290 Days

The UN has finally seen to it that they will investigate what the Syrians were doing at the location that Israel bombed on September 6, 2007.

It's now Sunday June 22, 2008.

290 days later, and the UN finally decides to act?

What exactly are they hoping to find now? We have seen satellite evidence that the site has been scoured and scrubbed of any traces of what happened there.

These UN inspectors will have three days to figure out what was going on.

Does it even appear logical to make any assertions about what they'd hope to find 290 days later? They're going to be given a highly sanitized tour of the area, and the Syrian thugs are going to watch them like hawks to make sure that they go only where the Syrians want them to. And for anyone else to place any faith in the IAEA or the UN to uncover Syria's nuclear ambitions hasn't been paying attention:

Damascus denies working on a secret nuclear program. But Washington hopes the U.N agency team will find evidence backing U.S. intelligence that a structure destroyed by Israeli war planes in September was a nearly completed plutonium-producing reactor.

If so, the trip could mark the start of massive atomic agency investigation similar to the five-year inquiry into Iran's activities. What's more, the investigation could draw in countries such as North Korea, which Washington says helped Damascus and Iran. Media reports also have linked Iran with Syria's nuclear efforts.

After months delay, Syria agreed to allow the nuclear inspectors visit the bombed Al Kibar, but not three other locations suspected of harboring secret nuclear activities.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said earlier this month that visits to sites other than Al Kibar were "not within the purview of the agreement" with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Given that the inspectors wont get to tour the other locations, the most that one can glean is an incomplete picture. That's the best case scenario. It would be finding the proverbial needle in stack of needles if the inspectors were indeed to uncover Syria's nuclear program had a facility at the bombing location. And even then, the Syrians will likely do everything imaginable to obfuscate and claim that the US or Israelis planted such evidence.

This comes at a time when the UN's nuclear "expert" claims that Iran is anywhere from six months to a year from having the capability to make a nuclear weapon. 290 days is pretty much the halfway point in his estimate.

For those who think that Iran has peaceful intentions with such a weapon at its disposal, note that Iran has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, setting the region aflame, and its leader has made numerous apocalyptic statements.

Israel isn't going to stand by idly awaiting the bright flash followed moments later by the searing heat of a nuclear detonation on its soil. They embarked on a major air drill, involving a significant portion of Israel's front line fighter aircraft in what many consider to be training for an operation to go after Iran's nuclear facilities.

Citing unidentified Pentagon sources, the New York Times said on Friday more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 jets took part in a long-range Mediterranean exercise this month that appeared to be a rehearsal for real missions over Iran.

Israel did not confirm the reported exercise had taken place. But officials said such drills have been commonplace at least since 2005.

Commentator Amir Rappaport, writing in Israel's Maariv daily, said it was likely the Pentagon leak was an attempt "to deter Iran and increase pressure on it to cooperate" with international nuclear watchdogs.

If they do go after Natanz, which is Iran's declared nuclear facility, the concern at the end of the day may not be whether Israel eliminated it, but whether Iran has been operating a covert facility that Israel and the rest of the world does not know exists and therefore still retains its nuclear capabilities. That puts the world in a serious bind since that could mean that the Iranians are well ahead of where the IAEA, the US and even the Israeli presume the Iranians to be in terms of production of weapons grade materials.

Such is the nature of rogue states like Syria and Iran whose intentions are nothing short of genocidal. And this once again reinforces the difficulties of attempting to negotiate with terror regimes who are intent on obtaining WMD and nuclear weapons for which to use against Israel and US strategic interests in the region and around the world. Hoping that negotiations will solve matters is the height of folly since it favors the regime in Tehran by giving them still more time and space to build their nuclear weapons capabilities and let the centrifuges run to process weapons grade materials.