Editor,
As the Trump Administration revises and embellishes the storyline explaining who knew what and when regarding the Israeli assignation attack on Hamas negotiators in Doha Qatar, it becomes increasingly evident we will never know who knew what and when they knew it. There are, however, some seminal facts that are germane to constructing a plausible scenario as to how the operation unfolded.
First off, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) fighters had to fly approximately three hours, refueling in the air, flying south above the Red Sea, a location in which a vast armada of U.S. war ships are currently deployed to intercept Yemeni attacks on shipping and Israel. This flight path also includes close to a thousand miles of Saudi Arabian coastline. The storyline purports that these fighters were detected by the U.S. military for an unspecified time period, during which they were unable to secure conformation regarding their origin or intention for almost three hours. So we are supposed to believe the U.S. Navy monitored fifteen unidentified fighters approaching ships deployed to the Red Sea and took no defensive measures. These ships would have fighters in Quick Action Alert Status that could become airborne in five minutes.
Secondly, the IDF fighters arrived at a point in the Red Sea from which they launched their munitions towards Doha. They utilized ballistic munitions with a trajectory apex in space, technically avoiding violation of Saudi Arabian airspace. The launch of these munitions would have, however, set off alarms in every U.S. surveillance asset within a 500-mile radius. There would have been no way to determine if the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, one of the most valuable U.S. bases in the world, housing 10,000 military personnel was the target.
Trump Inc. explains it this way; 1.) someone in the U.S. military became aware of the operation, 2.) This individual informed the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 3.) The chief informed the president. 4.) The president informed his Middle East Emissary Witkoff. 5.) Witkoff informed the Emir of Qatar of an “imminent” attack, which had already occurred.
The sad truth is the Trump and Israeli prime minister Netanyahu rhetoric is generated for public consumption. Eisenhower was president the last time Israel embarked on a military campaign without the blessing and consent of the U.S. The IDF has not ventured to spit across the border without it since.
Jack Gribble
Oak Harbor
