by David Steven | Sep 21, 2007 | Influence and networks, Middle East and North Africa
Make sure you read this article by Marc Lynch (who runs the excellent blog, Abu Aardvark). A teaser:
Much of the conventional wisdom about the Sunni areas now seems to come from the impressions formed by politicians and journalists on stage-managed visits to Iraq, or by carefully crafted press interviews with “former insurgents” hand-picked by American military handlers. But we don’t need such a mediated view. Leaders of the major Iraqi Sunni groups actually speak quite often and quite candidly to their own people, though: in open letters, in official statements posted on internet forums, in the Arab and Iraqi press, and in statements released on al-Jazeera and other satellite television stations. What they say in such statements, in Arabic, when addressing their own constituencies, might be considered a more reliable guide to their strategy and thinking. So what are the major Iraqi Sunni leaders saying?
by David Steven | Sep 21, 2007 | Conflict and security, Middle East and North Africa, North America
The Washington Post has more on the mysterious Israeli raid on Syria that may or may not have been aimed at a nuclear installation that may or may not have been built with North Korean co-operation…
Pre-emptive strike against WMDs or neo-con misinformation? You decide.
Update: The Nelson Report believes a consignment of conventional missiles was blown up:
Our best sources continue to maintain the intel, such as it is, confirms “missiles and/or weapons parts”, most likely from N. Korea, and possibly including a Russian radar installation (which might have been helping guard the site).
Via Arms Control Wonk, who dismisses the ‘silly’ claims of a nuclear angle here…
Update II: National Review editors see the maybe-yes-maybe-no strike as a reason to up pressure on… Iran:
The Syrian connection… especially bears watching in light of the Sept. 6 Israeli air strike on a target in Syria… The target was a suspected nuclear site set up in cooperation with North Korea. Syria is of course a client state of Iran, and the Islamic Republic has a long history of cooperating with North Korea on banned weapon technologies. Iran’s membership in this axis makes it an even greater threat to the United States, and to global security generally, than it would be on its own.
Update III: Joseph Cirincione:
If the United States, Israel or any nation seriously believed there was prohibited or suspicious nuclear activity, they could have called for a special inspection. They still could. Any nuclear material—even after a bombing—would leave traces that IAEA inspectors could detect. This is precisely why we have international agencies—to provide independent, rapid verification of suspect activities. The Washington Post‘s encouragement for states to shoot first invites a more unstable, less secure world for all.
Update IV: The Sunday Times:
Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem…
They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
