Bush okayed covert US action on Iran N-plant

[OhioChick]

Source: Times of India

12 Jan 2009, 0006 hrs IST,

WASHINGTON: US president George Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on
Iran's main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran's suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.

White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the US protested, or whether PM Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before Bush left office.

But the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran's major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country's only known uranium enrichment plant is located.

The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran's nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Bush is about to hand off to president-elect Barack Obama.



Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Bush_okayed_action_on_Iran_N-plant/articleshow/3965229.cms

[David Dunham]

1. Obama's probably going to do the same thing if Iran doesn't quicly abandon nuke development

[babylonsister]

2. Hmmm. Good source? I've read the opposite.

Maybe it depends on interpretation?

[Libertas1776]

3. ...

I thought it was nuke facilities in Syria? Maybe I heard wrong.

[curious one]

4. Maybe that's why bomb stuff is being sold to them under GWB's administration!?

[Dumak]

5. It seems story like this could just as easily be fabricated

or a partial truth. The Bush administration would certainly have no problem with fabricating a story if it was to their advantage to do so.