Posted on 04/25/2008 12:49:12 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
![]() The US says there were similarities between the Syrian and North Korean reactors
The United States has accused North Korea of helping Syria build a nuclear reactor that "was not intended for peaceful purposes". The site, said to be like one in North Korea, was bombed by Israel in 2007. Syria must "come clean" about its secret nuclear programme, the White House said in a statement after CIA officials briefed members of Congress. Syria has repeated denials that it has any nuclear weapons programme, or any such agreement with North Korea. Syrian officials have said the site that was bombed by Israel in September last year was an unused military facility under construction. Building on the site had stopped some time before the air strike, the Syrians said.
In late October 2007, an independent American research organisation, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), released pre- and post-strike satellite images of the site which indicated it had been bulldozed flat after the bombing. But the White House said the "cover-up" operation that Syria carried out after the Israeli air strike reinforced its belief that the alleged reactor "was not intended for peaceful activities". "Until 6 September, 2007, the Syrian regime was building a covert nuclear reactor in its eastern desert capable of producing plutonium," the statement said. "The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities." The statement added that the US had long been "seriously concerned about North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and its proliferation activities".
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Images released by the CIA- footage courtesy of US Government video
But the White House insists it is committed to the on-going six-nation diplomacy, between North Korea and US, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia that led to a landmark deal with Pyongyang, in February 2007. Ulterior motive?
North Korea agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for aid and its removal from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism. But the US has accused Pyongyang of missing the deadline to make a full nuclear declaration as promised.
The CIA briefing and statement coincides with the end of a two-day meeting between US and North Korean officials on Pyongyang's nuclear programme, which both sides say have gone well - fuelling speculation that a deal may be imminent. The BBC's James Coomarasamy, in Washington, says the question being asked by some in the US capital is whether the reactor statement is designed to reinforce those diplomatic efforts or an attempt by some in the administration to undermine them. Damning images? The CIA briefings included pictures which the US says prove that North Koreans were working inside the secret site. One of the images, which shows two men standing side by side, was said by the CIA to be of the head of the North Korean nuclear plant and the head of the Syrian atomic energy commission together in Syria. The images - said to have been obtained by Israel - showed striking similarities between the Syrian facility and the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, the US said. However, the facility was not yet operational and there was no fuel for the reactor, officials said. Israeli fears
Republican Congressman Pete Hoekstra, who attended the CIA briefing, said the US needed "good, clear, verifiable information" from the countries involved before North Korea could be removed from the terrorism blacklist, the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
Mr Hoekstra criticised the Bush administration for waiting eight months to brief the intelligence committee and warned that it could jeopardise any future agreement with North Korea. Syrian officials have denied any North Korean involvement in their country. "These allegations are ridiculous," Syria's ambassador to the UK, Sami Khiyami, told the BBC. "We are used to such allegations now, since the day the United States has invaded Iraq - you remember all the theatrical presentations concerning the WMDs [weapons of mass destruction] in Iraq." Mr Khiyami said the facility was a deserted military building that had "nothing to do with a reactor".
Syria is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives it the right to enrich its own fuel for civil nuclear power, under inspection from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). North Korea has previously denied transferring nuclear technology to Syria. The BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem says the apparent strike on the reactor, deep inside Syria, was seen by many in Israel as a sign of their military prowess. But she says Israeli defence officials now have expressed concern over the revelation of classified data in the US. |
That just leaves me with low confidence in the two senior intelligence officials...
Attention! it has been determined that this is not a duck
LOL!
Clearly the CIA video the WPO made public is convincing.
And look at Assad’s head in that picture! It reminds me of Beaker of The Muppets...except I like Beaker.
“Had” ... I like the ring of that. :’D
Happy 60th Anniversary, Israel!!!
Thanks Ernest.
Beaker is also the better singer.
This photo is a good example of what should NEVER happen: no US leader should ever give such scumbags the credibility and back-patting of holding such meetings. Ever.
If there are diplomatic communiques to be made they can be made at a lower level. If there really is some great breakthrough imminent then that could be considered, but the idea of jetting off to suck up to people like Assad or Ahmawhackjob or Kim Jong Il just gives them more standing and credibility than they will ever deserve.
