Perhaps Americans are too distracted by Rev. Wright to notice the story that unfolded this week in a CIA briefing in Congress. Apparently Israel handed over some serious intelligence material that proved that the thing destroyed last September in northern Syria was in fact a North Korean nuclear reactor, just weeks from being completed.
Today, a Japanese broadcaster reports that as many as ten North Koreans were killed in the attack. Though one American intelligence source called the material “particularly convincing”–it certainly makes it difficult for either North Korea’s or Syria’s defenders to deny their mischief–not everyone on our side is pleased. The veteran Israeli journalist Alex Fishman, writing in Ynet, thinks the whole Congressional hearing was a major mistake, revealing crucial intelligence sources and possibly undermining future efforts to collect information. This was, in his view, a “reckless intelligence striptease.” He writes:
[Israeli] Defense officials are now infuriated by the manner and scope of the publication, which exposed our intelligence capabilities. The problem is not with the satellite photos, but rather, with the photos taken in and around the Syrian reactor. We are not talking about mere archive photos, but rather, relatively recent ones taken by someone inside the facility or around it.
It doesn’t matter at all who shot those photos: What we have here is the exposure of capabilities and intelligence sources. We also have a possible exposure of a breach in the Syrian security and intelligence apparatus. The moment these photographs were published, the Syrians were sure to be doing everything in their power to identify and block this breach…
There is no kind of diplomatic or political event that justifies the exposure of this kind of intelligence asset; certainly not a Congress hearing dealing with North Korea’s violations while it engages in talks with the US.
Without knowing any real details about who spied, what was compromised, and so forth, it’s hard to understand what Fishman is griping about: the hearing dealt with subjects vital to Israeli interests. The North Koreans were about to give Israel’s mortal enemy Syria a reactor, and they would readily do so again. To insinuate that raw intelligence material should never be exposed in public hearings, that “there is no kind of diplomatic or political event” that justifies it, is also dead wrong. Especially in an American election year, when a sway in public opinion about the nature of America’s enemies could easily determine whether America ends up disarming Iran in the next few years or not.
The bottom line is that there are times when you need to show your cards, even if it means closing off vital sources of intel. When the Lebanon war started in 2006, Israel revealed its precise knowledge of the location of Hezballah’s medium-range missiles, destroying them in the first few days. Certainly Hezballah was pretty peeved, and did “everything in their power to block this breach.”
But can anyone say Israel should not have taken out the missiles? Obviously a congressional hearing is a different sort of thing. Yet Americans are often quite convinced by solid evidence, and sometimes the best thing the government can do is give it to them–even if it makes things a little harder for the spies.
