33 — Ready, Aim
Syria has been a client state for Russia, and the Soviet Union before it, for fifty years. The value of that relationship to the Russians has waned and waxed over the decades. But the one constant for Russia has been that Syria has remained a counterbalance to the main client state of the USA in the region: Israel. That counterbalance comes from proximity. Syria shares fifty miles of disputed border with Israel. With proximity comes the ability to observe. To take advantage of this ability, Russia has supplied, built and partially manned a series of radar complexes and listening posts around Syria.
This network of radar installations had grown to 24 locations supporting 137 active Surface to Air Missile, or SAM, sites in 2007 when the IAF launched Operation Orchard on September 6, 2007. This mission resulted in the destruction of a secret nuclear reactor being constructed in the desolate desert region of northeastern Syria. The fact that fourteen Israeli warplanes flew so deep into Syrian airspace, destroyed their target and returned to Israel unscathed, created a serious rift in Russian-Syrian relations. The Russians had promised upgrades to counter the effectiveness of IAF electronic jamming.
The Syrians played their cards as best they could, demanding and accepting every enhancement to their air defense network that Moscow was willing to provide. Quietly, the Syrians turned to China to ask for the latest in Chinese radar technology — not to replace the Russian equipment but to supplement it. The result was the delivery to Syria of two Chinese built JY-27 anti-stealth radar systems with a range of up to 500 kilometers.
At the same time, the Iranians were placing equal pressure on Russia to upgrade the Syrian radar network so that the Syrians could provide early warning to Iran of any departure of a large number of IAF aircraft headed east towards Iran. The pressure worked, and during 2009 and 2010 Russia delivered a range of upgrades even as the Chinese delivered their long-wavelength anti-stealth radar systems. Some of the upgrades required the active assistance of Russian technicians, who started manning radar installations and command posts in greater numbers. When the Syrians protested as a matter of pride, the Iranians intervened to insist on full access for the Russians, reminding the Syrians of the fiasco of Operation Orchard.
For the IAF officers planning Project Block G, this expanded radar network presented challenges. Russian technicians using Russian radar were able to look deep into Israeli airspace. The two Chinese JY-27 radars were both located in the desert east of Damascus and could see deep into both Jordan and the western region of Iraq. The Israelis had been routinely jamming these radar systems over the years leading up to Block G — a process which resulted in a tit for tat electronics war between Israel and the Syrians/Russians/Chinese. When the day came to launch Block G, the jamming that would take place needed to be a routine event.
But at Mount Olympus, simply jamming the early warning radar systems inside Syria was not enough. A greater margin of safety needed to be attained. The result was the first active operation for Block G: Operation Arrow.
On September 2, General David Schechter gathered the senior staff of the Olympus planning team inside the main conference room in the hidden bunker complex adjacent to Sde Dov airport. The bunker looked from the outside like one of the many mid-rise apartment buildings in the area, but inside, a full communications, encryption and supporting technology suite was now in constant use. The team had grown significantly over the prior two years and Schechter knew it would grow even more in the days to come. He called the meeting to order and started with a review of preparations and the state of readiness of the IAF. When this had been completed, he asked Amit Margolis to stand and address the group of 27 men and women.
“Thank you, General,” said Margolis as he stood. He cleared his throat. “This group was officially formed over three years ago to plan and execute the most important military mission since our fathers and grandfathers won our independence. For the last year and a half we have been ready to go and waiting for the right conditions both politically and militarily.” This was a speech that had not been heard before in the group, and Margolis could sense the excitement level building. He tried to remain calm, certain that everyone in the room could tell that he was anything but. “It is my honor to report that the time has come. We are going live.”
A murmur broke out throughout the room. Somewhere in the back an officer whistled. Suddenly another officer starting clapping, and that emotion swept the room in an instant. Everyone was applauding. Amit joined in. General Schechter applauded as well, unable to fight off the emotion. It was a collective release of tension built over years of pressure. Schechter stood back up and walked a few feet over to his left to shake Margolis’ hand. The action brought everyone to their feet. Schechter motioned for everyone to calm down and return to their seats.
“Okay. Okay,” said Schechter loudly. “Calm down. We have a lot do to. Perhaps we should hold off on the celebrations until the day after the strike is done.” He paused for a moment to allow the group to sit back down and focus once again on the enormous work to be done. “We have a new moon on Friday, October 4, and the forecast looks perfect. All leaves are canceled. I will have a work schedule posted on the break room wall later today to let everyone plan the coming weeks. When you are off, you can go home and stay home. No travel, no parties, no drinking. If you are called to return here, I expect you back here within thirty minutes. As always, everyone is welcome to use the dorm rooms for the duration. However, when you are off, you need to rest. There will be plenty of lost sleep over the next four weeks, so it is critical that you rest and sleep when you can.
“Keep in mind that this event can be postponed up to twenty-four hours prior to takeoff. At this point, weather will be the deciding factor. The forecast looks perfect, but only God knows what will happen. So pray the weather holds, but never forget that if it doesn’t, we will be back on a one month hold. Any questions?” There were none. “Okay, IAF team stay here for full sequencing run-through and notification plan review. Sling team, please join Amit in the small conference room next door. If you are on the operator team,” Schechter was referring to the officers who had been planning the special operations missions that were integral to the Block G, “we will meet here in two hours.”
Amit Margolis left the large conference room to walk next door to a smaller conference room. He convened his team of five. Even within the Olympus planning team, a group that currently held the highest security classifications in Israel outside of the country’s nuclear weapons program, the information about Esther’s Sling was known only to the five in the room plus General Schechter. His team went through the status of all of the assets, both human and mechanical, that were necessary to make the plan work. But in the back of his mind, Amit was already inpatient to hear that the Archer had struck. Operation Arrow was the first part of Project Block G to go into action and no one inside this bunker complex knew about it except for Amit Margolis — not even General Schechter. It was a Mossad operation and it involved the single greatest asset of the state of Israel — Archer. If it worked, a special operations mission into Syria that had been planned for over a year could be canceled.
34 — Bullseye
Operation Arrow began preliminary operations months earlier when Abu Muhjid, inside a safe house in Ramadi, Iraq, logged onto an Arab dating website named muslima.com. He went to his “Favorites” list and, as he had been trained, pulled up the profiles on several women, aimlessly browsing through photographs. After a minute or two of that, he clicked onto the profile of a young Jordanian woman living in Amman. It was the profile he always returned to. Among her photographs was a newly posted photo of her in the Jordanian countryside with her uncle at a restaurant along Route 10 about six kilometers southeast of the town of al Mafraq. The date on the photo was April 20, 2012. The photo was a code for Muhjid, telling him when and where to meet his Mossad handler. He had a week until April 20, 2013 and he needed to be at the restaurant in the photo at 2 p.m. local time on that date.