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SYRIA NEUTRALIZING SYRIA'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM Wonder: Operation Orchard: The Explosive Raid on Syria's Nuclear Facility PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwtp3d-Q_jk Peter Burgess COMMENTARY This is very interesting ... but there is a question about its authenticity. Is it mainly fact or mainly fiction! Both are possible. I have done a lot of international work .... more than 50 countries around the world. All of my work has been 'civilian' in nature and not at all to do with military and clandestine operations! But I have bumped up against the 'prickly' boundaries of these various regimes ... and have been 'scared out of my wits'. I have watched this video several times. I do not have any specific knowledge that validates the narrative, but enough familiarity with the region and the actors to be comfortable that this may be a very factual narrative! I wish I had more! Peter Burgess
Operation Orchard: The Explosive Raid on Syria's Nuclear Facility Wonder Sep 7, 2024 2.08M subscribers ... 1,366,427 views ... 16K likes #wonder #blackops The episode of Black Ops details a high-stakes Israeli operation to dismantle a secret Syrian nuclear reactor with the aid of Mossad and elite special forces, following intelligence that North Korea was assisting Syria. It describes the meticulous planning and execution of both an aerial strike, Operation Orchard (also known as Operation Outside The Box), and the subsequent assassination of General Muhammad Sulan to prevent Syria from reconstituting its nuclear program. Subscribe to WONDER to watch more documentaries: / wonderdocs Follow us on Facebook: / thewonderchannel WONDER is packed with binge worthy reality documentaries for hours of entertainment. Check out our hub of diverse and empowering stories which explore the extreme side of life! #wonder #blackops Transcript 0:00 [Music] a hostile country is trying to build a nuclear bomb behind a plot is a mastermind focused on the destruction of Israel General Muhammad slan hated Israelis hated the state of Israel it will take three elite Black Ops units to deal with this Menace Special Forces operating deep within enemy territory to confirm the threat that was an extremely risky Intel Gathering Mission if there was a mistake made that could have been War an elite flying unit to take it out they destroyed their target they exited they lost nothing and finally an assassination unit to deal with a man behind the threat three of them came as scuba divers to his beach house shot him and then disappeared this is the top secret 1:02 story of the Israeli strike against Syria [Music] North Korea 2004 deep inside the secretive communist state a train travels through a remote northern town then [Music] suddenly in April of 2004 there was a 2:03 massive train explosion in Northern North Korea the explosion is so enormous it registers magnitude 3.6 equivalent to a small earthquake it killed several hundred people destroyed a town of 10,000 people left 2,000 people wounded according to the North Korean government the train was carrying liquefied petroleum but before anyone can discover anything more the regime forbids further reporting on the incident a week later they banned all use of cell phones in North Korea for 5 years just what is going on in the Rogue nuclear state 3:01 5,000 Mi away one nation is following the incident with great [Music] interest Mia Dean is Israel's top spy the chief of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad n danan was a legendary figure in the Israeli security establishment he had a reputation for being very brutal in what he was prepared to do in pursuit of Israel's National Security interest North Korea behaving secretly is nothing new but what intrigued thean our intelligence reports that a Syrian aircraft has now landed in North Korea contact between North Korea and the Arab world is unusual but highly concerning to Israel and that was when the Israeli started to take a closer interest in 4:02 what was going on the plane is supposed to be delivering aid but instead it seems it is being loaded with the bodies of victims of the crash more than that the bodies are being transported in lead lined coffins and are carried by men wearing chemical weapon suits this is extremely strange then Dean is informed that the bodies in the lead coffin are not North Koreans but Syrian scientists there were 12 Syrian scientists from something called the Syrian scientific research center their covert military research and acquisition Center it raises a terrifying possibility for danan could North Korea be helping Syria to build a nuclear weapon 5:00 danan has to find out more it becomes a top priority for Mossad and will eventually lead to one of the most extraordinary black ops of all time 2 years later a woman walks into a London Hotel bar her arrival is noticed by a man who has been drinking alone but this is no innocent meeting the man is a high-ranking Syrian nuclear official traveling to London alone he comes to London residing in a Porsche Hotel