'George, I'm asking you to bomb the compound'

"..."George, I'm asking you to bomb the compound," Olmert told Bush, according to the book, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. Bush says he discussed options with his national security team. A bombing mission was considered "but bombing a sovereign country with no warning or announced justification would create severe blowback," he writes. (HUH?)

 A covert raid was discussed but it was considered too risky to slip a team in and out of Syria undetected. Bush received an intelligence assessment from then-CIA Director Mike Hayden, who reported that analysts had high confidence the plant housed a nuclear reactor, but low confidence of a Syrian nuclear weapons program.

 Bush says he told Olmert, "I cannot justify an attack on a sovereign nation unless my intelligence agencies stand up and say it's a weapons program."

Olmert was disappointed at Bush's decision to recommend a strategy of using diplomacy backed up by the threat of force to deal with Syria over the facility. "Your strategy is very disturbing to me," Olmert told Bush, according to the book. Bush denies charges that arose at the time that he had given a "green light" for Israel to attack the installation. "Prime Minister Olmert hadn't asked for a green light, and I hadn't given one. He had done what he believed was necessary to protect Israel," Bush writes. Bush writes that Olmert's "execution of the strike" against the Syrian compound made up for the confidence he had lost in the Israelis during their 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which Bush feels was bungled. ..."