‘US Involved in Planning Israel’s Attack Operations in Leban

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‘US Involved in Planning Israel’s Attack Operations in Lebanon’
Barbara Ferguson, Arab News

WASHINGTON, 14 August 2006 — The US government was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s military operations against Hezbollah even before the July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers, The New Yorker magazine reported in its most recent issue.

A Pentagon consultant said the White House “has been agitating for some time” to find a reason for a pre-emptive blow against Hezbollah “to take on Iran later on.”

The capture of the Israeli soldiers set off a devastating monthlong Israeli assault on south Lebanon that is expected to come to an end today. But Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Seymour Hersh writes in The New Yorker that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were convinced that a successful Israeli bombing campaign against Hezbollah could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential US pre-emptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations. Citing an unnamed Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of the Israeli and US governments, Hersh says Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah — and shared it with Bush administration officials — well before the July 12 capture.

“Israel began with (Vice President Dick) Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the National Security Council,” a US government consultant with close ties to Israel told Hersh.

Citing current and former Israeli and US intelligence and diplomatic officials, Hersh said several Israeli officials visited Washington earlier this summer to set the stage for a military operation against Hezbollah.

They wanted to “get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear,” said the consultant. He added that after Cheney “persuading Bush was never a problem, and Condi (Condoleezza Rice) was on board.” The expert added that the White House had several reasons for supporting a bombing campaign, writes Hersh. If there were to be a military option against Iran, it had to get rid of the weapons Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation against Israel, the report said.

“The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits,” the magazine quotes the consultant as saying. “Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.”

US government officials have denied the charges. Hersh said the White House did not respond to a detailed list of questions on whether it really helped plan the Israeli military operation.

The Bush administration staunchly opposed an immediate cease-fire in the war unleashed by Israel on July 12, saying that it should be put off until “the conditions are conducive.” The US made no secret that it shipped laser-guided bombs and cluster ammunition to Tel Aviv at Israeli request.

Several current and former officials involved in the Middle East told Hersh that Israel viewed the soldiers’ “kidnapping” as the opportune moment to begin its planned military campaign against Hezbollah.

Nonetheless, Hersh writes, a former senior intelligence official says some officers serving with the Joint Chiefs of Staff remain deeply concerned that the administration will have a far more positive assessment of the air campaign than it should.

“There is no way that (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld and Cheney will draw the right conclusion about this,” the report quotes the former official as saying. “When the smoke clears, they’ll say it was a success, and they’ll draw reinforcement for their plan to attack Iran.”

The same expert who is familiar with both Israeli and US thinking told Hersh the Bush administration saw it could hit two birds with one stone with Israel’s attack on Hezbollah.

“Bush was going after Iran and its nuclear sites as part of the axis of evil, and he was interested in going after Hezbollah as part of his interest in democratization, with Lebanon as one of the crown jewels of Middle East democracy.

The White House was more focused on stripping Hezbollah of its missiles because, if there were to be a military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel,” the expert told Hersh.

Days before the start of the war, Bush described the relationship between Hezbollah, Iran and Syria as one of the “root causes of instability” in the region.

The military option against Iran has always been on Bush’s agenda.

A former senior intelligence official said that the big question for Bush was how to hit a series of hard targets in Iran successfully.

“Who is the closest ally of the US Air Force in its planning? It’s Israel. Everybody knows that Iranian engineers have been advising Hezbollah on tunnels and underground gun emplacements,” he said. “And so the Air Force went to the Israelis with some new tactics and said to them, ‘Let’s concentrate on the bombing and share what we have on Iran and what you have on Lebanon.’”

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&sectionfiltered=0&article=76272&d=14&m =8&y=2006