devastate shia iran 05:35  |  meant to be 23/11/07   66.   #32, Brant... 06:55  |  Silvienne 23/11/07   67.   #46, Gili... 06:58  |  Silvienne 23/11/07   68.   With patience, one can find things out 20:17  |  David W. Lincoln 23/11/07   69.   Silvenne 67- MAD won`t deter Iran 06:04  |  Stephen in New York 24/11/07   70.   #66 Silvienne to Gili 02:28  |  * BEN JABO 25/11/07

Today Online PM: Maintaining status quo with Palestinians endangers Israel Responses: 284 IDF major charged for offering to spy for Iran, Hamas Responses: 100 Abbas: Israel, PA failed to agree on a joint statement Responses: 131 Bradley Burston: Sudanese refugees and survivors' children - a kinship of genocide Responses: 72 ANALYSIS: PA should have set the bar higher at the outset Responses: 99 Sharansky: Israel again making mistake of strengthening 'moderate' PA tyrants Responses: 97 Rosner's Domain Think of Annapolis as a big party Rosner's Guest: the pervasiveness of "groupthink" in the academy Christmas wars, again? (WTR) Poll: Can the Israeli-Palestinian status quo be maintained?