Syria 'Gave Green Light For Raid'

Syria 'Gave Green Light For Raid'

news.sky.com

Publicly America is still saying nothing but US officials are making intriguing claims off the record.

Now, a respected Israeli intelligence expert says he has been told the operation was carried out with the knowledge and co-operation of Syrian intelligence.

Ronen Bergman, author of The Secret War with Iran, makes the claim in the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper, based on briefings with two senior American officials, one of whom he says until recently "held a very high ranking in the Pentagon".

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is an interesting little twist on the Syria thing. Why not come out and say something like this? If Syria couldn't acknowledge it is true so their denying is made into a sort of conspiracy to show support of the US raid.

I personally do not believe Syria gave any sort of green light for this. I think they realize the US will do violate borders if it wants to, so to give permission is to cede any rights to retributions later. This can now be used for leverage in any talks Syria/US have down the road.

news.sky.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by ninthaxis


I believe the Syrian governement cooperates more than people think. Publicly, they condemn these actions to appease their population. Its all a stage and prop show to keep their leaders in power.

reply to post by solarstorm


What do you mean to keep their leaders in power? Do you think the people will overthrow the government or the US will somehow remove them?

Assad probably worries about assasination if he were to publicly acknowledge cooperating.

He is surely aware of the possibility of a rope around his neck, (like Saddam) if he doesn't cooperate.

Yesterday I started thinking that Syria may have known it was coming. Didn't see this thread so I posted it here today.

Yesterday I privately noted that Gen. Petraeus was giving Syria high marks just a few months ago for its cooperation reducing the influx of foreign fighters into Iraq.

There were a lot of articles mentioning how the influx from Syria was down from 100 to just 20 a month.

Several articles quote the Syrian Foreign Minister saying the U.S. knows that Syria has been tightening their border with Iraq.

The U.S. Secretary of State discussed the issue with the Syrian ambassador less than 30 days ago.

I also read two separate articles with eyewitnesses complaining that the Syrian military was just down the road and did nothing.

These little details started giving me the idea that, (despite all the crying to the media and the U.N), Syria covertly approved the raid. They just couldn't let the rest of the world know that, for "whatever" reason. It just seems to fit the puzzle pieces.

Somebody agrees with me.

Syria 'Gave Green Light For Raid'

[edit on 10/28/08 by makeitso]

Passive Aggression

Originally posted by makeitso
Assad probably worries about assasination if he were to publicly acknowledge cooperating.

Certainly, President Assad is not ignorant of history, and Syria's position with respect to Palestinian militants is eerily similar to that of Jordan in the late 1960s.

So any public overtures resembling reconciliation or cooperation with the U.S. or Israel would be potentially explosive for the Syrian government.

It's hard to determine whether this rumor of Syrian government approval for the recent U.S. cross-border raid is true or disinformation designed to undermine Syria's position, but if it is true, it would hardly be without precedent.

The U.S. may have "made Syria an offer it can't refuse" in the form of a threat of a broader array of problems, or may have have offered benefits in exchange for concessions like this one.

Heck, for that matter, Syria may even have considered eliminating all those "innocent women and children"* at the "civilian construction site" to be a benefit in itself, because not all "innocent women and children" in Syria are friendly to the Syrian government. And an opportunity to distract the Syrian populace from domestic issues with further demonization of the U.S. would be hard to pass up.

What governments argue over publicly and what they agree to privately are often very, very different.





* The uncanny ability of the U.S. to use the latest cutting-edge technology for the express purpose of killing nothing but "innocent women and children" -- never militants -- is legendary in the Middle East and immortalized by some of the more credulous contributions to these forums.


[edit on 10/28/2008 by Majic]