President 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.
I don’t understand why this article got printed. It is a known fact that the New York Times will print anything and everything without regard to national security. But the article reads like a bunch of Bush supporters were trying to do some legacy enhancement. In the process I think they damaged America’s national interests.
Particularly harmful was the article’s assertion that Israel has decided that it can not effectively attack Iran without US help. I have long suspected that was the case. But leaking an official assessment to that effect (or pretending you are) does not help the cause of halting Iran’s march towards nuclear weapons.
It would have been better had there been strategic ambiguity in regards to Israel’s ability. After all, even though everybody and their brother might suspect that Israel could not do much on their own, nobody can be quite sure given Israel’s past history. And that was useful pressure all the way around.
I suppose the article could be full of disinformation. In which case it is all well and good. But hard experience has taught me never to expect government officials to leak things for the right reasons.