The Mossad is well known and considered one of the elite intelligence
institutions in the world. The organization has accomplished many
incredible feats over the years. Applauded by some and despised by
others, the Mossad has an impressive track record.
Perhaps one of
the most sensitive targets that the Mossad went after was when they
decided to “acquire” a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, which was the most
advanced fighter plane that the Soviets used at that time.
The
Mossad’s plans to steal a MIG-21 did not initially go smooth, and they
failed a couple of times before succeeding. The first attempt was made
in Egypt when the undercover team thought that they had found a pilot
that would fly the plane to Israel for the sum of one million dollars. Chief
of Staff Yitzhak Rabin, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Air Force
Commander Mordechai Hod are watching an aerial display in which the MiG
21 was first introduced.The pilot they
approached, Adib Hanna, reported the approach to the Egyptian
authorities and the Mossad agent, Jean Thomas and his father were hanged
in December 1962 while the rest of the team were sentenced to prison.
The
second attempt took place in Iraq where the agents again identified two
pilots they believed would fly the plane to Israel, only to discover
that they wouldn’t so they were forced to seriously assault the pilots
to stop them from blowing the whistle on the operation. MiG-21 photographed at Air Force hangar landed at the base.The
Mossad got their big break when, in 1964, a Jewish man contacted the
Israeli Embassy in Tehran with information that a friend of his
girlfriend was married to an Iraqi pilot who was disgruntled because his
Christian background precluded him from promotion within the Iraqi
military.
The pilot, Munir Redfa, was ready to leave Iraq, so the
Mossad sent a female agent to Iraq to befriend Redfa and invited him to
travel to Europe to meet with a higher-level Mossad delegation. MiG-21 as photographed at the air force hangar at the base where it was placed.They
offered him a million dollars US along with full-time employment and
Israeli citizenship. He agreed to their plan with the proviso that his
family would also be smuggled out of Iraq and into Israel.
Redfa undertook a clandestine trip to Israel to see where he would
land. While there, he also met with Major General Mordechai “Mottie”
Hod, the commander of the Israeli Air Force. They discussed the flight
path that Redfa would take and some of the difficulties and dangers that
the flight would face. Mordechai Hod (left) – Commander of the Israeli Air Force.Redfa,
being Christian, was not trusted by his superiors and only allowed to
fly with small fuel tanks, so he needed to make careful plans for the
flight.
The Mossad then set about extracting Redfa’s family from
Iraq. Redfa’s wife, Betty, and two tiny children aged three and five
were collected from a trip to Paris and flown to Israel while Redfa’s
parents and other family members were taken to the Iranian border where
Kurdish rebels assisted with transporting them to Iran. Once there, they
were flown to Israel.
On the 16th August 1966, Redfa was flying
over the northern sections of Jordan and then diverted toward Israel.
The Jordanians contacted the Syrian authorities who informed them that
it was a Syrian Air Force plane on a training exercise. Redfa’s MiG-21, the subject of Operation Diamond, at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim. Staying
the course, Redfa simply kept on flying until he crossed the Israeli
border, where he was met by two Israeli fighter planes and escorted to
his landing at Hatzor.
The MIG’s capabilities were analyzed by the
Israeli Air Force, and with a new number, 007 – a nod to James Bond,
the plane was flown against the Israeli fighter jets in simulations so
that Israeli pilots could learn how to fight against it. This was vital
preparation, and during the Six Day War, the Israeli pilots downed six
Syrian MIG-21’s without losing a single plane themselves.
In
January 1968, the “007” MIG was loaned to the USA for further
evaluation, and in return, the Israeli government purchased the Phantom
F-4 fighter.
I had talked about "Dora" and some of the other super-guns back in 2014, and I ran across this article and it talked about super-guns and by the one that was trying to get built by the Iraqi's. I remembered reading something about it in the late 80's and when we went into Desert Storm, the super-gun was a subject of our briefings, although the SCUDS(pieces of crap that they were) out ranged the super-gun. We were never sure of the reason for the build except perhaps out of ego. Saddam had a heck of an ego. I clipped this off the internet because I ran across the reference and did a bit of research and found a good article.
