Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Israel knows how to deal with Radical Muslim nuclear programs. Check out the pictures here. Looks like Mr. Clean was in town.

New commercial satellite photos show that a Syrian site believed to have been attacked by Israel last month no longer bears any obvious traces of what some analysts said appeared to have been a partly built nuclear reactor.

Two photos, taken Wednesday from space by rival companies, show the site near the Euphrates River to have been wiped clean since August, when imagery showed a tall square building there measuring about 150 feet on a side.

The Syrians reported an attack by Israel in early September; the Israelis have not confirmed that. Senior Syrian officials continue to deny that a nuclear reactor was under construction, insisting that Israel hit a largely empty military warehouse.

But the images, federal and private analysts say, suggest that the Syrian authorities rushed to dismantle the facility after the strike, calling it a tacit admission of guilt.

If you need further evidence Israel serves a useful purpose in the middle east, there you go.

I’m afraid we differ in our interpretation of events, but I do share your final conviction.

Posted by Will Brown  on  10/27  at  02:43 PM

I’ve got a book on the Osirak raid, and the before and after photos are just as awesome, especially considering they were not using laser guided bombs.  The site was complex and had several buildings that needed to be avoided, and they were 100% accurate.  An amazing feat.

Posted by  on  10/27  at  06:09 PM

Will’s theory, which is a good one, is what we’re seeing may be an act of camouflage. Not a clean up. Which means they may still have something going on there.

However, I hope the Israelis did their job.

Posted by  on  10/27  at  08:06 PM

I think the principle difference between the events in Syria and those Toren references in Iraq is that we have no visual evidence (publicly available as of yet) by which to judge matters for ourselves.  The rather blatant effort to skew the implications to be drawn from the IHT article, particularly in contrast to the little visual evidence the accompanying photos offer, make me suspicious as regards Syrian (and others) intentions. 

I don’t doubt Israel’s general level of military competence, but one of the drawbacks of precision targetted weapons is that the physical damage they cause is often not readily visible to long-range photographic equipment.  Observation of traffic patterns into and around this Syrian facility will go some distance toward discerning conditions on the ground.  As well, photo’s taken in the period between the “alleged” Israeli activity and the October date on the available photo (when any masking efforts would have been more obviously underway) will eventually become public I expect. 

Until such time, I think elevated suspicion remains warrented. 

Love the site Hud, got any further updates on your new locale?

Posted by Will Brown  on  10/28  at  12:31 PM

If it’s camo, the US KH-13 spy satellites have long since determined if that is true.  They are, at a minimum, 1000 times better than the commercial satellites and operate from low IF up to UV-A, plus radar, etc.
But yes, the current published data is inadequate for a conclusive decision by the likes of us.

Posted by  on  10/28  at  04:41 PM
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