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18 Sep 2007 08:03 am

What The Hell Just Happened In Syria?

I didn't blog about it much because I couldn't make a great deal of sense out of it. The blogosphere has a lot of chatter on the Israeli strike in Syria, much of it an attempt to clear up major MSM confusion. Arms Control Wonk sorts through the crap and offers a helpful time-line "outlining how two separate stories about a Syrian airstrike and Syria-DPRK nuclear cooperation merged into the big mess we have today." Blake Hounshell targets WaPo's reporting, citing Joseph Cirincione's response to a Glenn Kessler piece:

This story is nonsense.  The Washington Post story should have been headlined "White House Officials Try to Push North Korea-Syria Connection." This is a political story, not a threat story. The mainstream media seems to have learned nothing from the run-up to war in Iraq. It is a sad commentary on how selective leaks from administration officials who have repeatedly misled the press are still treated as if they were absolute truth. 

Once again, this appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted "intelligence" to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political agenda. If this sounds like the run-up to the war in Iraq, it should.

Uh-oh. A helpful round-up here. The much-disputed Times of London piece is here. Israellycool does some backtracking - and clarifying - here. Clear now?

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