Artist rendition of super-gun if completed
Project Babylon was an Iraqi code name for the construction of a super-gun, commissioned by Saddam Hussein in 1988. The engineer in charge
of the project was a Canadian named Gerald Bull. Bull had a history of
ambitious projects starting with the Canadian government when he first
made plans for resurrecting the super-gun technology abandoned during the
Second World War.
Super-guns were used by the Germans to bombard areas from a great
distance during sieges. Most notable super-guns from this period were Big
Gustav and Dora. They’ve used a 31.5-inch (or 80 cm) projectile which
could successfully fire at a distance of almost 30 miles (47
kilometers). It was quite impractical, though.
Moving only on rails, manned by a crew of a several hundred people
and highly immobile it was an easy target for Allied bombers. The
construction was too expensive, and so too was the maintenance.
Bull’s idea was different. If not used in combat the gun could be used for other purposes.
A model of the Dora Supergun. By Scargill – CC BY-SA 3.0
He intended to make a so-called space gun that could launch
satellites into orbit. After a series of disagreements with the Canadian
Armament and Research Development Establishment (CARDE) in 1960, he
went to work at the McGill University in Montreal. The Pentagon soon
became interested in his work. He became head of the project HARP – High
Altitude Research Program (not to be confused with
He became head of the project HARP – High Altitude Research Program (not to be confused with HAARP). This is where he managed to build a cannon that could fire a projectile miles into orbit.
Project Harp.
The project was based in Barbados, from where shells were fired
eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean using an old U.S. Navy 16-inch
(410 mm), 50 caliber gun (20 m). It was later extended to a 100
caliber gun (40 m). In 1966, the project installed its third and final
16-inch gun at a new test site in Yuma, Arizona. On November 18, 1966,
the Yuma gun fired a 400 lb (180 kg) projectile at 7,000 ft/s
(2,100 m/s) sending it briefly into space and setting an altitude record
of 110 mi (180 km). That world record still stands as of 2013.
The project was cancelled, due to the controversies over the Vietnam
War policy and preserving the traditional Canadian-American good
diplomatic relations shortly after and Bull started his own private
company, Space Research Institute, Inc.
Abandoned HARP gun in Barbados.
After this, Bull was involved in projects for the South African
Republic in the 1970’s, building howitzers to help them defeat the
Communists in Angola. The CIA provided this contract to Bull, so he
could help change the tide in the war since the Cubans and the Soviets
were supporting the Angolan Communists.
He had been accused of gun running by the UN, under the Carter
administration, and landed in jail for six months in 1980. This event
fueled his mercenary-scientist attitude and in 1988 he agreed to help
Saddam Hussein build a super-gun under the title Project Babylon.
A section of the Iraqi super-gun from Imperial War Museum Duxford. Bluemoose – CC BY-SA 3.0
During this time, Bull had produced two super-guns – Baby Babylon and
Big Babylon. Baby Babylon was a prototype which served for test
purposes. It used a 13.5 inch (350 mm) projectile which was fired
through a barrel 151 ft (46 m) long. It could achieve a range of up to
466 miles, or 750 kilometers and it weighed 102 tonnes. It was
completely immobile.
The next step was Big Babylon. The intention was to build a pair of
these. Its specifications were a 512 ft (156 m) barrel that fired a 3,3
(1 m) ft projectile. It was supposed to weigh 2,100 tonnes. Bull applied
his HARP research on the building of this gun, as it was intended to be
a space gun, possibly firing satellites into the orbit.
Photo of a model of the the breech of the Project Babylon Iraqi super-gun. By Geni – GFDL
The other possible purpose was military, but it demanded a terminal
guidance system built in the projectile, since the weapon itself was
completely immobile and had no possibility to be elevated, or trained.
Its ability to fire conventional projectiles was fairly limited. It was
impossible to aim with it; it had a slow rate of fire and a “signature”
blast that gave away its position almost immediately after firing. Its
combat use was of no more significance than the earlier German super-guns.
It was never really clear what purpose Saddam Hussein wanted these
guns to be used, for Iraq at that time had already acquired Scud
missiles which were both more effective and practical than the super-gun.