Says there is no proof that the photograph is from the building that Israel bombed...and even though the site was a Military building,...it was not a reactor way out there in the Desert,...there was no electricity,...no military barracades,...no barbed wire,...and besides the US has made these kind of accusations before,...about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction before at the UN with poor evidence and look at how that turned out,...this was all Israel's fault...and they are always attacking us and we are innocent.....
ETC...Etc...Etc...
Worth watching the performance,...he is very skilled ...watch the papers tomorrow,...the Media will likely eat up what he said...
A method to the delay in briefing Congress on Syria/DPRK nuclear alliance?
******************EXCERPT*****************
Eli Lake at the New York Sun thinks that the White House may want to manipulate Syria into substantive peace negotiations through deliberate timing of the exposure of the nuclear plant at Al-Kibar. Instead of releasing all the data immediately, the US has left it hanging over the head of Bashar Assad for months, keeping him from conducting a reprisal against Israel until it became so late to be pointless. Now, with the UN taking an interest in Syrias nuclear activities, Assad may have gotten a push to get serious about peace talks with Ehud Olmert:
At the moment America has disclosed to the world Israels success in ending a North Korea-aided nuclear weapons project in the Syrian desert, the Syrians are saying Prime Minister Olmert will relinquish the Golan Heights.
The Israelis are offering no public comment. But Syrias expatriates minister, Buthaina Shaaban, told Al-Jazeera that the Israeli premier had instructed Turkeys prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to deliver the message. Olmert is ready for peace with Syria on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria, she told the Arab satellite network.
The interview aired before the White House instructed the intelligence community to brief Congress and journalists on the details of Syrias undeclared nuclear weapons program. The briefing included a videotape of North Korean technicians building the same kind of lab reactor as the one found in North Koreas Yongbyon facility, according to congressional sources and the Washington Post.
The public disclosure of the North Korea-Syria program changes the calculus for the presidents policies toward both Damascus and Pyongyang. Damascus will likely face a nuclear audit from the International Atomic Energy Agency and may be raising the Golan issue and the prospect of peace in hopes of distracting from its nuclear program. North Korea has agreed to, but has yet to deliver, a full declaration of its nuclear weapons program.
The White House said it withheld the intelligence on Syria in the immediate aftermath of the bombing in part to avoid the potential of a regional war between Syria and Israel. If Syria was forced to acknowledge the full extent of the September 6 operation, they would have to retaliate at the time, one Bush administration official said. A White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, demanded Syria come clean. The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities.
It[s an interesting scenario, but not completely convincing. Assad has already run afoul of the UN over the assassination of Rafik Hariri and others in Lebanon, and that didnt stop him from partnering with Kim Jong-Il on nuclear weapons. If the Syrians have suddenly become interested in peace, Israeli bombs likely provided a lot more incentive than the American delay in briefing Congress.
Intel committee leaders got briefed contemporaneously to the events, but the rest of the committees and leadership got nothing after the bombing run. Pete Hoekstra, one of the handful kept abreast, considers that a mistake. If it prevented a war between Syria and Israel, it wasnt a mistake but a tactical tradeoff. Again, though, its hard to see Syria launching a war against Israel that it would have lost in days, with or without Iranian intervention.
This does validate one Bush statement at the beginning of the war on terror. Syria and North Korea certainly appear to be acting on an axis, helping to proliferate WMD. That has been forgotten or caricatured, but George Bush warned of exactly this kind of expansion of nuclear weapons in the first term of his presidency. The scoffers remain very silent on that point.
Central Intelligence Agency, via Associated Press
The C.I.A. on Thursday released an undated image of what it said was part of a Syrian reactor that Israel destroyed last year.
No doubt. Check out the front page of the Fri/Sat/Sun “USA Today”.
Syrian envoy says CIA fabricated evidence ( Regarding the Al Kibar Building )
Thanks Ernest, I missed this earlier. Will read more tomorrow.
This undated image released by the U.S. Government shows a suspected nuclear reactor plant under construction in Syria. The White House on Thursday broke its official silence on the mysterious September 6, 2007 Israeli air strike. 'We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities,' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement. The statement came after intelligence officials briefed U.S. lawmakers about the Syrian nuclear facility that was destroyed by Israel last year. (U.S. Government/Handout/Reuters)
It’s because the Israeli’s used some special missiles, designed by Halliburton.
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