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Go Home Did Israeli Helicopters Land And Deliver Equipment In Saudi...

THE SPINE JUNE 24, 2010

Did Israeli Helicopters Land And Deliver Equipment In Saudi Arabia?

BY MARTIN PERETZ

The report came from the FARS news agency in Iran. On Thursday, Ha'aretz repeated the story: "Iranian news: IAF choppers land at Saudi Arabia
airport."

If FARS is correct, the landing apparently occurred on June 18 and 19. After landing at Tabuk Airport, the helicopters were emptied of military equipment which constituted "activity of the Zionist regime in Saudi Arabia." The Saudis were said to have cancelled numerous flight so as to permit the Israeli air force to do what it had come to do.

This past weekend saw Al-Quds Al-Arabi, another Arabic newspaper, report that an American fleet and one Israeli ship had passed through the Suez Canal in preparation for an assault on the Shi'a Muslim state.

Ten days the Times of London disclosed that Saudi Arabia had agreed to open its air space to Israeli fighter craft as part of preparations for a possible attack on Iran. The Times reported that "the Saudi air force had begun training to enable safe passage for the Israeli planes, thus shortening the flight time to the Persian Gulf considerably."

Israel did not comment. The Saudis denied the report.

Who do you believe?

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Show all 58 comments

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58 comments

I think the question is how much of a grain of truth is in the report. My suspicion is that this is simply an attempt by the Iranians to elevate themselves above Saudi Arabia as the leaders of the "islamic world" by portraying the saudis as traitors.

- miceelf

June 24, 2010 at 9:51am

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The same thought occurred to me.

- noga1

June 24, 2010 at 11:46am

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I have been following the USS Truman carrier group since it left Norfolk, Virginia on May 21. After an interoperability exercise with France's carrier DeGaulle in Marseilles on June 8 as reported by NavyNews, the Truman carrier group was reported to have spent five days in joint US-Israeli air exercises in the Negev. Multiple sources noted the June 18 passage through the Suez canal of the USS Truman, with ten USN ships (a bit bigger than a normal carrier group), German anti-missile frigate Hessen, and one Israeli corvette (my guess is Saar 4.5 class). If IAF helicopters offloaded military equipment in Saudi Arabia, one can assume it was at the direction of America and Germany as the Truman armada reaches the Persian Gulf, ostensibly to relieve the USS Eisenhower. Maybe the helicopters were unloading food supplies for the Germans and Israelis due to that kerfluffle over ISS contracts for the Fifth fleet in Dubai that so enraged Peretz :)

- K2K

June 24, 2010 at 12:04pm

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I forgot to add that the Financial Times placed the Truman group off Sicily on June 15 - seems American sailors had a nice shore leave in Marseilles, and the German Defense Minister paid a visit. btw, Iranian media has been quite hysterical over the progress of the Truman, but I use non-Iranian sources to track this 98% of the time. A few bloggers are mostly seeing the Truman through the prism of 'swarming flotillas' from Lebanon and Iran. The J.E. Dyer who occasionally posts at Contentions, is ex-Navy, and posted this yesterday: http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2010/06/23/smackdown-at-sea/

- K2K

June 24, 2010 at 12:11pm

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Right. The Iranian press is totally reliable especially in regard to Israel.

- Sophia

June 24, 2010 at 2:20pm

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Farsnews is so credible that when it reports on the World Cup, I check Fifa's website to make sure the World Cup is still on this year. It specialises in outright fabrications, mistranslations, quoting out of context and invective - think Jamie Kirchick on steroids. Still, just because Fars lies all the time, it does not mean that one of its fabrications can't be true. I get the sense that Marty thinks that israel's nondenial amounts to confirmation of the story. If so, here is the situation: Israel teaming up with the funders of the most rabid and anti-Semitic strain of Islam that is also deeply hostile to Shi'ism, to take out an avowedly anti-Semitic Shi'ite Government whose people are the most pro-Western of any Muslim country. And if true, I see the makings of another monumental miscalculation .... Then again, it is entirely possible, if not likely, that Fars has a) made this up; b) misplaced a "not" in the translation, or c) replaced "Yemen" or "Egypt" or "the Comoros Islands" with "Israel" in the original story for theatrical and rhetorical effect.

- icarusr

June 24, 2010 at 2:46pm

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icarusr "Still, just because Fars lies all the time, it does not mean that one of its fabrications can't be true." This is classic. It's better than the paradox of the liar. Farsi always lies except when Marty, or James Kirchik, think they are lying. How is Icarus like a classic antisemite? They both lose their sanity when it comes to people they hate. (Note that I am not calling Icarus an antisemite. I am merely saying that he reasons like one when it comes to Marty.)

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 3:12pm

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jdyer, icarus said that he thought that Peretz thought that Fars WASN'T lying. Perhaps he's not the only one that loses his sanity when it comes to people he hates.

- miceelf

June 24, 2010 at 3:44pm

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"Why Do We Care About Countries We'll Never Go To?" Adam Kirsch http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/75822/why-do-we-care-about-countries-well-never-go

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 3:49pm

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That's right you are another one, miceelf

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 3:49pm

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don't worry, jdyer, most people won't notice that you tipped your hand. but next time, you may want to try reading what people actually say.

- miceelf

June 24, 2010 at 3:57pm

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did someone say something?

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 4:04pm

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yep, nothing to see here, just jdyer pretending he didn't wet himself in his eagerness to draw a parallel between another of his betes noires and the "classic antisemite." Keep hunting those truffles. Stay strong.

- miceelf

June 24, 2010 at 4:09pm

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The obsessed poster is still stalking!

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 4:15pm

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Don't be too hard on yourself, jdyer. You weren't my first stalker, and you won't be my last, I suspect.

- miceelf

June 24, 2010 at 4:20pm

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the "view full comment" does not appear to be functioning; looks like a paragraph and a half of my comments were lost. What is more, it is clear that the comment, starting with an If, was not complete, so to attack the writer on the basis of an incomplete comment and one half of an unfinished paragraph appears to me at least premature. The lost paragraph was the following: "If not, it is entirely possible, if not likely, that Farsnews was up to its usual editorial standards: removing a 'not' from a wire story; replacing 'Yemen' or 'Tnuisia' or 'The Comoros' with 'Israel'; or quoting a nonexistent author writing for a fictional magazine in a long-dead language. If you have the stomach for it, Farsnews can be quite entertaining, in a sick sort of way." Mice: there is no point in trying to respond; Roid has the measure of the bully well enough. And of course not just a bully but someone who, in plain view, distorts and quotes out of context .... The one sad thing is that because of the free and rather random use of the term "anti-Semite" on these pages, the charge is losing its impact. I did not even criticise Marty - I just commented on his previous bumboy - and that alone got out the "classic antisemite" comparison. Why an "antisemite" comparison and not just a comment that, for example, "hatred closes his eyes"? Because there is only one mode of argument for some: you disagree with me, then you must be an antisemite or think like one. Amusing, really, if it were not so pathetic.

- icarusr

June 24, 2010 at 4:54pm

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Oh the poor pitiful Icarus. He needs Roi and Miceelf to help him argue; he is pathetic. Left to himself this is what he comes up with: "If not, it is entirely possible, if not likely, that Farsnews was up to its usual editorial standards: removing a 'not' from a wire story; replacing 'Yemen' or 'Tnuisia' or 'The Comoros' with 'Israel'; or quoting a nonexistent author writing for a fictional magazine in a long-dead language. If you have the stomach for it, Farsnews can be quite entertaining, in a sick sort of way." “Mice: there is no point in trying to respond; Roid has the measure of the bully well enough. And of course not just a bully but someone who, in plain view, distorts and quotes out of context ....” So now, it’s not only Marty and Kirchik who write the way Fars news does, but so do I. It seems that anyone Icarus hates, writes like Farsnews. Well, I would rather be associated with Marty than with Icarus any day of the week.

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 5:11pm

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Peretz could have cited sources other than Fars on THIS news morsel.. Guess he likes to see his threads turn into whatever. It does not matter if IAF helicopters unloaded anything at a Saudi airfield. the real story is what is on and underneath the water. all this news chaff is hindering my ability to follow the Truman armada. must be an attempt to make it tough on Iranian intelligence :) btw, Iran has been funding the Yemeni minority Shi'a insurgency against the Saudis?

- K2K

June 24, 2010 at 8:00pm

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Lamentable thread.

- basman

June 24, 2010 at 8:15pm

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Debka reports on intensive activity in Azerbaijan. Not a word about the Saudis. http://www.debka.com/article/8868/

- noga1

June 24, 2010 at 9:28pm

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" Guess he likes to see his threads turn into whatever." Not his fault that he has people who hate him stalking his threads. That hypocrite Icarus has got a nerve calling other posters "bullies" when he spends the better part of his posts here trying to intimidate posters who disagree with him. Any one who stands up to him is a bully.

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 9:48pm

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That's an interesting link, Noga. "Iran on war alert over "US and Israeli concentrations" in Azerbaijan" Question is, should we trust this report? Debka's claims haven't always been verifiable.

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 9:52pm

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I attribute a 50-50 chance of accuracy to Debka. but in the context of this thread with the questionable validity of the Iranian source I think it is not inappropriate to provide other reliable sources. We are all groping in the dark, actually.

- noga1

June 24, 2010 at 11:02pm

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Absolutely, and without night vision goggles.

- jdyer

June 24, 2010 at 11:19pm

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Good one, K2K; I have to be grateful for the general ineptness of Iranian intelligence. more of an oxymoron than most.

- miceelf

June 24, 2010 at 11:24pm

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The purpose of the navy fleet movements is to get folks both in Iran and elsewhere speculating about stuff they know little to nothing about. Apparently it's worked (I make exception for any ex-Navy people here who may have a clue). Presumably the Iranian regime itself can distinguish between truth and the propaganda it sponsors, which raises some interesting prospects.

- ironyroad

June 25, 2010 at 12:04am

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gee, I hate to offer any help to any intelligence agency, but the DEBKA report on Azerbaijan is an additional dot that I was waiting for. Iran is about 57% Persian. remarkable range of ethnic minorities. Azeris are Shi'a Turkic. Kurds are Sunni as are Baluchis, neither Arab nor Persian. all three are split from the majority of their 'nationalities. Kind of intriguing all three are restive inside Iran just as a larger than usual armada show up off their coast. feel like I need to re-read a Tom Clancy novel right about now, but will just have to enjoy the fact that Turkey had to send a military contingent to Israel to continue their training on those drones they bought to use on their PKK, since Israel withdrew their training team from Turkey after the Marmara. The only thing more enjoyable would be France's carrier, the deGaulle, spotted off the coast of Lebanon... I wonder what Turkey and Iran (and Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan) think of the Ralph Peters map, where Free Kurdistan even gets an outlet to the Black Sea.

- K2K

June 25, 2010 at 12:26am

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irony, I am just disappointed that the Age of Battleships is long gone, supplanted by aircraft carriers. Iran might think twice before one of their fighter jets buzzes a US carrier again. My earliest memory is of my Dad taking me to the naval air base where he was stationed, and on to one of the planes, when I was three.

- K2K

June 25, 2010 at 12:37am

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Irony: I really don't think they can, or do. Ahmadinejad has systematically decimated all organs of the Iranian government that have any capacity to produce correct data or to assess it. They are amazingly good at spying on their people, but whether they can tell the difference between their own propaganda and truth - hard to say.

- icarusr

June 25, 2010 at 1:07am

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K2K -- works for me, sir! ick -- there has to be someone in there, even if they are circumspect with their analysis. Even in pre-1989 Romania, which was a nation ruled on the basis of Ceaucescu's mood swings, the Securitate had a core staff that knew what was what.

- ironyroad

June 25, 2010 at 7:06am

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Irony: You're right. The answer has two parts though. In the Administration or the organs controlled by the Dear Leader, they did up have people who could see the reality for what it was, until Ahmadinejad came into power - but no more. One of his early acts was to purge the Intelligence Ministry - not just of supporters of Khatami (not many, in any event) but of the career staff. His appointments, to a man, have been based on personal loyalty to him, buttressed by a "culture of youth", according to which Young People, who have energy, initiative and inspiration (of the Messianic/Millennarian sort) are promoted ahead of anyone who might actually have any experience of anything. So you end up with a 27-yo with no experience in management being appointed head of Iran's largest Auto manufacturer (and promptly driving it to the ground); and a bunch of Basiji twenty-somethings being put in charge of the Intelligence apparatus. The huge missteps of the regime in the past year (and the fact that it is still in power does not mean that it has not made grave and perhaps fatal strategic mistakes) reflect precisely this failure of Intelligence and management. Unlike for Mice, the ineptness of Iranian Intelligence does not comfort me, as it could easily give rise to destabilising adventurism abroad. In the Expediency Council, cooler heads and sounder judgements still prevail, but it is mostly a reactive body, with limited legislative reconciliation capacity and no executive authority, so its influence in the country is limited. The head of the Strategic Studies Committee of the Council, a certain Mr. Rohani, was for a time quite vocal in pointing out the challenges, and the failures, of the Intelligence apparatus in respect precisely of the point you raise. But he has been muzzled for the past year, and it does not appear that anyone in power is listening to him, or them, any longer. For all intents and purposes, Iran is, as Ahmadinejad famously stated two years ago, "A train proceeding on its tracks; and we've thrown out the brakes and the steering wheel [sic]."

- icarusr

June 25, 2010 at 9:46am

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It was confirmd at the time when, on April 21, 2010, an Iranian navy plane approached a U.S. aircraft carrier, flying as low as 300 feet as it neared the USS Eisenhower. One can imagine a different outcome the next time Iran tries a similar tactic. Having three active 'ethnic insurgencies' inside Iran is an inherently unsettling distraction. And who knows the true capabilities of the Ofek 9 satellite's radar camera that Israel launched on Tuesday?

- K2K

June 25, 2010 at 10:11am

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ironyroad “Presumably the Iranian regime itself can distinguish between truth and the propaganda it sponsors, which raises some interesting prospects.” “The regime” covers a lot of people and organizations. Some in the regime may know the difference between propaganda and truth, but it may also be to their benefit not to say so out loud. Others may be so invested in the propaganda that they suspect that those who speak “truth” are the propagandists. Still, the very idea of “news reports” with its assumption of objectivity would be foreign to a totalitarian regime which shies away from sharing even minor facts with its people. it would be safe to assume that all news reports coming out of such a regime have tactical value: to project one’s power and the rightness (righteousness in this case) of one’s position and to confuse the foe. Here is where the question of distinguishing between “truth and propaganda” has any value to the outside world: do the disseminators of “news” know the difference between what is said for the sake of self justification and what is said to confuse one’s foe? I suspect that some intermediary functionary might, but it is doubtful that those transmitting the news do and it is also doubtful (but for different reasons) that those at the very top know the difference especially in a regime with strong mystical beliefs.

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 10:32am

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about that DEBKA report on Azerbaijan. Between June 18-20, there was a serious melting of the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh (another Stalin map trick that placed always-Armenian enclaves into Azerbaijan), which border Iran, who does not want any U.S. involvement in re-freezing the ceasefire. Good location for U.S. special forces :) http://www.rferl.org/content/OSCE_EU_Condemn_Karabakh_Armed_Incident/2079009.html

- K2K

June 25, 2010 at 1:01pm

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As if it weren't obvious, this thread again makes it clear that jdyer needs neither prompting from me nor any criticism of him in order to launch into personal attacks and abusive language. But noga says that jackson is "authentic." So, it must be okay for him to do this. Just not acceptable for anyone to respond in kind (unless perhaps they can satisfy noga that they too are authentic).

- roidubouloi

June 25, 2010 at 2:28pm

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“As if it weren't obvious, this thread again makes it clear that jdyer needs neither prompting from me nor any criticism of him in order to launch into personal attacks and abusive language.” Give us a break I responded to your attack on Marty, comparing his posts to those of the Farcenews service. Besides you also tore into Kirchik who hadn’t posted here in I don’t know how long. Then you and your buddy miceroni spent most of your time attacking me. You’re the original bully, Icarus. You dish it out but you can’t take it when people respond to you in kind. Now, do you have anything intelligent to say about how the concept of “news” is handled in a totalitarian State?

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 3:35pm

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I wrote the above to Icarus, but it’s his other twin who posted the above quote. No matter the same applies to King Bully only more so. I expect a barrage of attacks from Bully and his other twins, and a long screed from Kingkong-Roi.

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 3:38pm

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So, does King Bully buy the Black helicopter story printed in Farcenews?

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 3:42pm

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Here is Radio Liberty's report from June 24 about Iran's reaction to possible U.S. troops in Azerbaijan (ne mention of any Israelis!): "Iran Opposes Any U.S. Peacekeeping Role For Karabakh" http://www.rferl.org/content/Iran_Against_Any_US_Peacekeeping_Role_For_Karabakh/2081078.html

- K2K

June 25, 2010 at 3:45pm

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"So, does King Bully buy the Black helicopter story printed in Farcenews?" I haven't the slightest factual basis upon which to judge and so I am mostly agnostic. However, a priori, it seems unlikely to me, not because of the source but because I think it unlikely that Saudi Arabia would cooperate with Israel in this way. On the other hand, it might have happened as a gambit, a warning by Saudi Arabia to Iran that it is willing in fact to assist in an attack on Iran. Who cares either way? The story itself is a curiosity and it is unlikely that any more will by known than is known now. _______________ Apparently jackson believes that if someone "tears into" Peretz or Kirchick, that is the same thing as using abusive language toward another poster and that, therefore, anyone who is critical of Peretz or Kirchick in terms jackson does not approve of is fair game. I wonder if anyone else shares this view. Does it mean that if someone "tears into" Obama, that they are fair game? That is what jackson and his pals constantly complain of, that they cannot criticize Obama without being called names and such (although I don't personally think there is much reality to their complaint). It seems as though the double-standard is still very much in operation. Jackson can say what he pleases for whatever reason, and everyone else is expected to abide by the rules of decorum he decrees for them. Implausible to say the least. But do remember, dear jackson, that I am the King Bully, and I have the measure of you. Still, I am taking JackR's advice that flame wars are off-putting for other posters and so I am refraining. You don't seem to want to take his advice, do you?

- roidubouloi

June 25, 2010 at 6:04pm

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“Apparently jackson believes that if someone "tears into" Peretz or Kirchick, that is the same thing as using abusive language toward another poster…” Since King Bully has done both and often he should know if it’s the same or not. As for me, yes, gratuitous cheap shots at people like Kirchick is worse than an attack on another poster. Most posters can and will defend themselves. Bloggers can’t answer each pathetic swipe at them. In any case, King Roi has decided to “play” the “good guy” and he thinks people have forgotten his demented attacks on both bloggers and posters here. Put a sock in it, buster.

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 6:33pm

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Oh, I'm not playing the good guy, jackson. Not a bit. Just taking advantage of the opportunity that you afford to demonstrate that your complaints about anyone's behavior are hypocritical. You are very obliging in this regard. You have tried to claim that your abusive language is somehow in response to others. But you make it very clear that that is not true. I'm not criticizing you for your language, only calling attention to your hypocrisy.

- roidubouloi

June 25, 2010 at 7:47pm

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roidubouloi "Oh, I'm not playing the good guy, jackson." No, not one bit. Just showing us what a sanctimonious blowhard you are.

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 8:03pm

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A Modest Proposal, with all due credit where credit is due: ...I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a flame thrower well nursed, is, at any age, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout. I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the hundred and twenty thousand flame throwers, already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle, or swine, and my reason is, that these flame throwers are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore, one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at any age, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the world, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A flame thrower will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter....

- basman

June 25, 2010 at 8:07pm

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basman, you do Swift proud! I was going to re-read G.T. this week (some reference to Yahoos somewhere made me think it the right time), but made the mistake of instead trying to watch "The Road" instead. Even Viggo Mortenson could not make post-apocolypse America with roving gangs of cannibals into a palatable film.

- K2K

June 25, 2010 at 8:15pm

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And your point, jackson? That you are not a hypocrite on the subject of behavior on these threads? Please recall that it is not I who objects to "flame throwing" or complains of it. You do. I just point out that anyone who engages in it, as you do, has no reasonable expectation that he will not be a target of it. However, both doing it and complaining about it at the same time goes far beyond sanctimony.

- roidubouloi

June 25, 2010 at 8:29pm

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roidubouloi “And your point, jackson?” My point, my point, what happened to my point? Don’t know but if it will keep roi sleepless And posting through the night. That is for me enough of a point!

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 8:34pm

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Itzik, I posted something on the review of Eco's book thread. I wrote it before I saw you won post. I liked the lines from smart poem you left there.

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 8:39pm

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Hmph. Just as I thought.

- roidubouloi

June 25, 2010 at 8:43pm

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My, my, he thinks, he thinks. A thinking reed. What an old boy he is and feeble too.

- jdyer

June 25, 2010 at 8:49pm

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Saudi's King Abdullah visits President Obama on June 29; meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu is July 6. SecState Clinton is off to Krakow, Yerevan, Baku, and Tblisi July 1-5. And, on the anniversary of the Korean War, "...North Korea blames the 1950-53 war on the United States and on Thursday said the moneterary cost for North Korean suffering from the conflict amounted to $65 trillion — five times the U.S. national debt." Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. [no mention if that includes compound onterest]

- K2K

June 25, 2010 at 9:15pm

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Bahrain's Gulf Daily News weighs in with "ISRAEL 'PLOTS TEHRAN RAID", which is the first source that gives the other Georgia a role in stimulating Iran's paranoia. http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=281041

- K2K

June 26, 2010 at 12:58am

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K2K, the book was pretty good, haven't caught the movie yet, but I have heard others who agree with your assessment of it. The book was probably McCarthy's least bleak one.

- miceelf

June 26, 2010 at 2:08pm

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miceelf: I would think reading Cormac McCarthy on post-apocalyptic dystopic cannibals is a lot easier than watching it on the screen. Just discovered, in the village library, a travel memoir "West of the Indus" written by SC Justice Douglas in 1959: road trip from Karachi north to Kabul to Teheran to Baghdad, then through Kurdistan to Istanbul. my favorite kind of read. on the news front, was just reading about how The Nation seems to have proven the three American hikers (Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27) in Iran jail since July 31, 2009 were actually arrested INSIDE Iraqi Kurdistan as "spies" by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. and, so Maliki finally officially complained to Iran and Turkey for violating Iraqi sovereignty with military strikes against Kurds that are causing Iraqi civilian casualties and hundreds of refugees.

- K2K

June 26, 2010 at 2:56pm

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On the "Israel landing military equipment in S.A." Fars story: It was reported here fairly matter-of-factly, almost blandly. No confirmation or denial. And as far as the general reliability of the Fars agency, even a stopped clock shows the correct time twice a day. BTW, the equipment need not be, and probably isn't, stuff for land forces (at least large conventional ones). If anything it would be stuff for fighter-bomber emergency repair & rearming, &/or air command and control, &/or search & rescue, &/or electronic warfare, & the sort of stuff that would be important to have pre-positioned if Israel were to take the Saudi route on the way to Tehran. Is the story true? I could go either way on this one. During the first Gulf War I believe there were some off the record statements from some senior Saudis that if Israel wanted to fly over S.A. on the way to bombing Iraqi missile launchers that were firing on Israel, the Saudis would not get in Israel's way. In this part of the world, the enemy of my (current) enemy is my friend (at least for now). On the other hand, the Saudis tend to be among the more rabid Israel-hating & Jews-are-dhimmi countries of the Arab world. The area has been Judenrein since the early years of Islam. As far as the Ofek capabilities, what was reported here is that it has imaging capabilities day or night and in all kinds of weather, with resolution capabilities approaching that of US SpySatts several times it's size & weight. Also that it orbits the earth once every 90 minutes and that it can be positioned at will over many countries under its general orbital path. BTW, Israel has to overcome a major handicap in putting satellites into orbit. The general practice is to launch satellites etc. to the east to exploit the slingshot effect of the earth's rotation. Because launching to the east for Israel means launching over less-than-friendly territory (and populated at that), Israel launches its rockets to the west, against the earth's rotation, which puts an added drain on the rocket's thrust. That is why Israel puts a premium on making smaller satellites (especially its spy satellites for which it won't outsource its launching) with high-level capabilities. Israel does have 1 or 2 communications sats which like all commsats need to be in geosynchronous (read: much higher) orbits and for those it has outsourced the launch to other countries. Hershel Ginsburg Efrata / Jerusalem

- ginzy

June 27, 2010 at 3:23am

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Thanks Ginzy. I suppose the unanswered question will continue to be whether the Israeli corvette is still with the Truman group, now in the Persian Gulf. Not likely the Israeli Navy can even dock in Bahrain. well, I have more unanswered questions than that, which Admiral Mullen will no doubt be answering when he meets with the IDF, on his way back from Af-Pak.

- K2K

June 27, 2010 at 11:52am

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correction: The Truman group is in the Indian Ocean, east of the Straits of Hormuz, according the map published by Stratfor on June 23. closer to Mumbai and Goa than Bahrain...

- K2K

June 27, 2010 at 6:06pm

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historical coincidence that both George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan are on the move while the Abraham Lincoln is safely at home...

- K2K

June 27, 2010 at 6:11pm

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