US and Israel Test Missile As Syria War Tensions Rise

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Joshua Mitnick reports that Israel and the U.S. carried out a missile test over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday morning that was detected by Russian surveillance systems. Israel's defense ministry eventually said a Sparrow rocket had been fired to simulate a ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state to test the Arrow interceptor system. The Arrow – which wasn't fired Tuesday – has been developed to defend against long range rockets primarily from Iran, a main patron of the Syrian regime. Arieh Herzog, a former Israeli missile defense director, says that the Sparrow missile is developed to simulate 'the worst threats' in the region so Israel can hone the capabilities of the Arrow III missile interceptor. Herzog speculated that the launch Tuesday was done at a considerably long range. Another Israeli expert said the incident could be seen as muscle flexing by the U.S. and Israel. 'You could say perhaps its show of strength to Syria and its Iranian ally — that Israel has a range of options at its disposal. And to place pressure on Assad and Iran that Israel takes [retaliation threats] seriously,' says Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer on Iranian politics at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. Pentagon press secretary George Little said the U.S. 'provided technical assistance and support to the Israeli Missile Defense Organization flight test of a Sparrow target missile over the Mediterranean Sea.' 'The United States and Israel cooperate on a number of long-term ballistic missile defense development projects to address common challenges in the region,' added Little. 'This test had nothing to do with United States consideration of military action to respond to Syria's chemical weapons attack.'"

Comments

Re:Entirely Sensible

[amiga3D]

I agree. It's difficult to believe they really think they can intimidate these guys. The one running Iran is crazy and the one in Syria is desperate. They aren't going to be put off by a missile test. Of course it's possible Israel is just trying to iron out the kinks in the system in preperation for the shit that is about to hit the fan. I think that a strike is almost inevitable at this point.

Mistake in Article

[Anonymous Coward]

By Missile we mean Democracy Spreading Device.

International Dickwaving.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why don't we stay the fuck out of syria. Neither side likes us. We can't 'win' anything.
We're going to piss away a bunch more lives and money we don't have, for what?

Re:International Dickwaving.

[Teancum]

Uh, Syria was until quite recently one of our supporters in the region. We've had generally decent to good relations with the Assad regime. It cooled a bit since he started killing his people, but we tend to take a dim view of those who would kill their people because they started talkng democracy.

A fair point to make. Even more oddly is how Syria was even a military allay during the Gulf War.... where Syria fielded a full division of soldiers and took orders directly from an American general (Schwarzkopf) in that war.

The funny thing about Syria is how there are numerous photos and videos of Assad having dinner with both John Kerry and Barack Obama, not to mention an official state visit by Assad to the White House.... and Obama going to Syria himself. Yeah, it was a close relationship. You wonder what Assad did to piss off the Obama administration?

No I don't think the gas attack, at least by itself, was the act. Heck, the Obama administration has been funding "rebels" in Syria for awhile now... well before that supposed gas attack.

NPR is banging the drums for war...

[CajunArson]

Now that Dear Leader Obama is the president and has decided that we all need to give war a chance, NPR has taken to calling anyone who doesn't want his war to be an "isolationist."

  You'll note that this term was never used against people who disagreed with wars in Afghanistan or Iraq... instead those people were "anti-war" or "pro-peace". We basically need another Republican as president so that the press can go back to attacking the president instead of being his trained lapdog.

Re:Entirely Sensible

[FriendlyLurker]

Intimidate? More like trying to provoke an attack - better to claim the moral high ground over blatantly starting what will be a very bloody high civilian casualty war. "We were just running an innocent missile test, and they attacked us...". Echo's of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident...

Re:Leaked evidence chemical attack was false flag.

[MightyYar]

Wouldn't an American general and his friends speak English? This looks like fake to me. The language seems unnatural for a native speaker. Some examples:

"Hope to see you soon again."
"Thanks God, they are alive. I hope they got a kind of present or some cash."
"I saw it either and got afraid very much."
"I see their faces when in sleep. What did Tony say you about this?"

Re:Firing a missile over the Mediterranean Sea?

