Nukes in Syria?

1938 Alert. "U.S. Confirms Israeli Strikes Hit Syrian Target Last Week," by Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper for the New York Times (thanks to all who sent this in):

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — After days of silence from the Israeli government, American officials confirmed Tuesday that Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes inside Syria last week, the first such attack since 2003.

A Defense Department official said Israeli jets had struck at least one target in northeastern Syria last Thursday, but the official said it was still unclear exactly what the jets hit and the extent of the bombing damage.

Syria has lodged a protest at the United Nations in response to the airstrike, accusing Israel of “flagrant violation” of its airspace. But Israel’s government has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.

Officials in Washington said that the most likely targets of the raid were weapons caches that Israel’s government believes Iran has been sending the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah through Syria. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah’s primary benefactors, and American intelligence officials say a steady flow of munitions from Iran runs through Syria and into Lebanon....

One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria....

Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has said that if Israel is not willing to resume negotiations for the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the alternative would be to try to regain the territory by force....

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Muslim countries urge non-Muslim West to de-link Islam from terrorism

They have condemned terrorism, you see, but "a matching response had not been forthcoming." Instead, there is a growing "religious intolerance and xenophobia in the west" -- not like in the Islamic world! And what are they doing to help Muslims de-link Islam from terrorism? On that point they are silent.

And here we're told that the OIC condemned "forced religious conversions by majority religious groups, attacks of places of worship, restriction on the display of religious symbols and erosion of rights of parents to ensure moral education for their children." Great -- that, condemnations of violence and terror, and a buck will get you a cup of coffee. Have they condemned Islamic supremacism? The imperative to subjugate unbelievers by violent or peaceful means? What do you think?

"OIC urges de-linking Islam from terrorism," from KUNA (thanks to Twostellas):

GENEVA, Sept 13 (KUNA) -- The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), told the Human Rights Council (HRC) Thursday that the report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief called for stronger denunciation of violence by Muslim leaders in order to "de-link" Islam from terrorism. Representing the OIC, Pakistani diplomat Marghoob Saleem Butt said that there had been many such denunciations and a matching response had not been forthcoming. "The ever-growing incidents of religious intolerance and xenophobia in the west were taking the world far from its aim of religious and cultural harmony. The OIC condemned forced religious conversions by majority religious groups, attacks of places of worship, restriction on the display of religious symbols and erosion of rights of parents to ensure moral education for their children, " the diplomat added.

Meanwhile, what the OIC really wants is restriction of Western freedom of expression:

The representative of the OIC stressed that the Islamic countries deplored States that linked freedom of belief with freedom of expression and opinion in order to shrug off responsibility. "Unrestricted and disrespectful enjoyment of freedom of expression was contrary to the spirit of peaceful dialogue. Equating religions with extremist terrorism was dangerous and it was essential to de-link terrorist acts from the right to peacefully follow one's faith," the diplomat added. The representative of the OIC said efforts were needed to eliminate intolerance and discrimination, including through education and interfaith dialogue.

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US: Syria on nuclear watch list; North Koreans were in Syria

1938 Alert, and an update on this story from the Associated Press:

North Koreans were in Syria and Damascus may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment, a senior US nuclear official said Friday.

Andrew Semmel, acting deputy assistant secretary of state for nuclear nonproliferation policy, did not name the suppliers, but said there were North Koreans in Syria and that he could not exclude that the network run by disgraced Pakistan nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan may have been involved.

Semmel was responding to questions about an Israeli air strike in northern Syria last week.

Neither side has explained what exactly happened, but a US government official confirmed that Israeli warplanes were targeting weapons from Iran and destined for Hizbullah in Lebanon.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Israel had gathered satellite imagery showing possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility.

Semmel, who is in Italy for a meeting Saturday on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, said that Syria was certainly on the US nuclear "watch list."

"There are indicators that they do have something going on there," he said. "We do know that there are a number of foreign technicians that have been in Syria. We do know that there may have been contact between Syria and some secret suppliers for nuclear equipment. Whether anything transpired remains to be seen."

"So good foreign policy, good national security policy, would suggest that we pay very close attention to that," he said. "We're watching very closely. Obviously, the Israelis were watching very closely."

Asked if the suppliers could have been North Koreans, he said: "There are North Korean people there. There's no question about that. Just as there are a lot of North Koreans in Iraq and Iran."

Asked if the so-called Khan network, which supplied nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, could have been involved, he said he "wouldn't exclude" it.

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Is Syria trying to expedite a war with Israel?

Over the weekend Syria fired upon two Israeli aircraft with the pretext that they Israel had acted aggressively. However, is this necessarily the truth? It is a stated aim of Syria to cause a war with Israel. Is this action meant to spark that war? Only time will tell.

Update on the Denmark Terrorism plot

The man behind the foiled Denmark terrorism plot had targeted the British and United States embassies in Denmark.  The planned attacks were set to mark the 6th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Centre.

The eight suspects who have been rounded up range in ages from 19 to 29 and they come from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Turkey.  They are believed to be a part of the Al Qaeda network. It is believed that the group had received instructions from British based cyber terrorists who had been shut down earlier this year:

The British group's activities were stopped by an MI5 investigation earlier this year when three men were jailed for encouraging suicide missions using online forums and websites.

Their websites were also used as a secure communications centre by several senior Al Qaeda operatives, including two Bosnian-based terror chiefs known as "Maximus" and "Danish Turk".

The pair were jailed over a plot to mount a suicide attack against a Western embassy in Sarajevo.

And The Mail on Sunday understands that two of those arrested in Copenhagen had been in regular telephone contact with them and under longterm surveillance by Danish intelligence.

The arrest earlier in the year of the British group helped authorities to keep these terrorists under surveillance. It is work well done, but have they captured all concerned?