he has a meeting tomorrow morning in uh in London but he has the night or the evening to spend he goes to the bar of the hotel and extremely happy that in the bar he meets a woman with the wonderful character but what the Syrian doesn't 6:04 know is that he is under surveillance mosad had been alerted to the Syrian visit when he checked into a hotel under a false name the Israelis dispatched teams of people to monitor unaware he is being watched the Syrian continues to flirt with the woman and she's also impressed by him he orders another drink and another drink and he's confident that he has a wonderful way of spending the night but he is also unaware that the woman is not as she seems he doesn't know that this woman is a part of the mad crew and she was there to keep him busy while her team is breaking into his hotel room 7:04 the mosad agents are members of the niat unit experts in covert bugging the team specialized in breaking in the hotel rooms it takes barely seconds for the niia team to override the hotel room security once inside they realize they have HIIT the jackpot the Syrian official has left his laptop completely unguarded immediately they go to work the mosad was able to break in get its hands on the laptop computer and copy its contents off the hard drive the agents transfer the entire contents of the computer hard drive to mosad HQ in Tel Aviv instantaneously they took all the information from the computer and then they put devices on the 8:02 computer to monitor any future activity from that [Music] computer as they leave the room the female mosad agent abandons the hapless [Applause] Sy within 15 minutes danan and his analysts are looking at the files in Tel Aviv and they open it they find a lot of different details and documents what they found on his computer was really rather extraordinary on one folder they found uh jpegs that looked very odd appearing on the screens in front of D are hundreds of photos documenting the construction of a large industrial facility it was clear that this is an unknown 9:01 facility a huge one the building they saw was quite large 130 ft by 130 ft by 70 ft tall initially the building resembles a tree house on stilts with pipes leading to a pumping station later photos show modifications and eventually the entire complex is hidden beneath a huge roof initially Gan is unsure of what the facility might be but then it begins to Dawn on him what the images are showing he sees large Industrial Equipment inside the facility it is an exact replica of something danan has seen before in intelligence images from North Korea they showed that it was almost an exact replica of of the Yong bong 10:01 nuclear weapons facility in North Korea it was exactly the same reactor the two were perfectly matched danan is in no doubt as to what they have uncovered the evidence was overwhelming North Korea was building a nuclear reactor in Syria further evidence from the laptop confirms it there were blueprints of the nuclear power plant there were pictures of the nuclear power plant the Israelis even had photographs of syrians and North Korean nuclear experts together it is Israel's nightmare scenario a hostile nuclear power on its own doorstep it was a nuclear reactor that can be used only for military purpose whoever is building this has 11:06 only one purpose to build to assemble a nuclear bomb danan is now certain there is a nuclear weapons program in Syria but he has no idea where it is intent on finding out he orders Israeli satellites to monitor potential sites eventually they close in on a remote area of Syria called alabar where some highly unusual Communications have been monitored they intercepted a very unusual Spike of telephone Communications from this location at alabar which is in the middle of nowhere in the desert to Pyongyang North 12:02 Korea it was very far from the capital Damascus it was in a remote part of Northeastern Syria but not far from the Euphrates river in the border with Iraq Israeli satellites now pinpoint a large building at alabar when they compare them with the stolen images from the Syrian laptop it is a perfect match alab has to be the site of Syria's nuclear weapons program armed with the intel on the Syrian facility danan goes to see the Israeli Prime Minister erod mayor Dagan came to see prime minister olit and told him this uh dramatic news that Syria is in an advanced stage of developing nuclear weapon the Israeli Prime Minister immediately recognizes the seriousness of the 13:03 threat Alber said one thing uh right at the start and that was a Syrian nuclear weapons program is simply intolerable for Israel it cannot be permitted this is an existential threat to Israel this reactor has to go away the only way to be rid of the nuclear weapons program is to blow up the reactor but first he he has a series of questions for danan most importantly how far Advanced is the reactor if it is already operational then a bombing could cause a catastrophe if the reactor is already active then a full destruction of the reactor might cause an enormous environmental pollution poisoning but Dean does