Now I know that you know that I know, therefore......
U.S. Deploys Radar, Troops To Israel
U.S. European Command (EUCOM) has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent U.S. military presence on Israeli soil.
More than a dozen aircraft, including C-5s and C-17s, helped with the Sept. 21 delivery of the AN/TPY-2 Transportable Radar Surveillance/Forward Based X-band Transportable (FBX-T), its ancillary components and some 120 EUCOM personnel to Israel's Nevatim Air Base southeast of Beersheba, said sources here and in Stuttgart, Germany.
Among the U.S. personnel is at least one representative from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), though officials said the agency had little to no say in the deployment decision. MDA involvement has been confined to providing equipment and advice on technical aspects of its deployment, one official said.
The Raytheon-built FBX-T system is the same phased-array radar that was deployed to northern Japan with the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) in 2006. The high-powered, high-frequency, transportable X-band radar is designed to detect and track ballistic missiles soon after launch. Its ancillary gear included cooling systems, generators, perimeter defense weaponry, logistics supplies and dozens of technicians, maintenance specialists and security forces to operate and defend the U.S. installation.
EUCOM has repeatedly deployed troops and Patriot air defense batteries for joint exercises and Iraq-related wartime contingencies, but has never before permanently deployed troops on Israeli soil. A EUCOM spokesman declined to comment. MDA officials referred to the U.S. State Department, which did not provide comment by press time.
Israeli Psyops Fuel Angst Over Iran Attack
TEL AVIV - Israel is stoking suspicions of a military attack on Iran in an elaborate and finely balanced psychological-operations campaign meant to deter Iranian nuclear efforts and inspire more Western sanctions on Tehran.
Experts and official sources here say airstrikes are not imminent.
Yet the psyops effort, executed unilaterally and in concert with Washington, has fostered the opposite perception, which along with Iranian intransigence on nuclear issues have put a jittery region even more on edge. Some experts say the campaign may ultimately prove counterproductive.
"Our enemies are afraid we will strike in 2009. But unlike our image, we are not going to war," a senior Israeli intelligence officer told reporters here recently. "But we and they are preparing for war. … Below the bar of war, there are events that are happening. Both sides can engage in activities short of war which may cause escalations that could lead to war.".....