Bush Knew of Israel Attack on Syria

US President George W. Bush has privately endorsed an Israeli Air Force attack on Syrian soil last autumn, an Israeli official says.

Zionists' official briefed on the Bush-Olmert talks said he understood the US president's comments as endorsement of the pre-emptive necessity of the Syrian strike.

Tel Aviv has repeatedly claimed that the Sept. 6 attack was aimed at destroying Syrian nuclear program, a claim that is strongly rejected by Syria.

Despite intense efforts by Tel Aviv to determine linkage between Iran and what Zionist regime claims as Syrian nuclear program, "multiple examinations by various means" determined just the opposite, the official said.

He added that Israeli political officials had hoped to use incriminating evidence of Iranian proliferation to ratchet up international pressure to halt Tehran's enrichment program.

But "it was certainly disappointing to discover no connection between the two programs," noted the official.

Israeli intelligence agencies concluded that Iran had no connection to the so-called Syrian nuclear program, the official added.  A