Posted on 05/15/2004 11:16:03 PM PDT by halosfan2002
North Korea exchanging seccret WMD's?
A military specialist on Korean affairs revealed that the Syrian technicians were killed in the explosion in Ryongchon in the northwestern part of the country, according to the Sankei Shimbun. The specialist said the Syrians were accompanying "large equipment" and that the damage from the explosion was greatest in the portion of the train they occupied.
The source said North Korean military personnel with protective suits responded to the scene soon after the explosion and removed material only from the Syrians' section of the train.
The technicians were from the Syrian technical research center called Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche Scientific (CERS). Although CERS was established to promote science and technology development, it has been viewed as a major player in Syria's weapons of mass destruction development program.
The source said it was not known whether the cargo was the source of the explosion or whether it had exploded following a separate explosion on another section of the train.
As many as 10 Syrians and accompanying North Koreans were killed, according to the report. The bodies of the Syrians were taken home on May 1 by a Syrian aircraft, which had come to Pyongyang to deliver aid supplies.
The Syrians and North Koreans who transported the victimrs were also reportedly wearing protective suits similar to those worn by the North Korean military figures who arrived on the scene immediately after the accident, the source said.
The United States and other countries have expressed concern that Syrian and North Korea are developoing Scud-D missiles, as well as chemical and biological weapons.
Concerning the cause of the explosion incident, the DPRK has explained that a train carrying fertilizer containing ammonium nitrate and a railroad tank carrying petroleum were being shunted, and, in the process, came into contact with electrical wires, due to carelessness.
hmmmm very interesting
I'm willing to bet we already have done analysis of the residue up there and we KNOW what was in it...
Has Kim Jong-Il showed his ugly puss lately?
FWIW, this is the second post I've seen about this.
This one is from a different source.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1136248/posts
BTW, I agree.
"hmmmm very interesting"
Its difficult to figure why they would move anything for Syria near the border with China, by train. I think this is a bogus story. China would have asked an awful lot of questions if a Syrian shipment came through their territory. It'd be more likely to be a vessel of some type...unless the whole thing was an attempt to move Syrian cargo to a Chinese port, to avoid US surveillance...and ship from that point. We know every vessel is being monitored from North Korea going out. From this standpoint it would make sense. But you would have to bribe a heck of alot of Chinese officials to look the other way on this operation.
I think that you posted a similar story about the North Korean train explosion some time back.
The timeline here is intriguing. A train explosion in North Korea happens on April 22. Some people procede to claim that Syrians were on board.
5 days later, "terrorists" attacked an empty building in Damascus in what was widely believed to have been a diversionary strike (from what, one wonders).
And things also seem to have started settling down in Iraq since then, too.
Makes one say "Hmmm..."
... unless the stuff was to return on the "Syrian aircraft, which had come to Pyongyang to deliver aid supplies." Coincidence? Or neat cover?
Good point.
The whole situation sounds like "Special Ops" to me. I'm NO expert, but how is it that the South Koreans were able to share and post a (supposed) picture of the explosion, when they are locked out many hundreds of miles away on the DMZ - and on the actual night it occurred? I'm not talking a "satellite" pic - but an image we all saw here on Freep - a landscape pic of the actual explosion aftermath. Any conjectures?
"unless the whole thing was an attempt to move Syrian cargo to a Chinese port, to avoid US surveillance...and ship from that point."
VERY good point.
Some information on Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche Scientific (CERS):
Syrian "Los Alamos"
To build its capability, Syria mounted a sustained, covert effort over several decades. It all began with ‘Abdullah Watiq Shahid, a senior Syrian nuclear physicist, who was appointed minister of higher education in Syria in 1967. Shahid envisioned mobilizing Syria's meager technological and scientific resources for the national goal of weapons development. In 1971, in implementation of a presidential directive of 1969, an instrument for this activity was established:the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), an ostensibly civilian agency. Shahid was appointed director-general.
In 1973, Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad issued a new directive, officially authorizing relations between the SSRC and the Syrian army. The SSRC, which had its own link to the president's office, immediately became the principal engine for the local development and refinement of weapons for the Syrian army. In 1974, Shahid was appointed chairman of the Committee for Scientific Manpower, apparently to make it easier for him to channel manpower and financial resources to the SSRC. He simultaneously controlled the Supreme Syrian Committee for Science.
