Auspundits

The Five Faces Of Darkness

Despite the setbacks that God has inflicted upon us, these painful blows will mark the beginning of the wiping out of America and the infidel West after the passing of tens of years, God willing. - Osama bin Laden, 17 December 2001

The Syrian Nuclear Program

Here are two great discussions of some of the issues surrounding the Syrian nuclear program:

• One is by Con Coughlin, foreign editor of the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph, who presents some arguments explaining Israel's unusual reticence in discussing its successful attack on a nuclear weapons facility deep into Syrian territory.
• The other is by Wretchard at The Belmont Club. He notes that Syria's desire for nuclear arms is its own form of strategic deterrence "...against Western interference under whose protection they could advance their terrorist forces without hindrance".

I have some outstanding questions though:

• What of the speculation at the time that the Israeli bombing of the nascent Syrian nuclear weapons facility "were a diversion for a daring Israeli commando raid, in which nuclear materials were intercepted en route to Iran and hauled to Israel"?
• Or what of the speculation based on "well-placed sources" that instead, Israeli commandos had snared nuclear material from the plant and had it checked by the U.S. PRIOR to the air strikes being called in? This is particularly interesting, given that U.S. intelligence publicised in the last few days have suggested the bombing occurred before the Syrians had a chance to transport nuclear material to the facility.

Given the secrecy behind all of this, I doubt we will find out any time soon But the conflicting news reporting on this should raise at least a few eyebrows.

Update 28/04/08 10:10PM AEST: Let me point out an incongruency vis-a-vis Syria's response to Israel's bombing. Israel bombs Syrian nuclear weapons installation that, according to the most recent reports and intelligence, had no fissile material therein. What stopped Syria from violently protesting that the evil Jews had levelled an fertiliser or pharmaceutical plant? If fissile material was therein, a bombing of the plant would have led to a clear radioactive footprint with fissile material being scattered everywhere. Which could help explain why the Syrians bulldozed the bombed facility and built another larger building on top within a matter of months. The synthesis of this? My guess is that there was in fact fissile material in the facility at the time of the bombing. This would reconcile earlier reports that Israeli commandos took samples from the plant. Cloak and daggers indeed. Why the U.S. may have chosen to present intelligence to the contrary in the last few days is interesting. Perhaps to avoid heat being put on the U.S. to withdraw from the six-party talks with the NORKs?

Please Compare

Israeli's send a handful of their top soldiers deep into enemy territory to target and kill a handful of jihadists in the West Bank:

ISRAELI undercover forces have killed four Palestinian militants, including two high-ranking commanders, in a raid in the West Bank town of Bethlehem...

Compare this precise attack on militants based on intelligence with the flailing attacks of Palestinians/Arabs on Israeli civilians:

Funnily enough, one of the jihadis killed in the Israeli raid has the surname "Shahada" which translates from Arabic to English as "martyr". So now that the evil Jooooos "martyred" him, has he now got his 72 virgins? Or is he acquainting himself with, not the Big or Small, but Real Shaitan? Insha'allah.

Useful Idiot On The Right

Last night I noted Federal Labor MP Julia Irwin's moonbat-induced rant against celebrating Israel's 60th birthday. Well today, a Federal Liberal MP Susan Ley decided to shill for Hamas, albeit less moonbatishly than Irwin (which isn't saying much). Her central argument is that no-one cares for the poor Palis and that they are suffering white man's guilt over the Holocaust:

Their's is not a popular cause but it's one I support in part out of the knowledge that the victors in World War II, including Australia, wrote a homeland cheque to cover the sins of the Holocaust and centuries of anti-semitism in Europe. But it was the Palestinians who had to cash it.

Unfortunately, former Iranian President Khatami made similar remarks in 2001. In countering this sort of argument, Alan Dershowitz offers two rebuttals in his bestseller, The Case For Israel.

Labor's Anti-Israel Streak Emerges

Courtesy of Julia Irwin, Federal Labor MP. I wonder what Australia's only sitting Jewish MP and Labor member, Michael Danby thinks about this sort of obnoxious nonsense:

PRO-PALESTINE Labor MP Julia Irwin has accused Israel of human rights violations and threatened to boycott a vote to celebrate 60 years of the Jewish state...Asked if Israel was engaging in human rights violations, Ms Irwin said she had no doubt...Ms Irwin has previously made speeches in Parliament characterising Israel's policies as "ethnic cleansing", and Gaza as a "concentration camp".

Carnage Jihadi Wrought: In Images

"A body lies on the floor behind a glass door stained with blood and marked with bullet holes inside a Jewish religious school after a shooting attack in Jerusalem":

"Palestinian guerrillas celebrate in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near the port city of Sidon in south Lebanon". WTF? Guerillas? These guys look like ordinary people off the street supporting jihadi violence:

Now these guys look like guerillas...I mean jihadis...but they are called "supporters": "Palestinian Hamas supporters celebrate after a Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem, in Jabalya camp, northern Gaza Strip":

Little Samson Revisited

In a previous post, Moose suggested the mysterious and almost simultaneous severing of several undersea cables may by Israel's revelation of a little 'Samson Option'. However, this theory gained little support with accusations that "the tin-foil hats are being broken out". Of course, at that time, there was little concrete supporting the little 'Samson Option'. Indeed, we argued that this theory "makes for some fascinating discussion". However, today, the head of the UN development organisation did not rule out that some of the cables were deliberately cut:

Some experts doubt the prevailing view that the cables were cut by accident, especially as the cables lie at great depths under the sea and are not passed over by ships...

A few weeks ago Frank Hoffman's thesis Conflict in the 21st Century: The Rise of Hybrid Wars was published. According to the Small Wars Journal, part of the Hybrid War theory is that "nation-states may well engage in irregular conflict in addition to conventional types of warfare to achieve their goals".

Second look at the little 'Samson Option'?

The Little 'Samson Option'

The 'Samson Option' is a a term used to describe Israel's deterrent strategy of "massive retaliation with nuclear weapons...against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well".

Sometime Auspundits contributor, Moose, sent an email around late last week hypothesising that the severing of several undersea comms cables was the presentation by Israel to its adversaries of what he dubbed the 'Little Samson Option'.