not yet know if the reactor is fully operational the jpex were 15 months old so this 14:05 facility must be more advanced they desperately need to find out how advanced the construction is that means doing something extremely risky sending someone in to take a look The Next Step would have to be risking the lives of operatives olut has only one group of men capable of operating undetected hundreds of miles within enemy territory so he calls upon Israel's elite Black Ops unit in English they are known as the unit in Hebrew they are the CET [Music] matal so mkal is the highest Elite 15:01 Commander unit of the Israeli [Music] Army sah mkal in Israel is nothing short of legendary or mythical it's essentially the top unit in the Army their job is to go on Special Operations that are considered uh beyond the scope of your regular troops the unit model after the British SAS seel teams are similar to it Delta Force is similar to [Music] it they're some of the most highly trained units in the [Music] world the CET matcal has one particular specialism operating covertly Behind Enemy Lines the expert of s is to infiltrate enemy 16:02 countries in silent intelligence gathering operations they've gone into Jordan they've gone into Lebanon they've done missions in and out of these countries and detected whilst never officially admitted it seems that on an overcast night in midmer summer the selected Commandos prepare to set out on their mission they head deep Behind Enemy Lines to confirm the existence of the Syrian nuclear weapons program the Israelis have been very secretive about how they got there but certainly they are very Adept at using low-flying almost silent [Music] helicopters it is understood they boarded two sakoski c53 c stallion helicopters to Trav at low altitude and cross the border into Syria on such 17:03 missions the pilots have to negotiate the terrain using night vision goggles as an extra precaution some of the Commandos are disguised as Syrian [Music] Soldiers the Commandos had dropped a safe distance from the [Music] facility Israelis were able to get on the ground within about a mile of this mystery building in northeastern Syria as the Commandos set off they know that no matter what the syrians must not be alerted to their presence once the helicopters are gone if the syrians Discover them there is no chance of being [Music] rescued but that was an extremely risky Intel Gathering Mission if there was a mistake made and 18:02 they were compromised that could have been [Music] War the CET matal Commandos come within meters of the alabar facility and immediately start intelligence gathering the unit did the Intel collection on the ground right at the site that was extremely dangerous Israeli Commandos dressed as Syrian soldiers went and took pictures of the facility of course they took photographs but also took soil samples collecting soil and water samples from around the facility is the most important element of the mission it is the only way Israel can find out for sure if the reactor is operational if the reactor is active then a very small portion not lethal but 19:03 very very small portion of radioactive substance would be found in the water once the Intel collection is complete the Commandos hide their tracks and prepare to depart but [Music] then they were almost caught they left the scene in the very last minute the Commandos remain undetected and the mission complete they return to Israel with the soil and water [Music] samples in a government laboratory in Tel Aviv the samples are tested for nuclear 20:00 contamination the results of the exhaustive tests are delivered to om and danan the soil and water samples collected by the CET matcal Commandos do contain traces of nuclear contamination but crucially not at levels that indicate the reactor is fully operational the samples prove that the reactor is still inactive this is critical news it means OLED can now give the order to take it out calls a meeting of Israel's top military and intelligence Chiefs they are all agreed on one thing however this reactor got started and whenever it got started the end is clear the reactor is intolerable we're not going to allow it and it's going to go away the only question is how to destroy 21:07 it the first option is to send the cat matcal back in perhaps sending in soldiers again a sayat matal Commando team to attack on the ground hoping that in secret you could get enough Israeli Commandos and explosives to the scene to blow up the building they know that they can get people to the sight but there are problems with this tactic if you have to uh deploy a special forces it's a huge operation very dangerous operation they have to penetrate the the site they have to bring a lot of explosive above all they can't be sure that a Commando operation will pack enough Firepower frankly the Israeli military had doubts about that you have a very large reactor built of reinforced concrete and steel you can't send uh 22:04 Five Guys in there you know with backpacks that full of explosives there's not enough explosives 's only option is to strike from the air