Report: Obama Offers To Bribe Israel To Delay Iran Attack Until After November Elections

Via Katherine Miller, too good to check?

The US offered to give Israel advanced weaponry -- including bunker-busting bombs and refueling planes -- in exchange for Israel's agreement not to attack Iranian nuclear sites, Israeli newspaper Maariv reported Thursday.

President Obama reportedly made the offer during Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week.

Under the proposed deal, Israel would not attack Iran until 2013, after US elections in November this year. The newspaper cited unnamed Western diplomatic and intelligence sources.

The idea that Obama would play politics with such an important matter is disgusting but not surprising. When you combine it with this story, it's simply down right scary.

Satellite images of an Iranian military facility appear to show trucks and earth-moving vehicles at the site, indicating an attempted cleanup of radioactive traces possibly left by tests of a nuclear-weapon trigger, diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The assertions from the diplomats, all nuclear experts accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency, could add to the growing international pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.

...

Two of the diplomats said the crews at the Parchin military site may be trying to erase evidence of tests of a small experimental neutron device used to set off a nuclear explosion. A third diplomat could not confirm that but said any attempt to trigger a so-called neutron initiator could only be in the context of trying to develop nuclear arms.

The diplomats said they suspect attempts at sanitization because some of the vehicles at the scene appeared to be haulage trucks and other equipment suited to carting off potentially contaminated soil from the site.

Story via Alert 5.

Obama can talk about having Israel's back and promise to take action before Iran acquires a nuclear capability all he wants but remember, the US track record of predicting such things is...poor.

Added: I don't think the arms for delay story makes much sense. Why would Netanyahu wait if he thought now was the time? Better weapons and more chance of success don't matter much if it's already too late. More to the point, why would he do anything to help Obama win reelection? Stranger things have happened I suppose but I have my doubts. Though I guess from his perspective, it doesn't hurt Obama to give it a shot.

posted by DrewM. at 11:14 AM

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