Secrets

For those of you who missed this very interesting NY Times article yesterday, it appears that President Bush declined secret Israeli requests for bunker-busting bombs and permission to fly over Iraq for an attack on Iranian nuclear sites last year.  Bush told Israeli officials he had initiated covert operations on the ground aimed at dismantling Iranian nuclear ambitions from within and that an overt attack would not be necessary.  The report questions whether Israel had plans to carry out the attack or was seeking to engage Bush in more aggressive planning before he left office.  

Bush was continually briefed on the options for an overt American air strike on the Iranian nuclear targets but never told the Pentagon to move beyond contingency planning.  Some in the administration, led Defense Secretary Robert Gates, warned such an attack would be ineffective, likely result in the expulsion of international inspectors and possibly spark a broader Middle East war.  

The Israeli requests came after a National Intelligence Estimate (N.I.E.) from last year that painted a very calm picture of Iran's enrichment program and progress towards nuclear weapons manufacturing, but the report was viewed skeptically by almost everyone in the Bush administration and Israel.  

The covert operations, questions of their efficacy, questions of how they may or may not interfere with efforts to engage Iran in talks, as well as Israel's willingness to settle for such a plan will all be handed off to Barack Obama on the 20th, adding to an already staggering list of problems he will be confronting.  

The article is a fascinating read, one of those rare glimpses into the secret world of international negotiations and covert operations most often not revealed until decades after a conflict has cooled.  Certainly, check that out.