it looked like using the Israeli Air Force would be smarter air power has an advantage it can come like a light very Speedy it can do the job with a lot of ordinance and disengage before the enemy understand what happened so if you have to choose between the two Alternatives usually the air strike is much more efficient and less risky the Prime Minister gives the order to prepare for an aerial assault on the Syrian reactor it will be known as operation Orchard and for it to succeed alerts another of 23:01 Israel's special forces [Music] [Applause] units Squadron 69 known as the haashim the hammmer Squadron there is no Squadron better suited for a mission to destroy an enemy nuclear program that's because they've done it before 25 years earlier eight haashim Pilots flew into Iraq to bom a nuclear facility being built by Saddam Hussein I was a fighter pilot a major a deputy squ commander who prepared himself to destroy the nuclear [Music] reactor evading Iraqi air defenses they 24:05 take out the facility in a clinical strike the all operation from takeoff to the attack was 1 hour 43 minutes and 30 seconds but a quarter Century later an attack on Syria is a much harder Prospect the Israeli Air Force says they can make something look easy but it's never easy even to fly to a Target in Syria you don't just fly right across the border for decades Syria has been developing one of the most formidable anti-aircraft defense systems in the world theyve installed the russian-built T M1 air defense system and have multiple service to a missile batteries ready to repel any Air Attack nothing is easy when when it comes to attacking a country that has anti-aircraft systems and so the 25:02 Israelis worked hard on their counter measures the haashim has aircraft specifically designed to evade such air defenses the US made F-15 and F-16 fighter bombers the F-16 is well equipped to cope with a lock on of a of a missile battery we can break the lock uh we can can use some ECM flares against guided missiles and some electronic warfare against the sis they also carry electronic counter measures that can fool the Syrian air defense system and allow the attacking craft to enter Syrian airspace undetected in the meantime the haashim pilots begin flying practice missions to be successful their bombs must hit a precise Target point so that they will penetrate the building and explode from 26:08 within they practice steep angle dive bombing runs on a tiny [Music] Target it is more than just practice watching them is General alati head of the Israeli Air Force he is looking to identify the very best pilots in the Squadron as Israel will only be able to send a limited number of aircraft into Syria if you bring too many airplanes the chances that you will be discovered is bigger we're done a lot of simulations and calculation what is the optimum number that is making sure that the reactor will be destroyed 27:01 a date has yet to be decided for operation Orchard but then prime minister om receives intelligence that forces his hand Mossad has detected activity on the Syrian Coast North Korean ships were arriving at the Port of tardis in Syria these ships carrying the final materials the syrians need for the alabar reactor to become fully operational omat has to act now at exactly 2359 10 haashim Pilots are ordered to take off even now they have no idea what their target is there were two sets of planes that took off around midnight uh in early 28:06 September the f-16s and f-15s take off 20 seconds apart armed with 500b AGM 65 bombs they head out to sea at nearly 600 mph and follow a route designed to avoid detection by Syrian air defenses what the Israeli Air Force did was map a route that would take planes to the West over the Mediterranean then North then East over Turkish [Music] airspace Israel's prime minister and Senior military commanders Gather in the Israeli Air Force underground Command Center known as the pit here they monitor the root of the 29:04 fighter [Music] bombers once it is established that there are no technical faults with any of the planes three of the f-15s are ordered to return home the remaining seven continue on the planned route at low altitude they flew up the Mediterranean and then on the east on the Syrian Turkish border it is only now that the pilots are told that this is a live Mission and they are flying into heavily defended Syrian airspace these Elite Pilots are trained to suppress nerves as a phto pilot develop some mechanism and techniques how to depress the fear I'm not telling you that there is no fear if somebody will tell you he is not afraid is lying to you it is always there it is always with 30:02 you the fact that you can be [Music] killed the planes approached Syrian airspace it is now that they will encounter the Syrian air defense systems the military side of the operation involved somehow evading the Syrian radar so is not to alert the syrians to their presence using codes allegedly sold to them by Russia the Israelis are able to make the Syrian air defenses suddenly display hundreds of enemy planes then just as suddenly the Syrian system