Thread: 'USAF struck Syrian nuclear site'

Why use US pilots ? If shot down they would be propaganda fodder for Syria. I don't see it as being logical. Also it would be more logical to use a Cruise missile. Also due to the fact they hit the target makes me more convinced they weren't US pilots.

A warning shot for Iran, via Syria

By Gareth Porter

Nov 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - Until late October, the accepted explanation about the September 6 Israeli air strike in Syria, constructed from a series of press leaks from US officials, was that it was prompted by dramatic satellite intelligence that Syria was building a nuclear facility with help from North Korea.

snip

On October 7, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who enjoys access to top administration officials, quoted an unnamed official as providing the official explanation for the Israeli attack as targeting "nuclear materials supplied to Syria by North Korea".

But then, without quoting the official directly, Ignatius reported the official's description of the raid's implicit message: "[T]he message to Iran is clear: America and Israel can identify nuclear targets and penetrate air defenses to destroy them."

The official's suggestion that the strike was a joint US-Israeli message about a joint policy toward striking Iran's nuclear sites was the clearest indication that the primary objective of the strike was to intimidate Iran at a time when both Israel and the Cheney faction of the Bush administration were finding it increasingly difficult to do so.

Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national security policy. His latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in June 2005.

atimes.com

Pyongyang-Syria link
Today's Top Stories

Washington - North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor "not intended for peaceful purposes" before it was destroyed last year by an Israeli air strike, the White House said Thursday.

"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.

Syria broke international agreements by hiding the reactor from the UN nuclear watchdog, known as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and sought to cover up the plutonium producing facility after Israeli warplanes struck it September 6, Perino said.

"This cover-up only served to reinforce our confidence that this reactor was not intended for peaceful activities," Perino said, adding that the facility located in Syria's eastern desert was not configured for peaceful purposes.

For Monday Bangkok Post editorial A uniting of world rogues on the North Korea-Burma link, click here.

The White House released the statement after US intelligence officials briefed members of Congress on the evidence of Syria's nuclear work and North Korea's proliferating role. The statement marked the first time the Bush administration has publicly revealed its suspicions about the site.

Six Senate and House committees received evidence "that outlines a very compelling case to show that there was in fact a Syrian effort with North Korean assistance to build a covert nuclear reactor," a US official said on the condition of anonymity.

The facility was not yet operational but "there were clear indications that that would happen at some point," the official added.

The Syrian ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha, appeared on CNN shortly after the White House statement to denounce it and questioned the veracity of US intelligence following the false claims that Saddam Hussein's regime had weapons of mass destruction.

"I hope the American citizens ... would not be as gullible this time as they were prior to the war in Iraq," Moustapha said.

Moustapha said the site hit by Israel was an unused military building that was left unguarded and called the allegations "silly" and "ridiculous."

"There was nobody at that site. It was a vacant military building. No security guards. No barbed wires. No anti-aircraft missiles," he said.

Perino said the United States was briefing the IAEA on the intelligence and called on Damascus to "come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities."

Syria's support for terrorism and meddling in Lebanon coupled with its nuclear ambitions raised the threat to international security, Perino said.

"The construction of this reactor was a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world," Perino said.

"This is particularly true because it was done covertly and in violation of the very procedures designed to reassure the world of the peaceful intent of nuclear activities," she added.

Moustapha said the United States should invade Israel because the Jewish state is the only country in the region with nuclear weapons. Israel has never acknowledged that it has nuclear weapons, but it is widely believed to possess about 200 bombs.

Perino said the United States will continue to pressure North Korea to end nuclear proliferation under the disarmament agreement reached in six-nation talks in February 2007.

The Bush administration wants North Korea to acknowledge US concerns about the Syria connection in a declaration Pyongyang must produce under the agreement detailing all of its nuclear activities. North Korea claims it did so in November, but Washington believes the disclose was incomplete because it did not address Syria or US suspicions North Korea had enriched uranium in addition to producing plutonium.

