Syria Hiding The Evidence
More confirmation of what I was telling you about recently…
~Bash
John R. Bolton, the Bush administration’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said Syria’s secrecy — including its apparent move to clean up the site after the bombing — suggests that Damascus is pursuing a strategy similar to that of Iran, which the Bush administration believes is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability. Bolton said Iran once attempted to conceal nuclear activity from IAEA inspectors by bulldozing nuclear-related buildings and even digging up nearby topsoil to remove all traces of nuclear material.
“The common practice for people with legitimate civilian nuclear power programs is to be transparent, because they have nothing to hide,” Bolton said.
Syria has begun dismantling the remains of a site Israel bombed Sept. 6 in what may be an attempt to prevent the location from coming under international scrutiny, said U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the aftermath of the attack.
Based on overhead photography, the officials say the site in Syria’s eastern desert near the Euphrates River had a “signature” or characteristics of a small but substantial nuclear reactor, one similar in structure to North Korea’s facilities.
The dismantling of the damaged site, which appears to be still underway, could make it difficult for weapons inspectors to determine the precise nature of the facility and how Syria planned to use it. Syria, which possesses a small reactor used for scientific research, has denied seeking to expand its nuclear program. But U.S. officials knowledgeable about the Israeli raid have described the target as a nuclear facility being constructed with North Korean assistance.
The bombed facility is different from the one Syria displayed to journalists last week to back its allegations that Israel had bombed an essentially an empty building, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity because details of the Israeli attack are classified.
While U.S. officials express increasing confidence that the Syrian facility was nuclear-related, divisions persist within the government and among weapons experts over the significance of the threat. If the facility was a nuclear reactor, U.S. weapons experts said it would almost certainly have taken Syria several years to complete the structure, and much longer to produce significant quantities of plutonium for potential use in nuclear weapons. Nuclear reactors also are used to generate electricity.
“This isn’t like a Road Runner cartoon where you call up Acme Reactors and they deliver a functioning reactor to your back yard. It takes years to build,” said Joseph Cirincione, director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress. “This is an extremely demanding technology, and I don’t think Syria has the technical, engineering or financial base to really support such a reactor.”
While expressing concern over the prospect that Syria may have decided to launch a nuclear program in secret, some weapons experts question why neither Israel nor the United States made any effort before the secret attack — or in the six weeks since — to offer evidence to the International Atomic Energy Agency, a move that would trigger an inspection of Syria by the nuclear watchdog.
Full WaPo article by Robin Wright and Joby Warrick here.
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While expressing concern over the prospect that Syria may have decided to launch a nuclear program in secret, some weapons experts question why neither Israel nor the United States made any effort before the secret attack — or in the six weeks since — to offer evidence to the International Atomic Energy Agency, a move that would trigger an inspection of Syria by the nuclear watchdog.
Probably because the IAEA is USELESS!
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:44 pmI bet that Bush/Cheney have had their fill of the UN. This need to be handled quickly and with a finality.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:28 pmWho thinks we could also find Husseins bio and chemical weapons stockpile in Syria? I think so
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:06 pmAgreed Kurt. Don’t forget the Bekka Valley either.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:53 pmYeah and Bekka valley. wonder why they dismissed that General in Saddams air force so quickly? I mean he said he personally saw them loading converted airliners with the shit and sending it across the border into Syria. Does this topic piss anyone else off besides me?
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:04 pmFor a year or so, think it was in 2004, debka ran many
articles claiming to identify the people who did transfer Iraq’s
WMDs to syria/bekaa and gave exact locations as to where they
thought the stuff was hidden.
Why didn’t Israeli or US officials tell El-Baradei about
the secret reactor? It’s a silly question. El-Baradei would
have already known about it. Why tell him something he already knows?
El-Baradei is doing his best in full taqiyya mode to facilitate
as many of those countries getting the bomb as possible.
That’s his job, his real job.
Why did Israel bomb a reactor that wasn’t finished yet?
October 24th, 2007 at 3:57 amTrial run, I guess.