Losing the Element of Surprise
BERMAN: Welcome back to THE LEAD, everyone. Staying with Syria, our world lead -- if the U.S. does strike Syria, you really can't say that the regime wasn't warned. For days, the Obama administration has telegraphed an attack is likely coming, though the president did say again today that he hasn't decided which course to take. Even so, the Syrians have gained time as the U.S. has lost the element of surprise. I want to bring in Tom Foreman to run this down for us. And, Tom, you have an esteemed colleague with you.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have General James "Spider" Marks is here. And, in fact, John, you hit the nail on the head. There's a cost to all of this going on. Whether we think we should attack or from the U.S. policy standpoint, whether people feel that way, there is a cost, because about five, six, seven days ago, there would have been all sorts of radar signals coming out of military facilities, government offices there, telephone signals, computer signals, all sorts of things that could be read by intelligence sources. But what do you think is probably happening now while this debate goes on?</s>GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Tom, we've given Assad a lot of time to think about his condition right now. He may be a monster but he's incredibly clever. He is shutting down these communications right now. Any communications that are taking place are now on land lines. He's eliminated every signal that he has so he is not emanating things that we can go against.</s>FOREMAN: So, in effect, the whole country ends up going dark and all of these buildings out here that we previously could have narrowed in -- the U.S. military could have narrowed in on are suddenly no longer able to be traced that way but the military still knows where they are.</s>MARKS: Sure.</s>FOREMAN: So if there is, for example, a command center out there for radar or communications, why not hit it anyway?</s>MARKS: Well, we will hit those technical facilities. We'll hit an entire list of fixed facilities, but in the interim while the United States has tried to build a consensus and has discussed what's going on in Syria, Assad has probably been packaging up the contents of those facilities and disbursing them throughout the country.</s>FOREMAN: That would also be true of things like his missile supplies?</s>MARKS: Those would normally, his missiles and rockets would normally be confined to garrison facilities and in the interim he has disbursed them to places where they would normally not operate, for example, underneath overpasses and highways.</s>FOREMAN: And what about things like aircraft? You can't move airfields.</s>MARKS: No, Assad has probably, and I don't have access to classified cables, moved the aircraft most likely to Iran. That's where they probably are right now.</s>FOREMAN: And if all of those assets get moved out, then after the initial strike, they can all be moved back in and he can essentially recover almost immediately that way if he wishes to. This is very different from the model that we've seen from the Israelis in recent years.</s>MARKS: Far different, Tom. The Israelis aren't worried about having a consensus. They maintain the element of surprise, to include September 2007, the Israelis struck a nuclear facility in eastern Syria and destroyed it. And then this summer, just this past July, on the 5th, the Israelis struck a facility in Latakia and destroyed anti- ship cruise missiles.</s>FOREMAN: As you mentioned earlier, they reveal the action after it was done. Very, very big difference, and the response in Syria very different as well -- John.</s>BERMAN: Big difference, indeed. Tom Foreman, General Spider Marks -- thanks so much. Meanwhile, still to come here, if you're one of the millions of Americans hitting the road this holiday weekend, you will feel the Syrian situation every time you gas up. That's later in the money lead.