DID TURKEY HELP ISRAEL RAID SYRIA?

Report: Turkey provided Israel with intelligence on Syria (JPost)
Turkey provided Israel with intelligence on Syria prior to last week's alleged IAF flyover into the country, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida claimed on Thursday.

According to the report, the country had a central role in delivering precise information regarding targets in Syria that were to be hit by Israeli planes. Further, the report claimed that the Israeli pilots were given authorization by the Turkish army to use its airspace in order to carry out the operation.

Sources told Al-Jarida that Turkish intelligence did not coordinate the move with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "Coordination of the [release of information] occurred far away from the political echelon," it said.

The Israeli and Turkish armies share a strong relationship that has been felt through several joint exercises and weapons sales.

On Saturday, an unnamed Turkish official demanded explanations from Israel after fuel tanks allegedly dropped by Israel F-151 planes who were conducting a foray into Syrian airspace, were found on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Turkish paper Hurriyet reported that Turkey was demanding whether the Israeli planes also passed over its own airspace.

Report: Turkish military assisted Israel in secret raid on Syria (HOTAIR)

Well, who knows. It’s extraordinary if true, though: not only did they allegedly provide targeting information but they allowed IAF jets the use of Turkish airspace and kept it secret from Erdogan, the Islamist-sympathizer prime minister. Hard to believe they’d go to all that trouble if the target was nothing more than weapons shipments to Hezbollah. Turkey has nothing to fear from those and thus no reason to risk Syria’s ire by helping out the IAF. If, on the other hand, the target was secret Syrian nuclear installations…

North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility in Syria, according to new intelligence the United States has gathered over the past six months, sources said. The evidence, said to come primarily from Israel, includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.

The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some cautioned that initial reports of suspicious activity are frequently reevaluated over time and were skeptical that North Korea and Syria, which have cooperated on missile technology, would have a joint venture in the nuclear arena…

In talks in Beijing in March 2003, a North Korean official pulled aside his American counterpart and threatened to “transfer” nuclear material to other countries. President Bush has said that passing North Korean nuclear technology to other parties would cross the line.

Israel conducted a mysterious raid last week against targets in Syria. The Israeli government has refused to divulge any details, but a former Israeli official said he had been told that it was an attack against a facility capable of making unconventional weapons.