detect no enemy planes at all to the syrians it appears like a brief technical glitch so the Israelis actually made the Syrian system think that everything was 31:01 normal as though the radar screens were absolutely fine but the Israeli planes were invisible the syrians didn't even know they were under attack now in enemy airspace they move on to the next stage precise coordinates of the alkabar complex are sent to the Israeli Pilots onboard computers and the planes swing South to begin their bombing run this is the risky time this is where your breathing become much more in a in a high pulse it is no longer about technology now the human element takes over at the end of the day as a pilot you have to find the target yourself and the aiming nobody can help you in aiming and finding the target 32:00 but as the pilots focus on the target they are at their most vulnerable you have one minute that you are exposed to everybody and you are not defending yourself because you are concentrating on aiming on the target this is the one minute that the most difficult of the [Music] flight as they begin their bombing run the pilot let's suddenly detect anti-aircraft Rockets M back in the pit in Tel Aviv they have no idea what is going on has the target been hit have the pilots been shot down then comes a radio transmission Arizona it is the single word Arizona Arizona the code word that confirms the bombs have found their [Music] 33:12 [Music] [Music] target not a single Israeli plane has been lost and the reactor has been totally destroyed [Music] there was nothing left really but a smoking ruin at the reactor the most dangerous part of the mission is over when you release the bombs you are much lighter now you can maneuver much stronger and you go back to long to a low level and then you start to relax the pilots exit Syrian airspace at high speed the mission is a complete success they destroyed their target they exited they lost nothing immediately telephones the White House to tell President Bush that something that never existed doesn't exist anymore [Music] now there is a tense wait for the Syrian response olot is confident that the syrians dare not react but he cannot be certain immediately after the raid he had sent a message to Syrian president Bashar alassad saying that Israel would not publicly take credit for the raid they calculated that if they didn't make too much noise about it didn't claim responsibility for it didn't boast about it then it might be in Assad's best interest simply to ignore it om's 35:06 gamble is that Assad has no desire to draw attention to Syria's illegal nuclear weapons program or to be publicly humiliated the purpose was not to push president Assad of Syria with his back to the wall in this ego derived scene of the Middle East sure enough the gamble pays off Syrian State News announces that Israeli planes had been repelled from Syrian airspace it is a lie but both countries are content to pretend that the bombing never happened it seems olot has successfully safeguarded Israel's future but one thing still bothers mer and dead how had Syria managed to develop a nuclear weapons program in complete 36:07 secrecy for seven years Israel didn't know about the number one project that the syrians were engaged with now a nuclear reactor is not something that it's easy to hide it's a huge facility so mosad begins investigating how Syria has managed to keep the alkabar facility a secret what they uncover is that syrians had developed a networking system that avoided all electronic communications they took a flight back in time they said let's in the most sensitive issues let's not use any sort of electronic transmission every time we want to send a message we will print a hard copy put it in an envelope seal it with wax write top secret and built a network of cers that would take these envelopes from place to place and at the heart of this communication system is a man renowned 37:06 for his hatred of Israel and one of the most powerful men in Syria General Muhammad sulan Muhammad suan was the most powerful closest advisor to the current leader of Syria uh Assad his office was just across the hall from The Office of the President in the presidential Palace in Damascus because of his closeness to the President sulan is known as Assad's Shadow this is The Mastermind behind Syria's top secret nuclear program San he had credit for the compartmentalization within the Syrian government that allowed him to to undertake this project for 38:00 years and no one knows about it but mosad have uncovered some even more worrying intelligence the intelligence was that sullon had not gotten the message after the destruction of the nuclear power plant the Israelis received intelligence that the syrians were resuming their efforts to build another nuclear power power [Music] plant the syrians may have to start from scratch but with sulan in charge it seems that the Syrian nuclear weapons program could soon be up and running again you know technically when you destroy a nuclear program within 5 years H the countries that have done it can do it again if