Nevertheless, Bull planned to deliver an improved version of the Big
Babylon, the one that could be fitted on a train cart and moved if
necessary. The range of the third gun was to be around 625 miles (1000
km), which would jeopardize both Israel and Iran, with whom Saddam had
troubled diplomatic relations, to say the least.
Big sections table of the Babylon of Fort AT Nelson.
Big Babylon super-gun was never finished because the mastermind behind
it, Gerald Bull was assassinated in Brussels in March 1990. There are a
lot of theories about the assassination. Mossad, the Israeli secret
service, were the first to distribute information about the involvement
of Iraqi agents in the assassination, only hours after it happened.
Others suggest that it could’ve been the governments of Iran, Syria,
or South Africa. Some claim that it was the work of Western secret
services, such as the CIA, or MI6, and then again there are even
theories that the Chileans did it, for Bull had some ties with the
Chilean dictator, General Pinochet.
Gerald Bull, 1964. By Gerald Bull, 1964 – CC BY-SA 3.0
Soon after this event, the UK customs confiscated a shipment of parts
for the gun which were imported from England. The parts were imported
from England, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, under a
variety of disguises. In this case, the crates were labeled
“petrochemical pressure vessels”. After the Gulf War in 1991, the Iraqis
admitted the existence of the unfinished guns, and they were destroyed
by the UN as part of the disarmament process, in the aftermath of the
end of the First Gulf War.
I have been real busy and until I get a tablet to put my various brain squeezing into a tangible form and post it like a squared away blogger does rather than wait until I get home then try to remember a salient point I had though of 4 hours prior. Perhaps one day.... But anyway I ripped this off from GOC "Grouchy Old Cripple."
Iraq has officially become the France of the Middle East. Why do I say that? Two reasons.
Reason Number one. We spent blood and money to liberate Iraq from a
bloody dictator. You would think they would show some gratitude by
signing oil contracts with American companies. Instead, they turned to
China, thus displaying the gratitude the French had for us after we
kicked Hitler out of their country.
Reason number two. The Iraqi Army. Didja see them displaying French
military strategy? They dropped their weapons, tore off their
uniforms, and fled like French pussies. It’s telling that they wore
civilian clothes under their uniforms so they would be able to run away
and blend in with the crowds. Their cowardice was premeditated, just
like French cowardice.
Al-Maliki, who wanted us to leave Iraq, is now begging us to return.
Sorry dude. That ship has sailed. You wouldn’t clamp down on Monkey
Boy and you wouldn’t sign a status of forces agreement with us. You’re
getting just what you deserve. This is what your ingratitude has earned
you. Go to China for help since you got so friendly with them and
you’re selling them your oil.
So oil prices are going up. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that
Keystone Pipeline that Obungler has refused to build? Wouldn’t it be
nice if the Dimocrats had allowed us to drill in ANWR? Wouldn’t it be
nice if the oil companies could drill on federal land, sumpin’ Obumbler
has been against for the last six years? Howza ’bout drilling in the
Gulf, another thing Oblunder has been against? Isn’t it great that we
have had the fracking boom, sumpin’ the enviro-tards and Dimocrats have
been against?
So, as you gas up your cars the next few months and see gas prices
rise look in the mirror. If you voted for Oblamebush, you are part of
the problem.
Isn’t it amazing how just about every foreign policy decision Oboner
has made has been wrong, Libya was doing just fine until the French
(the French?) wanted to overthrow Qadaffy. Qadaffy was nowhere near the
brutal dictator Saddam was and the French were against that war.
Qadaffy had given up his WMD programs after he saw Saddam pulled out of
that little hole in the ground. He was neutered. But Obeavis “led from
behind” and allowed the French to turn Libya into the anarchy it is
today. An American ambassador even lost his life due to the
incompetence of Obutthead and Thunder Rodent Thighs. I don’t really
care about the ambassador since he was an Obeauzeau supporter and got
what he deserved for trusting him and TRT. It’s the three other
Americans I’m pissed about.
Remember Obambi and Plugs telling us over and over that al Qaeda was
“on the run”? It sure is. It’s running at full speed toward Baghdad.
Yet another foreign policy “success” for this incompetent dickhead.
Thanks Obongo voters for inflicting this incompetent asshole on us.
We’re doomed!
