BBC World News Onlline – 2007-03-04 23:53:32
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4774541.stm
• Video of Israel’s Attack on Iraq’s Nuclear Reactor:
It is 26 years since Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. The BBC has obtained rarely-viewed footage of the raid. Filmed from the cockpit of Israeli F-16s, the video shows a massive explosion at the moment of impact.
Click Here to view video.
Israeli Attack ‘Jump-Started Nuclear Program’
BBC World News Online
As part of a series marking 25 years since Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, former Iraqi nuclear scientist Dr Imad Khadduri speaks to the BBC News website:
We had just finished a day’s shift work and were back at our homes around 1800 [1500 GMT] that day. I heard the explosions all the way from my home, which is about 25km [16 miles] away.
I ran to the roof for a better view, and witnessed the smoke plumes rising from the area of the Tuwaitha Research Centre [where the Osirak reactor was located] and watched the Israeli planes flying west into the sunset.
It was immediately clear that they were Israeli airplanes.
Cockpit Footage
The next day, we saw the extent of the damage. A few shift workers were injured. Many of us had a lump in our throat for our shattered efforts as we began to clear some of the rubble.
Until Israel’s attack, we were only dabbling with some calculations relating to nuclear fuel burn-up and criticality calculations – nothing sophisticated and focused.
After the Israeli attack, we discussed among ourselves our gut reaction that a political decision would now come forth ordering us to make the bomb. Soon enough, it did.
We were psychologically ready for it. We embarked upon it full-heartedly. Investment and resources were heavily poured into the programme over the next 10 years.
That period saw attempts being made in the following scientific and technical areas, which are all part of a nuclear weapon programme:
• research projects in uranium enrichment or plutonium production from spent nuclear fuel
• exact manufacturing techniques for the casting of the core of the bomb
• a workable design for the bomb itself with accurate explosive lenses
• a suitable design for enabling the bomb to be carried in a long-range rocket head
• a sophisticated command and control system for the guidance, delivery, release and detonation of the bomb.
Iraq managed exceedingly well in hiding the scope of its programme from foreign intelligence eyes – whether it was Mossad, the CIA or MI6 – until after the 1991 [Gulf] war.
When the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspectors arrived they finally managed to put the pieces of the programme together on the ground, but only over a period of one year after that war.
Iran is now in a much better position, after learning from Iraq’s experiences in its nuclear weapon programme.
It is more prepared, in terms of tight security and deep covertness, than was Iraq in hiding the critical aspects of its nuclear weapon programme from foreign intelligence.
A tight security apparatus and tight control – like that in Iraq during the 1980s when it engaged fully in its nuclear weapon programme – ensures Iran against actual spies roaming around, or inside, its nuclear establishments.
That would be the only reliable source on the scope of their programme.
Interview taken by Patrick Jackson, BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4774733.stm
Osirak: Over the reactor
Patrick Jackson / BBC News
As part of a series marking 25 years since Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, BBC News speaks to four of the F-16 pilots involved:
Had mission commander Col Zeev Raz’s risk assessment been proven right, one pilot would have ejected over Baghdad and another would have been waiting out in the desert for helicopters to rescue him in the night.
Yet the loss of two planes would have been a price worth paying in the eyes of the pilots of the eight F-16s and their two F-15 escorts: several believed they were averting nothing less than a new Holocaust of the Jews.
“No-one thought that all eight F-16s would return, no-one,” the retired colonel says.
“We were really amazed that all of us landed back safely without a scratch.”
Col Raz is the most vocal of the surviving pilots. For personal security reasons, three of them – Pilots A, B and C – would only talk to the BBC on condition of anonymity.
One Osirak pilot, however, became famous across the world in 2003 as Israel’s first astronaut.
Col Ilan Ramon was killed a few days later when the Columbia space shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Osirak posed a formidable challenge: to fly a round trip of some 2,000km (1,200 miles) over hostile territory in new jets laden with bombs and extra fuel tanks.
The US-made single-seat F-16s had been in service for only a couple of years with the Americans, and had arrived in Israel less than a year before, though the pilots had been in training earlier in Utah.
“None of us had flown more than 100 missions in an F-16, which is not a lot, and the whole plane was completely new, its limitations were not completely clear, we were still learning,” says Pilot A.
Glistening dome
Pilot B was anxious about the runway at Etzion, Israel’s Sinai Desert air base, which has since been returned to Egypt.
“I was very concerned whether the runway at that altitude would be sufficient for a take-off at our weight,” he recalls.
In the event, all eight F-16s got away safely along with their escorts, rising into a clear sky just before 1600 (1300 GMT).
“After you take off, you have to pinch yourself and say ‘Hey, it’s the real thing’ because riding there it’s basically 90 minutes of navigation with not a lot of activity and it’s like in training,” says Pilot A.
Flying in unchallenged, Pilot C remembers his first glimpse of the reactor. “It glistened with the sun shining from the low west,” he says.
