Arming of Hezbollah Reveals U.S. and Israeli Blind Spots--NYT

[spindrifter]

By MARK MAZZETTI and THOM SHANKER
Published: July 19, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 18 — The power and sophistication of the missile and rocket arsenal that Hezbollah has used in recent days has caught the United States and Israel off guard, and officials in both countries are just now learning the extent to which the militant group has succeeded in getting weapons from Iran and Syria.

While the Bush administration has stated that cracking down on weapons proliferation is one of its top priorities, the arming of Hezbollah shows the blind spots of American and other Western intelligence services in assessing the threat, officials from across those governments said.

American and Israeli officials said the successful attack last Friday on an Israeli naval vessel was the strongest evidence to date of direct support by Iran to Hezbollah. The attack was carried out with a sophisticated antiship cruise missile, the C-802, an Iranian-made variant of the Chinese Silkworm, an American intelligence official said

<snip>

They said they had also been surprised by the advances that Hezbollah had made in improving what had been crude rockets — for example, attaching cluster bombs as warheads, or filling an explosive shell with ball bearings that have devastating effect.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19missile.html

[Redstone]

1. Score another intelligence coup by the CIA!

What the FUCK do they do with all the money we give them?

Redstone

[spindrifter]

2. It's truly amazing that

we are busy eliminating the privacy of our citizens and spending scads of money on projects to see who is calling whom or who is sending $10 to an overseas relief fund and we, the ones who can Google any area of the earth are clueless about stockpiles of weapons. But that's BushCo in operation!

[NNN0LHI]

3. NYT? WMDs will be next n/t

[KeepItReal]

4. I call bullshit... Hezbollah having missiles was no big secret

"While Iranian missile supplies to Hezbollah, either by sea or overland via Syria, were well known, officials said the current conflict also indicated that some of the rockets in Hezbollah’s arsenal — including a 220-millimeter rocket used in a deadly attack on a railway site in Haifa on Sunday — were built in Syria."

The fact that Hezbollah was buying weapons this whole time was no surprise at all to the government.

Who cares if the missiles came from Syria or Syracuse? The fact is *nobody* apparently was trying to stop Hezbollah from acquiring the missiles in the first place.

Now they wanna act all surprised when those stockpiled missiles are actually used?

[Redstone]

7. What you said.

Redstone

[Joe Fields]

5. Maybe that is because the only terrorists they are interested in...

coincidentally happen to be in major oil producing countries.

[KittyWampus]

6. Steve Clemon's article cited this surprise at Hezbollah's sophisticated

use of weaponry as why Israel over-reacted... along with wanting to screw US options in ME foreign policy.