Bombs away?

It looks increasingly likely that the recent Israeli bombing on Syria was on nuclear facilities:

Syria erases its 'nuclear site'

By Mark Heinrich in Vienna

October 27, 2007 03:05am

Article from: Reuters

NEW satellite pictures show Syria has razed the site of what might have been a secret nuclear reactor under construction apparently bombed by Israel last month, an atomic research institute says.

Syria has denied illicitly hiding a nuclear site from the the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and said the only facility in the area in question was a desertification research centre.

In commercial satellite images taken on Wednesday and issued by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a suspected reactor building visible in aerial photos before the September 6 air raid had vanished and the ground underneath scraped clean, the institute said.

“Dismantling and removing the building at such a rapid pace dramatically complicates any (IAEA) inspection of the facilities and suggests Syria may be trying to hide what was there,” the report by the Washington-based group said.

Tractors or bulldozers could be seen in the pictures where the building once stood, said ISIS, which is headed by former UN weapons inspector David Albright and tracks nuclear activity that could pose bomb-proliferation threats.

What appeared to be a trench might point to the Syrians excavating buried pipelines running between the demolished building and a nearby structure still standing, which could have been a pumping station to supply water to the reactor, it said.

The Vienna-based IAEA had no immediate comment.....

Ominously, it looks like American forces are preparing a raid on Iranian facilities:

US flags B2 stealth bomber MOP upgrade

October 27, 2007 01:00am

Article from: The Australian

NESTLED deep in George W.Bush's latest $US190 billion ($210 billion) request to Congress for emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a tantalising little item that has received scant attention.

The US Department of Defence has asked for an additional $US88 million to modify B2 stealth bombers so they can carry a 13,600kg bomb called the "massive ordnance penetrator" (or MOP, in the disarming acronymic vernacular of the military).

The MOP is an advanced form of a "bunker-buster", an air-delivered weapon with an explosive capacity to destroy targets deep underground.

Explaining the request, the administration says it is in response to an "urgent operational need from theatre commanders".

What kind of emergency could that be?

It's possible that the US Air Force wants more firepower in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'eda as they skulk in their caves in Afghanistan.

But that wouldn't require stealth bombers - the sleek, black-skinned, radar-dodging darts of the US military.

The Americans own the skies over Afghanistan and Iraq and could, if they wished, blanket the two countries with all manner of bombardment from low altitude in broad daylight.

So what lies somewhere between Iraq and Afghanistan that might demand the urgent deployment of a stealth aircraft that can quietly drop a 13,600kg bomb and destroy something several storeys below ground?

The secret wine cellars in Tehran that house the illicit stash of vintage clarets belonging to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

The vast collection of grey polyester suits and Iranian goody bags that lie in wait for the next batch of luckless British sailors?

Pat yourself on the back if you correctly identified the subterranean nuclear enrichment facilities operated by the Iranian Government in its pursuit of an epoch-altering bomb.....

I hope the Americans don't bomb Iran, not because I don't believe they are not developing nukes, (although recent history of US intelligence has to give us doubts) but because its not needed. The Reagan administration managed to bring down the Soviet Union, a far, far, greater threat then Iran will ever be without having to take direct military action. Similar methods can also be used to bring down the Iranian mullahs.