We are looking for nuclear wessels

Nothing to see here. Move on.

With revelations suggesting that Israel struck a nuclear facility, Syria eager to keep ts good name and reputation intact has invited journalists to see that nothing happened.

Foreign journalists perused the rows of corn and the groves of date palms pregnant with low-hanging fruit here this week, while agents of Syria’s ever present security services stood in the background, watching closely, almost nervously. “You see — around us are farmers, corn, produce, nothing else,” said Ahmed Mehdi, the Deir ez Zor director of the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands, a government agricultural research center, as he led two of the journalists around the facilities.

The real twist to the story is that the impetus for the Syrian spin was a report in the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronot.

Remember that the Israelis supposedly jammed Syrian radar to allow the raid to proceed? Well the report on the facility bombed by Israel in Yedioth by Ron Ben-Yishai also involved tricking Syrian defenses, albeit not high-tech defenses.

Mr. Ben-Yishai’s news report rattled Syrians for another reason: he apparently was able to slip into Syria, which bars Israelis from entering, and travel throughout the country. “I think he came in on a European passport,” said Ghazi Bilto, who said he was a graphic designer for the agricultural center.

Still the reporter for the Times seemed a bit skeptical of the Syrian display.

On Monday, journalists toured the agricultural center at the government’s invitation to prove, Mr. Mehdi said, that no nuclear weapons program or Israeli attacks occurred there. “The allegations are completely groundless, and I don’t really understand where all this W.M.D. talk came from,” Mr. Mehdi said, referring to weapons of mass destruction. “There was no raid here — we heard nothing,“ he added. An entourage of the center’s employees lined up with him to greet the journalists. In a seemingly choreographed display, they nodded in agreement and offered their guests recently picked dates as tokens of hospitality.

(emphasis mine)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

syria, israel.