SAO: Late reactor discovery a 'serious intelligence failure'
Top secret 2007 report by State Comptroller's Office submitted to then-PM Olmert shows intelligence community's efforts to provide forewarning on Syrian reactor's existence suffered from 'serious flaws'; report traced decision making process in Israel's intelligence agencies up to reactor's destruction, found their work lacking, corroborating former Mossad chief Pardo's claims.
A state comptroller's report from 2007 published by Yedioth Ahronoth Friday morning corroborated former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo's claims, which alleged that Israel's initial response to Syria's building of a nuclear reactor was a "resounding intelligence failure."
The state comptroller's report included, among other things, an inquiry into the intelligence aspects of uncovering the reactor Syria was clandestinely developing. The report's conclusion was clear: the intelligence apparatus's work was found to have been severely lacking in providing forewarning of the existence of the reactor, which the report dubbed a "strategic surprise" for Israel.
Interviews: Attila Somfalvi, Yoav Zitun, Ron Ben-Yishai; Content editor: Noam Gil; Director: Assaf Cuzin; Camera: Yaron Sharon, Ori Davidovitch, Yogev Attias; Script, video editing, animation: Tamar Avraham; Production: Adi Berman; Content management: Noa Glickstein Keren.
The report was authored after the State Comptroller's Office's Defense Department became involved with the matter on March, 2007—a short time after the reactor's existence came to light.
The Department then traced the decision making process in Israel's intelligence agencies and examined the actions taken later to destroy the reactor. The report, designated top secret, was presented to then-prime minister Ehud Olmert and a small number of other senior officials involved in intelligence.
Since the report was constructed in real time, the data according to which the intelligence community acted was also laid bare before the state comptroller's examiners.
The comptroller's report, finding serious flaws in the agencies' work, stands in stark contrast to statements made recently by then head of the IDF's Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN) Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, according to which AMAN was aware of nuclear activity in Syria before the reactor was discovered, and that army intelligence was thwarted on the matter by Pardo's Mossad.
The very same Pardo later claimed in an interview published in Yedioth Friday that the late discovery of the reactor was an "intelligence failure of the magnitude of the Yom Kippur War."
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister and then Defense Minister Ehud Barak commented on officials' recent squabble for credit over the destruction of the reactor, writing on his twitter account that all involved in the matter deserve credit, adding that, bottom line, this "quarrel will be forgotten," and "the reactor is no more."