When Shahid and Asad concluded that Syria could not develop nuclear weapons, Shahid began to explore the CBW option. Syria was the second Arab state (after Egypt, and in parallel with Iraq) to commit itself to the development of CBW. Its main instrument would be the SSRC, which promoted itself internationally as a civilian science agency.
For example, the SSRC had departments of chemistry and biology under one roof, together with various armament departments—itself an unusual combination. So a pretense was manufactured: these departments were working on chemical and
bacteriological pollution of rivers, sewage treatment, and the building of water purification facilities. In 1978, the SSRC sponsored the creation of an open scientific body called the Arab School for Science and Technology (ASST). This provided additional cover.
Concealment of the military mission of the SSRC was crucial to its operation, especially for its prospects of winning international funding. In the summer of 1979, when Shahid led a Syrian delegation to a U.N. scientific conference in Vienna, he described the SSRC in elliptical language, as "designed along the lines of other national institutions, and devoted to research that is specifically aimed at serving various aspects of development.The center is autonomous, and most of its researchers work full-time. Some serve in faculties of state universities."[13] In an interview, Shahid stated that "the Center concentrates its attention on a number of critical technical problems of interest to Syria in the fields of: applied and industrial chemistry, applied physics, electronics, mechanical engineering, applications of computer science and science policy."[14]
Despite this recitation of non-military concerns, the SSRC did not win international funding. Shahid expressed his frustration over this failure in an interview with the scientific journal Nature. There he complained about what he called the prevailing biases and injustice in the world scientific and technological order. Why did the lion's share of budgetary allocations go to the more advanced of
the developing countries, such as Yugoslavia and Brazil? It was precisely less advanced states like Syria, he argued, that most needed this funding. [15]
Eventually, the SSRC did secure some financial support from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the purchase of equipment. And it received financial backing from the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), for organizing professional symposia, held formally under the auspices of the Arab School for Science and Technology. Leading foreign scientists, mainly from the West, took part in the symposia; the SSRC was the main beneficiary. The Arab League extended official sponsorship to the conferences held in Syria. The Kuwaiti connection provided invaluable financial resources, allowing the SSRC to dispatch dozens of scientists abroad, where they acquired vital technological information and equipment.
Of course, people in the know, knew the truth. In 1982, Ziauddin Sardar published his book, Science and Technology in the Middle East, and did not hesitate to characterize the SSRC as a body that "belongs to the Syrian defense ministry, and conducts military research."[16] Nor did Asad's directives leave much room for doubt. Asad published another one on October 4, 1983, which raised the standing of the SSRC. All departments were upgraded to the status of research institutes, and the director-general was accorded the rank of a minister. Most importantly, however, the directive stipulated that the chief of staff would appoint members of the board of the SSRC, as well as its technical staff. (The president would continue to appoint the SSRC director-general.) The military would also authorize all appointments in the SSRC's new branch for applied sciences, the Higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (HIAST).[17] It is this institute that has trained professional personnel in chemical, ballistic, and other fields.
Behind the scenes, the independent production of chemical munitions became one of the core projects of the SSRC. It was the SSRC that set up the first facility for the industrial production of chemical weapons: the "Borosilicate Glass Project," outfitted by the West German glass company Schott. The components of the facility included chemical-reaction vessels and pipes, all of them chlorine-resistant. The project produced di-chloro, a substance that is the main source of the nerve gas sarin.
http://www.meforum.org.pf.php?id=493
and also
http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/Syria/Biological/3342_3348.html
Syrians transporting North Korean nuclear detonators to an airport?
CERS = SSRC (Scientific Studies and Research Centre)
Yup like I said... very interesting
Just don't let the North Koreans know that we hit the train with a new space-based hypervelocity kinetic kill warhead. One that can't be detected before, during or after. It's secret, don't spread this around.
Or one of those super-stealthy invisible-in-all-spectrums aircraft the Mexican Air Force has been mistaking for UFO's.
A.K.A. a meteor.
Perfect deniability...
LOL! That's good, but my favorite conspiracy theory posted so far has been that the train explosion was "cover" for a Syrian relief-aid plane to fly into Pyonyang to to sneak promised materials out to Damascus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.