Israel arms seizure caps secret operation
UPI, Nov 5 2009 (extracts)
According to various sources in Israel, Lebanon and Cyprus, the arms were shipped from Bandar Abbas on Oct 14 aboard the Iranian cargo ship Visea. It is owned by the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines Group (IRISL). The arms shipment was under surveillance from the moment it left Bandar Abbas in a complex intelligence operation involving Israel, the US and several NATO members. The Visea sailed into the Arabian Sea and then north up the Red Sea to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. It docked at the Egyptian port of Damietta on Oct 26. The containers remained at Damietta for a week, until they were loaded onto the Francop. From there, the Israelis say, the ship was due to go to Limassol, Cyprus, then to the Syrian port of Latakia from where the weapons would be delivered overland to Hezbollah. The Israelis say cargo certificates prove the containers were bound for Syria, but they have not yet produced the documents. The Israelis say the Francop’s crew, along with the ship’s owners, Gerd Bartels of Hamburg, did not know the freighter was carrying weapons.
Thirty-six olive green containers holding, by Israeli count, 3,000 107mm and 122mm Katyusha rockets, along with large quantities of armor-piercing artillery shells, hand grenades and Kalashnikov ammunition, were offloaded. Most of the arms were hidden behind stacked bags of polyethylene labeled in English “NPC National Petrochemical Company” with a flame logo used by the company and Iran’s Oil Ministry. Some of the containers were marked IRISL. When the Israelis boarded the Francop Wednesday, they found the arms very quickly, suggesting they knew exactly what they were looking for. The Israelis clearly were alerted about the arms shipment even before it left Iran, indicating that they may have agents on the ground there or inside Hezbollah. According to Ronen Bergman, Israeli author of the 2008 book, “The Secret War with Iran,” Israeli intelligence “has been watching weapons deliveries to Hezbollah for some time now.” However, he says, the Israelis have not moved to stop them, probably to protect their clandestine sources.
I’m not actually convinced by this. It seems to me most likely that the tip-off came from the Syrian military or security ministry, which would have had to know about the Francop in order to arrange collection of the weapons at Latakia and their transport to the Lebanese border. (Notice how the story avoids mentioning any Syrian sources.) The Lebanese would not have needed to know about the Francop; just when and at which Syrian border post to expect delivery. I think the purpose of the story about the Visea is to distract attention from the real source. The idea the Visea transported the weapons to Damietta is in my opinion just a retrospective guess. If Israel had known this at the time, it could only have known it from an Iranian source, and would be especially anxious to protect that source, so it would not disclose its knowledge even now. – RB
November 6, 2009 at 7:04 am
“If Israel had known this at the time, it could only have known it from an Iranian source, and would be especially anxious to protect that source, so it would not disclose its knowledge even now. – RB”
So what you seem to be implying, Rowan, is that Iran and Israel are somehow in cahoots?
Can you explain?
November 6, 2009 at 7:07 am
If Israel had really heard about the Visea from an agent in Iran, they would be doing exactly the reverse of what they are doing now: instead of trumpeting the story about the Visea, they would be keeping dead quiet about it and trumpeting stories about agents in Hezbollah — again, to distract attention from the real source. It’s most interesting that no-one talks of Syrian sources; why don’t they? After all, we often hear stories about the US trying to detach Syria from the Iranian orbit. There are doubtless pro-Western factions inside Syrian military and intelligence who would like nothing better. But instead, to distract attention, this story talks about ’sources in Israel, Lebanon, and Cyprus‘! What would the Cypriots have needed to know? Absolutely nothing! (And don’t tell me about Western COMINT in Cyprus: there wouldn’t have been any radio chatter for them to intercept.)
I think my circumstantial argument is quite powerful: if the operation had been properly compartmentalised, no-one except the Syrians would have needed to know about the Francop, since only they would have been responsible for this leg of the journey, from Damietta to Latakia and thence to the Lebanese border. The optimum of compartmentalisation would have had them choose, organise and book the Francop, since only they would have needed to know the exact means of transport for this leg of the journey anyway, to take delivery at Latakia. Neither the Iranians nor Hezbollah would have needed to know the details. Conversely, neither Syria nor Hezbollah would have needed to know about the Visea (or whatever Iranian vessel really brought the stuff from Bandar Abbas to Damietta)