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Monday, January 12, 2009 |
Firedoglake: "David Sanger has been a very busy chief Washington correspondent. His report on the 'sheer scariness' of the insecurity of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal appears today in the New York Times Magazine, but he also had a major article in the paper yesterday. The Saturday article, 'U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site', discusses the Israeli desire for a U.S. attack on Iran to which Bush said no - but also claims that Bush turned down the Israeli request for key assistance for an Israeli launched operation.
In place of a direct attack by either country, Sanger reports that Bush 'told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran's suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials'.
We seem to be back in 'sheer scariness' territory again but there's a problem with Sanger's report. He gets a central fact wrong in his very first sentence which reads:
President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran's main nuclear complex ...
He later repeats the claim saying that:
The United States did give Israel one item on its shopping list: high-powered radar, called the X-Band, to detect any Iranian missile launchings. It was the only element in the Israeli request that could be used solely for defense, not offense.
Yet, as we discussed back in September, the U.S. actually did approve the sale of 1,000 GBU-39, those 'specialized bunker-busting bombs'. As we noted then, Haaretz reported the sale on September 14th:
Despite reservations in Washington regarding a possible Israeli strike on Iran, the American administration will supply Israel with sophisticated weapons for heavily fortified targets, the U.S. administration announced.
The Pentagon's announcement, which came on Friday, said the U.S. will provide Israel with 1,000 units of Guided Bomb Unit-39 (GBU-39) - a special weapon developed for penetrating fortified facilities located deep underground.
The $77 million shipment, which includes launchers and appurtenances, will allow the IAF to hit many more bunkers than currently possible. Although each bomb weighs 113 kilograms, its penetration capabilities equal those of a one ton bomb, according to professional literature.
And the Jerusalem Post has reported that Israel is now using those GBU-39 'bunker busters' in Gaza."
NotMyTribe: "An Italian director has a film about military use of White Phosphorus called The Hidden Massacre on youtube well worth watching to get an idea of what Israel's use in Gaza of this chemical weapon is likely producing now. The US used this weapon against Fallujah in Iraq and Israel has used it already previously in Lebanon. Israel Using White Phosphorus In Gaza. Nothing much in our country has changed since US use of napalm against the Vietnamese."
Has Israel lost the war already?
11:59:15 AM 
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