Spies Against Armageddon
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Although U.S. intelligence officials praised Israel for being leak-proof on the destruction of Syria’s reactor, the CIA released a dossier and video presentation—including the photos Israel had procured of the inside of the building and of a North Korean official visiting there—to Congress on April 24, 2008. It was immediately given to news reporters. Israel still preferred not to humiliate or provoke Syria with any confirmation. For a CIA statement on the matter, see: https://www.cia.gov/news-information/press-releases-statements/press-release-archive-2008/cia-director-hayden-announces-findings-on-covert-syrian-reactor.html.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, from its headquarters in Vienna, issued a report on May 24, 2011, that accused Syria of telling untruths about the structure at “the Dair Alzour site,” reporting that samples taken after it was bulldozed established a connection with nuclear work, but also regretting that Israel took military action instead of informing the IAEA. See: http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Board/2011/gov2011-30.pdf.
Among those who wrote that Israel assassinated General Suleiman in Syria was Uzi Mahanaimi in the British Sunday Times, August 10, 2008; though the details, also in his writing about the air raid that flattened Syria’s reactor the previous September, may not be precise. See also Hugh McLeod and Ian Black, “Top Assad Aide Assassinated at Syrian Resort,” The Guardian, August, 4, 2008.
Acknowledgments
In producing this, our fifth, book written jointly, we truly learned that it takes a village to reach an important goal. In Washington, in Tel Aviv, as well as in other locales where research and interviews were conducted, we relied on the assistance of people who wanted Israel and its unique challenges and solutions to be better understood.
The vast majority of well informed and experienced individuals in the field of intelligence, who helped us so much by explaining what happened and why, prefer to remain anonymous. You know who you are. We won’t forget you, but we’ll do you the favor of not naming you.
Yet we would be remiss not to thank the team that helped turn years of conversations and notes into a book. Our wives, Dori Phaff and Billie Melman, contributed not only support but many hours of work in getting many of the tasks done. Paul Skolnick, a master of all things digital, extended himself far beyond expectations as our manager of production. Hillel Kuttler was our strong editor.
The publicity team is ably headed by Sandy Trupp, and our on-line strategies are provided by Michael Conniff at Post Time Media Inc.
Valuable encouragement came also from our families and from Robert Zimmerman, Larry Miller (including a key part of the title), Howard Arenstein, Steve Rabinowitz, Barry Schochet, Kate Brown, and others at and around our respective workplaces.
All errors, of course, are our own.
Please see our website, www.IsraelSpy.com. And follow us on Twitter at @SpiesArmageddon.
A brief note about methodology: Portions of the book in Chapter 2 through 10, 13 through 16, 18, 21 and 25 originated from reporting by Yossi Melman in Israel and thus those chapters were submitted to that country’s military censor. Very minor deletions were made as a result.