Mere Rhetoric: WaPo Reveals Exact Nature Of Top Secret Israeli Strike In Syria - It Was On The Turkish Border, It Came From North Korea, And Israel Blew It Up Because It Was Nuclear

We're not ready to give up on our supersonic anti-ship missiles bound for Hezbollah theory, but the level of detail in this morning's Washington Post report is pretty intimidating. This is some mighty fine journalism, assuming any of it is true.

Tammy Bruce was already less than impressed with Secretary Rice's nonproliferation achievements. See-Dubya got intrigued this morning by emerging reports of Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation. And now this:

A prominent U.S. expert on the Middle East, who has interviewed Israeli participants in a mysterious raid over Syria last week, reported that the attack appears to have been linked to the arrival three days earlier of a ship carrying material from North Korea labeled as cement. The expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid compromising his sources, said the target of the attack appears to have been a northern Syrian facility that was labeled an agricultural research center on the Euphrates River, close to the Turkish border. Israel has kept a close eye on the facility, believing that Syria was using it to extract uranium from phosphates.... the emerging consensus in Israel was that [the ship] delivered nuclear equipment. The ship arrived Sept. 3 in the Syrian port of Tartus; the attack occurred Sept. 6 under such strict operational security that the pilots flying air cover for the attack aircraft did not know details of the mission. The pilots who conducted the attack were briefed only after they were in the air, he said... Adding to the mystery, Syria has made only muted protests about the raid, and North Korea, which rarely comments on international matters, swiftly condemned it.

It's hard to square the ostensible hyper-secrecy of the mission with the precise details of the WaPo report. But that would have raised eyebrows in the editorial room too, and so vetting has presumably occurred (?) And other reports of Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation certainly lend credibility to the story.

State Department officials, for their part, are determined to keep negotiating and making concessions to North Korea. Of course they are. And they're also willing to trot out officials to assure reporters that the North Koreans could not possibly be working with the Syrians. Of course they are.

References:
* MR Takes A Swing At The "What The Hell Happened Over Syria" Pitch - Supersonic Missles Or Electronic Jamming Of Russia's "Unjammable" Anti-Aircraft SAMs [MR]
* Syria-N. Korea Reports Won't Stop Talks [WaPo]
* Condi Rice and Magic Mushrooms [Tammy Bruce]
* U.S. Nuke guy: North Korea and Syria are up to no good [Hot Air]
* U.S. Official Says North Koreans Were in Syria, Might Have Discussed Nuclear Equipment [Fox News]

Previously:
* Take Away Hezbollah's Collaborators, Human Shields, And Useful Idiots. Disband UNIFIL Now.
* This Summer's War With Syria - Syria Says They're "Actively Preparing For War With Israel"
* Syria Modernizing Its Airforce With Russian Help - War With Israel On The Horizon