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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Bush 'considered' bombing Syria |
| 2010-11-07 |
| [Al Jazeera] George Bush contemplated ordering a US military strike against a suspected Syrian nuclear facility at Israel's request in 2007, the former US president has reminisced in his memor to be published soon. Israel eventually destroyed the facility, which Syria denied was for developing a nuclear weapons. In his memoir, "Decision Points", to hit bookstores on Tuesday, Bush says that he received an intelligence report about a "suspicious, well-hidden facility in the eastern desert of Syria" that looked similar to a nuclear facility at Yongbyon, North Korea. Shortly afterward, he spoke by phone with Ehud Olmert, then the Israeli prime minister. "George, I'm asking you to bomb the compound," Olmert told Bush, according to the book, a copy of which was obtained by the Rooters news agency. Bush said he discussed options with his national security team. A bombing mission was considered "but bombing a sovereign country with no warning or announced justification would create severe blowback," he writes. A covert raid was discussed, but it was considered too risky to slip a team in and out of Syria undetected. Bush received an intelligence assessment from then-CIA Director Mike Hayden, who reported that analysts had high confidence the plant housed a nuclear reactor but low confidence of a Syrian nuclear weapons programme. Bush said he told Olmert, "I cannot justify an attack on a sovereign nation unless my intelligence agencies stand up and say it's a weapons programme." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 So is this just new news to Al Jizz or is it another Bush red herring on behalf of the One? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2010-11-07 10:37 |
| #1 Did George W. say anything in his book about Iran's nuclear program? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-11-07 09:13 |