you have enough money enough determination and know how and you start from zero your nuclear foran in 5 years you can have the 39:00 B the Israelis conclude that so long as sulan is in charge they remain under threat he and his talented bureaucratic and organizational capabilities are still around so what do you do for Israel there seems no other option they have to kill him but taking out sulan will be a far harder task than striking at a static building in the desert the Syrian General is an incredibly cautious man his movements are a closely guarded secret known to only a few in Damascus he is under armed guard getting to him there will be impossible but in Midsummer 2008 Mossad discovered that sulan is planning to spend a weekend at his second home a villa in the Syrian coastal city of 40:09 tatus security in tatus is far more relaxed if they're going to kill the general this is the time and place to do it but it will require another of Israel's Black Ops units to carry it out this group are called the kiddon kidon means bayonet uh they were known within the mad for assassinations uh but also knew how to slip in and out of countries among even their enemies they are respected as extremely uh talented and well trained uh in the operations theater the kidon is the most secretive 41:06 of all Israel's elite units and almost no operational details of their missions have ever been released by any Israeli government they are notorious for one specialist activity assassinating Israel's enemies wherever they may be when Canadian weapons expert Gerald Bull was found to be working with Saddam Hussein he soon met with an untimely end this was widely regarded to be the work of the kidon they also have taken out dozens of Iranian scientists dozens of North Korean scientists and Engineers dozens of Syrian scientists and Engineers there is no no unit in Israel better suited to conducting a high level assassination 42:01 abroad than the kiddon this is the unit that many believe are charged with planning the assassination of General Muhammad [Music] sulan it seems as the kidon study suleman's Villa they realized that although well guarded from the street from the sea the rear of the Villa is totally exposed the Israelis then discover that when staying at his Villa sulan hosts his guests on the balcony overlooking the sea initially they consider bringing a boat close enough to shore for a sniper to Target sulan from the boat but it seems this plan is rejected they will only have one chance and a longrange shot from a moving boat is just too risky the further out the shot the harder it is to get a head shot when you're taking 43:02 a shot from a boat of a guy on land it's a little bit of a harder Mission the only other option is to send someone onto Shore a yacht sails up the Mediterranean Coast towards tatus it is registered to a wealthy businessman but today the crew are said to be carrying two kidon snipers they sent in a one of their intelligence assassination teams in a ship off the coast of Taris off the coast of Syria around a kilometer off the coast the yacht drops its sails and the Assassins make their way to shore snipers from the ship came as scuba divers to his beach 44:05 house at the same time General sullan arrives at his weekend [Music] home as the sun sets it seems the snipers emerge from the water they watch the guests as they Ming Le on the Terrace they know that their dark figures are invisible to anyone from above but they still cannot see [Music] sulan eventually sulan appears he was having dinner at his country home uh along the sea his friends and family were sitting around the dinner table as the general entertains his 45:03 guests the two snipers line him up in their crosshairs they get ready to take the shot but then their target is [Music] obscured they move to a new position the two snipers relocate and aim their [Music] rifles they have earpieces in which can hear an electronic countdown this will ensure they fire simultaneously 46:11 it was uh difficult shot but they did shoot until he was down and the mission was over and they got away with it both bullets had found their target one in the head one in the neck like the bombing of the reactor Israel will never officially admit to the assassination of General sullan the Israelis do not talk publicly about killing people overseas because it's actually against the rules but they do say things including in this incident they referred to it as a very happy accident uh that was actually an official statement taking out the threat of a Syrian nuclear weapons program has been an extraordinary accomplishment calling upon three elite 47:04 special forces units the CET matcal to identify the threat the haashim to take it out and the kiddon to ensure that it cannot return Thanks to these operations a dangerous and volatile regime has been stopped from acquiring the most dangerous of all weapons of mass destruction the importance of that has only been made more evidence since 2011 when Syria began its descent into a vicious Civil War [Music] [Music]

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