Brace yourselves - George Bush will soon be free to do just what he wants

The raid on Syria is a dark portent. The current president has three long, unaccountable months to cement his legacy.

Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian.

US Faces International Condemnation in Wake of Syria Strike

While the White House has declined comment and other US officials defended the strike on a Syrian border town yesterday which killed eight, international condemnation rained down on the strike from a number of sources.

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Nine die in US helicopter attack inside Syria: report

Nine people were killed on Sunday when US helicopters attacked a village inside Syria along its border with Iraq, the private television channel al-Dunia reported on Sunday.

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Iran was iets te moeilijk?

The Syrian Affair

The “evidence” that Syria was building a nuclear reactor was a video that mixed still photos, drawings, and a dramatic voice-over that the New York Times (NYT) said gave it the “feel of a cold-war era newsreel about the Korean War.”

Counterpunch

"CIA vervalste foto's Syrische kernreactor"

De CIA zei donderdag dat het gebouw een geheime nucleaire reactor was die diende om plutonium te maken. Noord-Korea zou bij de bouw hebben geholpen. De CIA liet een aantal congresleden 'bewijsmateriaal' zien.

HLN

Syrian Nukes: the Phantom Menace

Cirincione says that there is a small Syrian nuclear research program, which has been around for 40 years and is going nowhere. "It is a basic research program built around a tiny 30 kilowatt reactor that produced a few isotopes and neutrons. It is nowhere near a program for nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel," he said. Over a dozen countries have helped Syria develop its nuclear program, including Belgium, Germany, Russia, China and even the United States, by way of training of scientists, he said.

So what is really going on here? Cirincione told the BBC that "This appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted 'intelligence' to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political agenda."

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De Syrische “nukes” part II: never give up on good propaganda

Donkerdoorn op Zaplog over de zogenaamde Syrische kernwapens-ambities...

Zie ook: more backpedalling on the [Syria nuclear facility]...

more backpedalling on the [Syria nuclear facility] video

A US official, requesting anonymity, told AFP: “There are still photographs of the facility as part of the video, but it’s a video presentation, like, a PowerPoint presentation. It’s not a video of the facility.”

Niqnaq (linked by WRH)

Israel on alert for Syria airstrike

THE defensive missile shield around Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor was placed on red alert 30 times last week amid fears of an airstrike by Syria. Times Online

Dit zaakje stinkt. Voor zover ik weet heeft de Syrische luchtmacht geen kamikaze-piloten in dienst, dus is er echt wel iets anders aan de hand rond Dimona. Kan van alles zijn. Lekkage? Explosieven plaatsen? Of iets anders wat de buitenwereld niet mag zien...

False flag-lampje brandt hier in mijn kamer. Hevig.

Hezbollah beschuldigt Israël van moorden Libanon

(Novum/AP) - Israël zaait onrust en onenigheid in Libanon door anti-Syrische politici te vermoorden.

Dat heeft Hezbollahleider Hassan Nasrallah vrijdag gezegd. Israël heeft belang bij de vele moorden op Libanese politici van de afgelopen jaren, omdat Israël wil dat Hezbollah wordt uitgeput door interne strijd, zei Nasrallah.

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Hizbullah: If Israel attacks Syria, we'll respond

"If Israel dares to make an adventurous move against Syria, it will pay a heavy price," a member of Hizbulla's political council warned Thursday.

In an interview with the Nazareth-based Kul al-Arab newspaper scheduled to be published on Friday, Dr Ahmad Malli warned Israel against considering an attack on Syria, saying that the Lebanese organization would respond to such an offensive with full force.

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Syria’s Illusory Nukes: More Propaganda

As suspected, Israel’s claim of a raid against a Syrian nuclear facility is a load of hooey. "Israel did not strike a nuclear weapons facility in Syria on Sept. 6, instead striking a cache of North Korean missiles, current and former intelligence officials say," writes Larisa Alexandrovna for Raw Story. "American intelligence sources familiar with key events leading up to the Israeli air raid tell Raw Story that what the Syrians actually had were North Korean No-Dong missiles, possibly located at a site in either the city of Musalmiya in the northern part of Syria or further south around the city of Hama." Of course, considering "American intelligence sources" are notorious liars, turning weather balloon trailers into chemical weapons labs, this admission is suspect as well. For all we know, Israel bombed a mule team, if that.

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"Syria says defenses opened fire on Israeli aircraft"

Syria claims IAF aircraft 'broke sound barrier and dropped ammunition' over open areas, Syrian military says its air defense units 'confronted' aircraft. IDF: Looking into report

The Israelis broke the sound barrier and ''dropped ammunition'' over deserted areas of northern Syria overnight, the spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Syrian Arab News Agency.

The Syrians did not say the aircraft struck targets, and it was not clear what the spokesman meant by dropping ammunition. Warplanes sometimes drop extra fuel tanks to make the aircraft lighter and easier to maneuver.

''We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way,'' the Syrian spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

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