Israel does not trust Secretary of State Rice

Satellite image of Iran nuclear plant at Bushehr, Iran

FOX News is reporting that undisclosed sources reviled that Israel made several direct requests to President Bush requesting them access to fly through Iraqi airspace to attack the Iranian nuclear complex. They also requested bunker-busting bombs for use in its planned attack on the Iranian nuclear complex. During the course of the year 2008, Israel also made "various requests" for U.S. Assistance.

Sources told FOX News that Israeli requests were made directly to the White House because the Israelis were "disturbed and fearful" of leaks from the U.S. intelligence community and "did not trust" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Israel’s plan, however, was scuttled when the United States rebuffed Israel in its request to fly through Iraqi airspace, according to a New York Times report on a covert U.S. program.

A Times story, published Saturday, cites unnamed American and foreign officials in reporting that President Bush revealed to the Israelis that he already had authorized a covert U.S. effort to sabotage Iran’s nuclear capabilities, the Times reports.

The Bush administration was "particularly alarmed," the Times says, by the Israeli request for access to Iraqi airspace.

One source told FOX News the Israelis approached the Bush White House at least once last summer, possibly twice, and were "slammed down" because senior administration officials felt such assistance would "unravel our position in Iraq." President Bush was convinced by aides, sources said, that any such American aid to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program would cause the Iranians "to foment great upheaval in Iraq."

It is reported that Meir Dagan, head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad was sent reportedly because the Israelis considered him "the only trusted channel."

Higher ups at the Central Intelligence Agency were upset that the Israeli requests for assistance last summer went directly to the White House and not through Langley. From the Israelis’ point of view, that was because they believed that CIA had tried to force the Israelis to abort the 2007 Syrian strike hours before it was launched.

According to one source: The "CIA leaked the impending raid on Syria in 2007 the day before in order to, as the Israelis suspected, scuttle it. Israel almost called it off, but when their sources detected no heightened Syrian readiness or defensive measures, they were sure Syrian intelligence had not picked the leak up, and thus Israel decided to go ahead and do the raid. From that experience, Israel believed that the Iran raid would need to be through even more restrictive channels — direct to the president by Olmert’s most trusted channel, Dagan. They did not trust Condi."

The refusal of the Bush administration to provide the assistance the Israelis requested occasioned sharp dispute among senior policymakers, who split along the now-familiar lines that saw Vice President Cheney and his aides favoring harsher measures against the Iranians and Secretary Rice and others opposing them.

The Times report suggests that Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Obama a more advanced operation of counteracting Iran’s nuclear capabilities than has yet been made public.