register |  login
› PARKER
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
RECENT STORIES

Perhaps the real cause of Putin's visit to Iran?

Contributed by: Fran Miller on 10/16/2007

This recently came to me via a reliable source, but I was hoping some of you could help me vett it before I send it into the Denver Post. One wants to be sure of things in this day of inaccurate punditry and news chicanery, not to mention yellow journalism, law and politics.

* * * * *

One of India's top ranking generals assigned to liaise with the Iranian
military recently returned to New Delhi from several days in Tehran - in a
state of complete amazement.

"Everyone in the government and military can only talk of one thing," he
reports. "No matter who I talked to, all they could do was ask me, over
and over again, Do you think the Americans will attack us?' When will
the Americans attack us?' Will the Americans attack us in a joint operation
with the Israelis?' How massive will the attack be?' on and on, endlessly. The
Iranians are in a state of total panic."

And that was before September 6. Since then, it's panic-squared in
Tehran. The mullahs are freaking out in fear. Why? Because of the silence in
Syria.

On September 6, Israeli Air Force F-15 and F-16s conducted a devastating
attack on targets deep inside Syria near the city of Dayr az-Zawr.
Israel's military censors have muzzled the Israeli media, enforcing an
extraordinary silence about the identity of the targets. Massive speculation in the
world press has followed, such as Brett Stephens' Osirak II? in yesterday's
(9/18) Wall St. Journal.

Stephens and most everyone else have missed the real story. It is not
Israel's silence that "speaks volumes" as he claims, but Syria's. Why
would the Syrian government be so tight-lipped about an act of war perpetrated on
their soil?

The first half of the answer lies in this story that appeared in the Israeli media last month (8/13): Syria's Antiaircraft System Most Advanced In World. Syria has gone on a profligate buying spree, spending vast sums on Russian systems, "considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology."

Syria now "possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world," with "more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types," some of which are so new that they have been installed in Syria "before being introduced into Russian operation service."

While you're digesting that, take a look at the map of Syria:


Notice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace. And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cutting edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6th.

Nothing.

El blanko. Silence. The systems didn't even light up, gave no indication
whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip,
zero, nada. The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us)
blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so completely the Syrians didn't even know they were blinded.

Now you see why the Syrians have been scared speechless. They thought
they were protected - at enormous expense - only to discover they are defenseless.

As in naked.

Thus the Great Iranian Freak-Out - for this means Iran is just as nakedly
defenseless as Syria. I can tell you that there are a lot of folks in
the Kirya (IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv) and the Pentagon right now who are
really enjoying the mullahs' predicament. Let's _face it: scaring the terror
masters in Tehran out of their wits is fun.

It's so much fun, in fact, that an attack destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and the Revolutionary Guard command/control centers has been delayed, so
that France (under new management) can get in on the fun too.

On Sunday (9/16), Sarkozy's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner announced
that "France should prepare for the possibility of war over Iran's nuclear
program."_
( http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110010619)


All of this has caused Tehran to respond with maniacal threats. On Monday
(9/17), a government website proclaimed that "600 Shihab-3 missiles" will
be fired at targets in Israel in response to an attack upon Iran by the US/Israel. This was followed by Iranian deputy air force chief Gen. Mohammad Alavi announcing today (9/19) that "we will attack their (Israeli) territory with our
fighter bombers as a response to any attack."

A sure sign of panic is to make a threat that everyone knows is a bluff. So our and Tel Aviv's response to Iranian bluster is a thank-you-for-sharing yawn and a laugh. Few things rattle the mullahs' cages more than a yawn and a laugh.

Yet no matter how much fun this sport with the mullahs is, it is also
deadly serious. The pressure build-up on Iran is getting enormous. Something is
going to blow and soon. The hope is that the blow-up will be internal, that the regime will implode from within.

But make no mistake: an all-out full regime take-out air assault upon Iran is coming if that hope doesn't materialize within the next 60 to 90 days. The Sept. 6 attack on Syria was the shot across Iran's bow.

So - what was attacked near Dayr az-Zawr? It's possible it was North Korean "nuclear material" recently shipped to Syria, i.e., stuff to make radioactively "dirty" warheads, but nothing to make a real nuke with as the Norks don't have real nukes

Another possibility is it was to take out a stockpile of long-range Zilzal surface-to- surface missiles recently shipped from Iran for an attack on Israel.

A third is it was a hit on the stockpile of Saddam's chemical/bio weapons snuck out of Iraq and into Syria for safekeeping before the US invasion of April 2003.These facts support the reasons of ultraconservatives, that advocate making Israel the 51 State of the Union, and letting them fight the War in Iraq for the USA.

But the identity of the target is not the story - for the primary point of the attack was not to destroy that target. It was to shut down Syria's Russian air defense system during the attack. Doing so made the attack an incredible success. Syria is shamed and silent. Iran is freaking out in panic.








SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story



Current Rating
Based on 1 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Showing 1 of 1 comments
Submitted By: michael ibison
posted on 10/16/2007 @ 10:59:02 PM
(Not Rated)
That the reason for the Israeli attack on Syria was to test jamming of the Russian early warning system has been out there on the web from just a couple of days after the event. It is quite plausible in my opinion. Yes, Putin may well have been in Iran recently to deliver some after-sales-service to a very disappointed customer.
[Report as objectionable]
Showing 1 of 1 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Fran Miller

Parker , CO

Fran Miller has posted 120 stories and 15 comments since joining on 9/28/2007. Fran Miller 's average story rating is 4.78.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY

STORY RSS FEEDS
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos