{"id":425,"date":"2007-09-30T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-30T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argee.net\/wordpress\/?p=425"},"modified":"2012-06-03T08:36:04","modified_gmt":"2012-06-03T15:36:04","slug":"silence-in-syria-panic-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425","title":{"rendered":"SILENCE IN SYRIA, PANIC IN IRAN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"mr_social_sharing_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Social Sharing Toolkit v2.2 --><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 51px; height: 21px; overflow: hidden;\"><div class=\"fb-like\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\" data-send=\"false\" data-width=\"51\" data-show-faces=\"false\"><\/div><\/span><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><fb:share-button type=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\"><\/fb:share-button><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\" data-text=\"SILENCE IN SYRIA, PANIC IN IRAN\"><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><div class=\"g-plusone\" data-size=\"medium\" data-annotation=\"none\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\"><\/div><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_digg\" href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D425&amp;title=SILENCE+IN+SYRIA%2C+PANIC+IN+IRAN\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/digg.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Digg This\" title=\"Digg This\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_reddit\" href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D425\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/reddit.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Submit to reddit\" title=\"Submit to reddit\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"linksalpha_button linksalpha_link\" href=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/social\/mobile\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\" data-text=\"SILENCE IN SYRIA, PANIC IN IRAN\" data-desc=\"This article was written by\u00a0Dr. Jack Wheeler\u00a0on September 19, 2007. I receive it by email, contacted Wheeler for validation, and he confirmed his authorship. It's an eye-opener. \u2013 RGW One of India's top ranking generals assigned to liaise with the Iranian military recently returned to\" data-image=\"\" data-button=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/images\/social_share_button.png\" alt=\"Share\" class=\"linksalpha_image\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/scripts\/loader_iconbox.js?v=2.4\"><\/script><\/span><\/div><p><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica\"><br \/>\n<\/font><\/p>\n<p class=\"preamble\" sourceindex=\"538\" style=\"font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; color: #000099; margin-right: 5em; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: 5em; margin-top: auto; font-style: italic;\">This article was written by&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tothepointnews.com\/\" sourceindex=\"539\" style=\"text-decoration: none; color: #003366;\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tothepointnews.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Jack Wheeler<\/a>&nbsp;on September 19, 2007. I receive it by email, contacted Wheeler for validation, and he confirmed his authorship. It&#8217;s an eye-opener. \u2013 RGW<\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; color: black; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\">One of India&#8217;s top ranking generals assigned to liaise with the Iranian military recently returned to New Delhi from several days in Tehran &#8211; in a state of complete amazement.<br sourceindex=\"541\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"542\"><br \/>\n&#8220;Everyone in the government and military can only talk of one thing,&#8221; he reports. &#8220;No matter who I talked to, all they could do was ask me, over and over again, &#8216;Do you think the Americans will attack us?&#8217; &#8216;When will the Americans attack us?&#8217; &#8216;Will the Americans attack us in a joint operation with the Israelis?&#8217; How massive will the attack be?&#8217; on and on, endlessly. The Iranians are in a state of total panic.&#8221; And that was before September 6. Since then, it&#8217;s panic-squared in Tehran. The mullahs are freaking out in fear. Why? Because of the silence in Syria.<br sourceindex=\"543\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"544\"><br \/>\nOn September 6, Israeli Air Force F-15 and F-16s conducted a devastating attack on targets deep inside Syria near the city of Dayr az-Zawr. Israel&#8217;s military censors have muzzled the Israeli media, enforcing an extraordinary silence about the identity of the targets. Massive speculation in the world press has followed, such as Brett Stephens&#8217; Osirak II? in yesterday&#8217;s (9\/18) Wall St. Journal.<br sourceindex=\"545\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"546\"><br \/>\nStephens and most everyone else have missed the real story. It is not Israel&#8217;s silence that &#8220;speaks volumes&#8221; as he claims, but Syria&#8217;s. Why would the Syrian government be so tight-lipped about an act of war perpetrated on their soil?<br sourceindex=\"547\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"548\"><br \/>\nThe first half of the answer lies in this story that appeared in the Israeli media last month (8\/13): Syria&#8217;s Antiaircraft System Most Advanced In World. Syria has gone on a profligate buying spree, spending vast sums on Russian systems, &#8220;considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology.&#8221;<br sourceindex=\"549\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"550\"><br \/>\nSyria now &#8220;possesses the most crowded antiaircraft system in the world,&#8221; with &#8220;more than 200 antiaircraft batteries of different types,&#8221; some of which are so new that they have been installed in Syria &#8220;before being introduced into Russian operation service.&#8221;<br sourceindex=\"551\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"552\"><br \/>\nWhile you&#8217;re digesting that, take a look at the map of Syria:<br sourceindex=\"553\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"554\"><br \/>\nNotice how far away Dayr az-Zawr is from Israel. An F15\/16 attack there is not a tiptoe across the border, but a deep, deep penetration of Syrian airspace. And guess what happened with the Russian super-hyper-sophisticated cutting edge antiaircraft missile batteries when that penetration took place on September 6th. Nothing.<br sourceindex=\"555\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"556\"><br \/>\nEl blanko. Silence. The systems didn&#8217;t even light up, gave no indication whatever of any detection of enemy aircraft invading Syrian airspace, zip, zero, nada. The Israelis (with a little techie assistance from us) blinded the Russkie antiaircraft systems so completely the Syrians didn&#8217;t even know they were blinded.<br sourceindex=\"557\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"558\"><br \/>\nNow you see why the Syrians have been scared speechless. They thought they were protected &#8211; at enormous expense &#8211; only to discover they are defenseless. As in naked.<br sourceindex=\"559\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"560\"><br \/>\nThus the Great Iranian Freak-Out &#8211; for this means Iran is just as nakedly defenseless as Syria. I can tell you that there are a lot of folks in the Kirya (IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv) and the Pentagon right now who are really enjoying the mullahs&#8217; predicament. Let&#8217;s face it: scaring the terror masters in Tehran out of their wits is fun.<br sourceindex=\"561\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"562\"><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s so much fun, in fact, that an attack destroying Iran&#8217;s nuclear facilities and the Revolutionary Guard command\/control centers has been delayed, so that France (under new management) can get in on the fun too.<br sourceindex=\"563\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"564\"><br \/>\nOn Sunday (9\/16), Sarkozy&#8217;s foreign minister Bernard Kouchner announced that &#8220;France should prepare for the possibility of war over Iran&#8217;s nuclear program.&#8221;<br sourceindex=\"565\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"566\"><br \/>\nAll of this has caused Tehran to respond with maniacal threats. On Monday (9\/17), a government website proclaimed that &#8220;600 Shihab-3 missiles&#8221; will be fired at targets in Israel in response to an attack upon Iran by the US\/Israel. This was followed by Iranian deputy air force chief Gen. Mohammad Alavi announcing today (9\/19) that &#8220;we will attack their (Israeli) territory with our fighter bombers as a response to any attack.&#8221;<br sourceindex=\"567\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"568\"><br \/>\nA sure sign of panic is to make a threat that everyone knows is a bluff. So our, and Tel Aviv&#8217;s response to Iranian bluster is a thank-you-for-sharing, yawn and a laugh. Few things rattle the mullahs&#8217; cages more than a yawn and a laugh.<br sourceindex=\"569\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"570\"><br \/>\nYet no matter how much fun this sport with the mullahs is, it is also deadly serious. The pressure build-up on Iran is getting enormous. Something is going to blow and soon. The hope is that the blow-up will be internal, that the regime will implode from within.<br sourceindex=\"571\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"572\"><br \/>\nBut make no mistake: an all-out full regime take-out air assault upon Iran is coming if that hope doesn&#8217;t materialize within the next 60 to 90 days. The Sept. 6 attack on Syria was the shot across Iran&#8217;s bow.<br sourceindex=\"573\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"574\"><br \/>\nSo &#8211; what was attacked near Dayr az-Zawr? It&#8217;s possible it was North Korean &#8220;nuclear material&#8221; recently shipped to Syria, i.e., stuff to make radioactively &#8220;dirty&#8221; warheads, but nothing to make a real nuke with as the Norks don&#8217;t have real nukes (see &#8220;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thevanguard.org\/thevanguard\/other_writers\/wheeler_jack\/061010.shtml\" sourceindex=\"575\" style=\"text-decoration: none; color: #003366;\">Why North Korea&#8217;s Nuke Test Is Such Good News<\/a>,&#8221; October 2006).<br sourceindex=\"576\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"577\"><br \/>\nAnother possibility is it was to take out a stockpile of long-range Zilzal surface-to-surface missiles recently shipped from Iran for an attack on Israel.<br sourceindex=\"578\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"579\"><br \/>\nA third is it was a hit on the stockpile of Saddam&#8217;s chemical\/bio weapons snuck out of Iraq and into Syria for safekeeping before the US invasion of April 2003.<br sourceindex=\"580\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"581\"><br \/>\nBut the identity of the target is not the story &#8211; for the primary point of the attack was not to destroy that target. It was to shut down Syria&#8217;s Russian air defense system during the attack. Doing so made the attack an incredible success.<br sourceindex=\"582\"><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br sourceindex=\"583\"><br \/>\nSyria is shamed and silent. Iran is freaking out in panic. Defenseless enemies are fun.<\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; color: black; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\">\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\">\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"># jscroft&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Sunday, September 30, 2007 8:51 AM<\/font><\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Especially pompous, sanctimonious ones with bad hair and cartoon-villain style!<\/font><\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"><br \/>\n<\/font><\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\"># Jack&nbsp;<\/font><\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Thursday, November 22, 2007 4:19 AM<\/font><\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">I have flown over Iran on my magic carpet.. its a crappy, dusty place.<\/font><\/p>\n<p sourceindex=\"540\" siber__q92dpb7seovvtbh5__vptr=\"3f64c30\" style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 6px;\"><font style=\"font-size: 11px; \" face=\"verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif\">Post Comment<\/font><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"mr_social_sharing_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Social Sharing Toolkit v2.2 --><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 51px; height: 21px; overflow: hidden;\"><div class=\"fb-like\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\" data-send=\"false\" data-width=\"51\" data-show-faces=\"false\"><\/div><\/span><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><fb:share-button type=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\"><\/fb:share-button><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\" data-text=\"SILENCE IN SYRIA, PANIC IN IRAN\"><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><div class=\"g-plusone\" data-size=\"medium\" data-annotation=\"none\" data-href=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\"><\/div><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_digg\" href=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D425&amp;title=SILENCE+IN+SYRIA%2C+PANIC+IN+IRAN\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/digg.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Digg This\" title=\"Digg This\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a class=\"mr_social_share_reddit\" href=\"http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthrawnrickle.com%2F%3Fp%3D425\" class=\"mr_social_sharing_popup_link\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-sharing-toolkit\/images\/buttons\/reddit.png\" class=\"nopin\" alt=\"Submit to reddit\" title=\"Submit to reddit\"\/><\/a><\/span><span class=\"mr_social_sharing\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"linksalpha_button linksalpha_link\" href=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/social\/mobile\" data-url=\"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/?p=425\" data-text=\"SILENCE IN SYRIA, PANIC IN IRAN\" data-desc=\"This article was written by\u00a0Dr. Jack Wheeler\u00a0on September 19, 2007. I receive it by email, contacted Wheeler for validation, and he confirmed his authorship. It's an eye-opener. \u2013 RGW One of India's top ranking generals assigned to liaise with the Iranian military recently returned to\" data-image=\"\" data-button=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/images\/social_share_button.png\" alt=\"Share\" class=\"linksalpha_image\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/scripts\/loader_iconbox.js?v=2.4\"><\/script><\/span><\/div><p>This article was written by Dr. Jack Wheeler on September 19, 2007. I receive it by email, contacted Wheeler for validation, and he confirmed his authorship. It&#8217;s an eye-opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5,16],"tags":[1110,1103,1102,1113,1107,1105,373,1099,1111,1101,1112,1106,1115,1109,1104,444,1108,1100,1114],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-military","category-terrorism","tag-bernard-kouchner","tag-brett-stephens","tag-dayr-azzawr","tag-dirty-warheads","tag-france","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-jack-wheeler","tag-kouchner","tag-new-delhi","tag-north-korea","tag-revolutionary-guard","tag-russian-air-defense-system","tag-sarkozy","tag-stephens","tag-syria","tag-tehran","tag-wheeler","tag-zilzal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrawnrickle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}