Posted on 04/23/2008 10:54:25 AM PDT by jhpigott
Fearing an escalation in tensions with Syria, defense officials reiterated their opposition Wednesday to a planned intelligence briefing at Congress on Thursday that will divulge details on Israel's airstrike against what foreign media reports have claimed was a North Korea nuclear reactor being built in northeastern Syria.
The fuel tanks allegedly found in Turkey near the Syrian-Turkish border after the Israeli airstrike. Photo: Courtesy www.huriyett.com
Slideshow: Pictures of the week The Senate and House intelligence committees were scheduled to be briefed on Thursday, and several other panels such as the Senate Armed Services Committee were expected to be briefed as well.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that US intelligence officials will tell the committees that North Korea was helping Syria build a plutonium-fueled reactor. Following the September 6 airstrike, the site was razed and wiped clean.
Since the strike, Israel has refused to publicly reveal details on the site and the military censor has imposed tight restrictions on details the Israeli press is allowed to publish.
Top defense officials expressed concern Wednesday that the details revealed in the congressional hearing would "embarrass" Syrian President Bashar Assad - who has refused to confirm reports on the nature of the site - and might create pressure from within his government to respond militarily against Israel.
"Syria thinks it owes us for what happened in September," a senior defense official said, adding that the congressional hearing could also force Assad to reject peace talks with Israel as an act of leadership in face of growing internal criticism.
Pictures from Syrian TV of the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands, which the Syrians say was the target of the IAF strike. Photo: Channel 2 "His public embarrassment will minimize the chances of him responding positively to the idea of peace talks with Israel," another official said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak transmitted these concerns last week to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose office refused to comment Wednesday on the upcoming congressional hearing.
One senior Bush administration official said Thursday's briefing was scheduled because intelligence agencies had been deluged for months with congressional requests for information about North Korean activity in Syria and the Israeli airstrike and felt it was now time to brief lawmakers.
The official said, however, that there were concerns that the revelations, if leaked or made public, could encourage opponents of the administration's attempts to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. US diplomats are pressing North Korea to come clean about its nuclear cooperation with Syria as part of those talks but have had little success.
Another official said Thursday's presentation would be a compilation of intelligence from more than one source that has been carefully analyzed over a period of months and by its nature comes with caveats.
Under an agreement reached last year with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, the North is required to give a full accounting of its nuclear programs, including whether it spread nuclear technology.
North Korea claims it gave the nuclear declaration to the United States in November, but US officials say the North never produced a "complete and correct" declaration.
The congressional briefing also comes the same week a US delegation went to North Korea to press the government for a detailed list of its nuclear programs, the latest sticking point at international nuclear disarmament talks.
The leader of the delegation is expected to report back to Washington on Friday.
The United States recently has stepped back from its push for a detailed declaration addressing the North's alleged secret uranium enrichment program and nuclear cooperation with Syria. Now, the United States says it wants the North to simply acknowledge the American concerns and then set up a system to verify that the country does not continue such activity.
ping
ping
President Bush’s greatest failing was in not cleaning out the rats nests of Clinton acolytes throughout the Executive Branch.
sunshine is the best antidote for a corrupt gov’t. By hiding the details of North Korea and Syria’s attmepts to build a plant to acquire nuclear bomb material, Bush is doing us no favors. He will go down in history as worse in this regard than Clinton if he keeps it up. Appeasing the North Koreans has never worked, and never will. Shining the light on their duplicitous activities with the Syrians is the only way to move things forward. If the UN was anything but a bunch of American hating socialists, we could take our case there. The new South Korean gov’t is much more in favor of firnmess when dealing with the North Koreans.
Patience, my friend, there is plenty more to this story, and this Administration indeed knows how to play it’s cards, except with the dealings with the Media. All will be revealed in due time, including the media/Dem party actions resulting in the deaths of many American soldiers. The media cannot hide from what they’ve done, and they will be held accountable. They should be looking over their shoulders every minute, if they know what’s good for them. They are on record, they are accountable, and they have turned against the United States of America. They are truly enemies of the United States, and they will pay.
A committee hearing might not get any press coverage at all, especially if it is classified. But, a couple dozen threads on this could speculate all kinds of disasters and intrigues.
closed door or open door, doesn’t matter
Congress is as leaky as a collander
we are going to get some juicy information out of this one way or the other . . . question is how do Syria/Iran/NK/Hez/Hamas react to what’s released
Shutting down the expensive air defense system and bombing a nuke plant at will seems juicy enough.
Maybe some more sat photos are going to be released.
“Shutting down the expensive air defense system and bombing a nuke plant at will seems juicy enough.”
no doubt, but Congress already knows this stuff anyways, they want the back story along with the details and who knows, some unexpected revelations may come out that may spark . . . something
Iran knows better than to try anything after Hillary!08’s pledge to eradicate them like a bug.
I don't have an answer to my own question but I have to think that there are good reasons for every POTUS not completely clearing out the previous administration's personnel.
It is without question that the Bush Administration has suffered severely for the many Democrat holdovers within State and the CIA.
Just this very second on the news a blurb about Israel being ready to give up the Golan!
BS...Bush is capitulating to the North Koreans in order to find a legacy through some worthless agreement with them. Just look what John Bolton our former UN ambassador is saying. He knows what is going on with the North Koreans and thinks the State Dept so wants to do something they will look the other way when the North Koreans continue to lie to our faces. By telling the world what the North Koreans and Syrians were doing, we would have the moral high ground, who gives a rat’s ass what the puppet sons Assad and Kim jon Il think. They are scum and deserve to be called out. Assad needs to be dealt with. He is helping rearm Hezbollah and using his country to transit Jihadi’s tio Iraq to kill our soldiers. Time for making nice is long over. You are judged by deeds not words.
What the hell kind of deal did that idiot cook up over there?
things are pretty fluid in the region right now . . . lot of peace/truce talk with Syrian and Hamas, yet on the other hand today there were reports of IAF action over Lebanon (multiple sources saying anti-aircraft fire directed at Israeli jets and at least one source actually reported Israeli jets struck numerous targets in southern lebanon and the bekka)
now the release of this info . . .
Some of saddam’s WMDs are thought to be in the Bekaa Valley.
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