[LWATCDR]

1. There was a NOTAM filed for the test. It was not unannounced. Russia just said they detected it and not that they where surprised by it.
2. This is an anti-ballistic missile that was tested and not a ground attack missile. It shoots down other missiles. AKA it is a defensive weapon.
I have to wonder if this is why we have not found any other intelligent life. Once a planet develops the internet people find news sources that reinforce their world view and fears. As a group we become dumb and dumber because we keep seeking sources that tell us we are right. The divisions become greater and greater and people dumb and less tolerant all the while believing they are more informed and open minded until it all falls apart.

Re:Leaked evidence chemical attack was false flag.

[MaWeiTao]

The cynicism amongst some people is so strong that they'll blindly believe any shred of evidence regardless of how fake it looks. It's a good and healthy thing to question, but to buy into every stupid conspiracy theory that comes along is idiotic. They're only capable of being cynical in one direction which means the right interests will be able to easily exploit their naivete.

I bet the guys who posted those supposed emails read the summary and in their gleeful rush to share this crap neglected to dig any deeper. But I guarantee you that a year from now people will continue repeating this story and all blog links will lead right back to this particular site. When it comes to this sort of thing blogs tend to be a circle jerk where everyone uses everyone else's blog as proof for their claims.

Re:Entirely Sensible

[dkleinsc]

The one running Iran is crazy

If you're talking about Mahmoud Ahmadinajad, he's not crazy at all: He acts crazy to try to keep the US from attacking his country. And pursuing a nuclear weapon also isn't a dumb move, because the US has made it clear that it leaves countries with nukes and crazy-seeming leaders (e.g. North Korea) alone while attacking countries without nukes (e.g. Iraq).

If you're talking about the current guy running Iran, Hassan Rouhani, he ran on a campaign of negotiating with foreign powers and more centrist policies, and is decidedly not crazy.

Re:Entirely Sensible

[FriendlyLurker]

That was the official story from 1964 until the start of this century when...

This account, however, has come into sharp dispute with an internal NSA historical study[7] which stated on page 17:

At 1500G, Captain Herrick (commander of the Maddox) ordered Ogier's gun crews to open fire if the boats approached within ten thousand yards. At about 1505G, the Maddox fired three rounds to warn off the communist boats. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first.[7]

The Maddox when confronted, was approaching Hòn Mê Island, three to four miles (6 km) inside the twelve-mile (19 km) limit claimed by North Vietnam. This territorial limit was unrecognized by the United States. After the skirmish, President Johnson ordered the Maddox and Turner Joy to stage daylight runs into North Vietnamese waters, testing the twelve-mile (19 km) limit and North Vietnamese resolve. These runs into North Vietnamese territorial waters coincided with South Vietnamese coastal raids and were interpreted as coordinated operations by the North, which officially acknowledged the engagements of 2 August 1964.[22]

So please, if you have issues with the historical account as it currently stands, take it up with the professional historians - plenty of them standing by on wikipedia and elsewhere to rip your blatant fact manipulation to shreds. Also lets not get into the long list of other false flag operations that have been used to start wars - not like it is anything new.

Re:Leaked evidence chemical attack was false flag.

[LWATCDR]

"Same logic could apply to Syria's leadership. What strategic military importance was there to using chemical weapons on a remote village full of civilians Vs the enormous risk of UN invasion by using them. I suspect the most likely suspects behind the attack are third parties that stand to gain by an invasion (i.e. not US, not current Syrian regime either)."

1 Actually it doesn't here. The UN will not invade because China and Russia will not agree to it. They will veto any massive UN action.
2 The US will not invade because the US is war weary and the President doesn't have the support.
3 The US did nothing when Iraq used them.
So the worse is that the US will fire some cruise missiles to make a show of it. The Syria under their brave leaders took the "worst" that the Imperialist US dogs and their lackeys could dish out and stood firm. In other words we slap the on the wrist and they stick out their tongue at the world. In other words President Obama mucked this up because frankly he just is not a good president. I am not saying that he is evil or anything like that. He seems like a good guy but he should have done a few terms in Congress to get educated about the world outside of being an "activist organizer".