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Why Washington exposed the details of Israel's raid deep inside Syria last September, which both nations had kept secret, remains a mystery, giving Middle East specialists plenty to speculate on, while opening up a gold-mine for the region's conspiracy theorists.

There seemed to be a tacit Israeli-Syrian agreement to conceal details of "operation orchard" when Israeli aircraft raided north-east Syria, on 6 September 2007. The Syrians speedily flattened the site while the Israelis kept silent about Damascus' internally aimed statement that Syrian air defences saw off Israeli warplanes after they dropped their bombs in the desert.

Seven months later, the CIA published details, including photographs, of what it claimed to be a North Korean-built nuclear reactor that would have enabled the regime of President Bashar Assad to produce, within a year, enough plutonium to make a couple of nuclear bombs.

Familiar analysts and newcomers in the new 24-hour-news jungle went into full spin, providing a rainbow of theories ranging from speculation to pure fantasy. An Israeli test-run for an attack on Iran, was one theory to which military minded analysts added weight by suggesting Israel was testing out Syria's newly installed Russian-made air defence systems, which happened to be identical to those deployed in Iran. Others said the raid was a way to pressure Damascus to participate in the peace accords suggested at Annapolis last November.

Was America's outing of Israel's secret, supported by a video of the raid and photographs of Korean scientists, a sign of maturity within the State Department, indicating its conspiracy desk has finally produced a more sophisticated version of the CIA's failed plot to burn Fidel Castro's famous beard with an exploding cigar, allegedly staged over half a century ago?

Syria has historic military ties with North Korea; the latter continues to supply advanced versions of Scud-C and Scud-D missiles which use solid fuel making them more mobile and quicker to deploy than the liquid fuelled Scud-B used by Saddam Hussein to terrorise Israelis into their deep-bunkers during the 1991 Gulf War.

However nuclear weapons have not been included in Damascus' strategy options to seek parity with Israel, precisely to avoid inviting a devastating Israeli preemptive attack. Like his father the formidable Hafez, the young Assad's strategy to deter Israel is a mixture of sponsoring terror groups to fight wars by proxy, utilising the poor-man's WMD, namely chemical and biological weapons.

Although they might have an axe to grind, former CIA operators present a plausible explanation of America's latest launch of megaphone diplomacy as part of a three-pronged strategy.

Reminding Israel of the need to get the green light from the CIA before any pre-emptive strike, while stressing that the White House would not approve any policy that threatened to undermine President Mahmoud Abbas's authority, was the first prong.

The revelation came just before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's tour of the region to push for implementing President George Bush's two-state agreement before he leaves office.

The second prong took the form of a reminder to both Israel and Syria that they cannot go behind America's back to engage in a deal brokered by Turkey, who misbehaved five years ago by not permitting US coalition-led forces to use its bases to unseat Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and also sought independence from Washington with its attempts to join the EU.

Thirdly, and more importantly, Israel must understand that it cannot negotiate a settlement with Syria without first securing some vital US interests, namely Damascus cutting supplies for insurgents in Iraq, as part of the deal. It would seem President Bush's desperate search for a legacy at any cost supersedes the idea of peace in his time, if it happens not to be on his terms.