This was despite the dome having been covered in mud by the Iraqis, rattled by a small-scale Iranian air attack the previous autumn.
Col Raz remembers the view from the cockpit as his F-16 climbed for the bombing run: “We could look right and see Baghdad and look left and see the reactor.”
Within a minute, all eight planes had dropped their twin bombs on Osirak. Only two failed to explode.
Once the bombs were released, Pilot C recalls, his only thought was “jinking the AAA [anti-aircraft artillery] and getting to low level”.
With their lack of fuel ruling out dogfights, the pilots’ greatest concern was the flight home.
When they touched down at Etzion, each had at most 450kg (1,000 pounds) of fuel left.
A Secret no More
Col Raz recalls relief, happiness and “some hugs” back on the ground but the celebrations had to wait until the pilots got back to their home base in Israel.
“Even then we didn’t have much time to celebrate because we were flown on a small cargo plane to Tel Aviv to debrief with the generals,” he says.
“It had gone just like in planning and therefore there was not a lot to say at the debriefing,” Pilot A adds.
“The planners, the analysts, they are the real heroes of this mission.”
Pilot A is still impressed by the mission’s modest cost: “a couple of million of dollars, the cost of an Israeli Air Force training day and very cheap for a military machine”.
But Col Raz was expecting very muted celebrations, if any. “When I landed back that night, I didn’t tell my family anything about the flight,” he says.
Long afterwards, he was angered to find out that four fellow F-16 pilots had told their wives even before the mission that they were being sent to attack Osirak.
“It wasn’t just a security breach,” he says. “It was something you shouldn’t do to your family.”
Gen Rafael Eitan, the Israeli chief of staff, had told the Osirak pilots that Israel was not going to admit carrying out the mission.
“And I was really amazed the day after to hear on the radio that our government had announced it was our mission,” Col Raz recalls.
It is not clear how far Israel would have succeeded in denying the mission. For one thing, the planes all bore Israeli markings.
Col Raz does not rule out a domestic political motive for the announcement though not, he stresses, the actual mission: Prime Minister Menachem Begin faced a general election within weeks.
‘For My Grandfather’
Zeev Raz’s role in the mission remained secret for nearly a decade. Then, in 1991, when Iraqi Scud missiles were hitting Israel during the Gulf War, he was persuaded by the government to go public in a morale-boosting exercise.
I recall feeling that even if I did not come back, this mission would prevent another Holocaust and I was in debt to my grandfather
Pilot B once relived the mission in a dream, a couple of years afterwards, but the mission had “no special effect” on his career.
Pilot C says life for him after Osirak was very much “business as usual with other missions that were more exciting, including several dogfights”.
“I had my first engagement in ’82, when I shot a MiG,” recalls Pilot A. “With the clashes in Lebanon, it was such a hectic time. Osirak only became interesting again after the 1991 war with Iraq when the issue of weapons of mass destruction came back.”
Col Raz and his fellow Osirak veterans commemorate the mission each year, describing it to younger pilots.
In July, the Osirak veterans will join other F-16 pilots at a base in northern Israel to celebrate the 25th anniversary.
Debate will continue about how much of a real danger Iraq posed to Israel, but all the pilots are still convinced they were fighting a mortal threat to their country.
Both Col Raz and Pilot C are named after grandfathers who were murdered by the Nazis, and Pilot A also had family killed by them.
“I recall feeling that even if I did not come back, this mission would prevent another Holocaust and I was in debt to my grandfather,” says Pilot C.
“Personally, I never connected the mission with the Holocaust,” says Pilot A. “But I knew this was a very important mission for Israel. It was something we could not miss, there was no second chance.
“Later, in Lebanon, there was some conflict within Israeli society but I don’t think there was any political debate about the legitimacy of attacking Osirak – the debate was about whether you could stop it or slow it or whether it would get even worse after a couple of years.”
“No doubt it was the most important mission of my career,” Col Raz adds.
1981: ‘All Hell Broke Out’
Duncan Kirby / BBC Online
British ex-patriate Duncan Kirby was a 21-year-old quantity surveyor working in Iraq when the Israelis bombed the unfinished nuclear reactor in Baghdad. He sent this account to BBC On This Day about an event that shocked the world.
I was working in Baghdad at the time on the Baghdad University which was the other side of the Tigris river.
We were used to bombing raids because the Iraq-Iran war was on at the time, but we always got an air raid warning and anti-aircraft fire would go up before the planes arrived.
This was very different.
It was evening and I was actually having a swim when I heard this loud explosion and saw smoke rising from the other side of the river.
Then all hell broke out as every gun in the city fired off, but of course, it was too late. The planes were already on their way back.
We learnt afterwards that the planes had flown in over Saudi territory and that’s why there had been no warning.
I was also surprised at Menachem Begin’s comment that they attacked on Sunday to ensure that no foreigners would be hurt. In Baghdad, as far as I was aware, we all worked Iraqi hours — Friday was the only day off.
Posted in accordance with title 17, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