The White House did not confirm a Washington Post report that among the evidence is a video that shows North Koreans present at the Syrian facility.

"We have long been seriously concerned about North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and its proliferation activities," Perino said. "North Korea's clandestine nuclear cooperation with Syria is a dangerous manifestation of those activities."

The United States would work within the six-nation talks that also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea to ensure that a "rigorous verification mechanism" is in place to test the reliability of Pyongyang declaration once it has been submitted, she said. Under the agreement, North Korea was to provide the document by the end of December and the issue has stalled the six-nation negotiations.

The United States has pledged to take steps to remove North Korea from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism and ease sanctions in return for the declaration.

The CIA presented the evidence to the House and Senate intelligence, military and foreign relations committees. (dpa)

bangkokpost.net

According to the reports, American reports I must say, there wasn't a single person in the facility when it came under attack. It makes me wonder what kind of nuclear facility was that? Not a single guard and not a single person inside?

Hehehe.

Think a new thread is warranted -- or does this threadhead still apply?

Sure the OP doesn't want to add the nuclear angle?

I'm guessing it was a baby milk factory.

looks like Noah's Ark.
Before and after the antique robbers got there.

Originally Posted by Texpat

Hehehe.

Think a new thread is warranted -- or does this threadhead still apply?

Sure the OP doesn't want to add the nuclear angle?

I'm guessing it was a baby milk factory.

Yeah a baby milk factory wouldn't have personnel to guard it, American sailorboy.

Syria denies N Korea nuclear link
UPDATED ON:
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2008
6:37 MECCA TIME, 3:37 GMT


The US released pictures of the alleged facility
to back up its claims
[Reuters]

Syria's ambassador to the US has dismissed the White House's claim that North Korea had helped it build a nuclear reactor as a "ridiculous story".

Imad Moustapha told Al Jazeera that his government maintained there was no evidence of any alleged secret nuclear activity.

If there had been a nuclear reactor, there would have been security such as anti-aircraft weapons and guards there, Moustapha said.

The Bush administration has said North Korea helped Syria to build an alleged nuclear reactor destroyed in a controversial Israeli air raid last year.

'Come clean'

The White House said in a statement on Thursday that Syria "must come clean" over its alleged secret co-operation with North Korea on the reactor.

It also described the alleged assistance as a "dangerous manifestation'' of North Korea's nuclear proliferation activities, but said it would continue six-party talks to try to resolve the nuclear standoff with the isolated nation.

"We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities," Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, said.

"We have good reason to believe that reactor, which was damaged beyond repair on September 6 of last year, was not intended for peaceful purposes."

The claims follow a briefing of US congressional officials in Washington DC by intelligence chiefs, including William Hayden, the CIA director.

Before the briefing, Syria's ambassador to the UK, Sami al-Khiyami, said that co-operation between the two countries was mainly economic and had "nothing" to do with building such a facility.

However some US legislators earlier warned that the claims could wreck vital six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

'Nuclear facility'

The controversy began last September, when an Israeli air raid destroyed a target in Syrian territory which some reports later said was a nuclear facility being built with North Korean help.

Syria, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has maintained in the past that the site was an unused military facility.

It later razed the site and built a larger building in its place.

The target of Israel's raid has been veiled in secrecy, with US intelligence and government officials refusing to confirm for months that such a raid even took place.


Israel destroyed the building in a raid in
September last year
[Reuters]

A document released by US intelligence officials on Thursday said that the administration had concluded that the suspected reactor would have been able to produce plutonium for nuclear bombs and was "nearing operational capability in August 2007".

The US did not give Israel any "green light" to attack the Syrian site, a US official said.

Senior US intelligence officials said the suspected reactor closely resembled the Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006.

In the briefings to congress and reporters, US officials produced before-and-after aerial photographs of the suspected reactor in eastern Syria as well as detailed interior images that they said showed key parts of its components.

One photograph showed what a US intelligence official said was a senior North Korean nuclear expert standing beside a Syrian atomic official inside Syria.

Sensitive timing

Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear proliferation, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that North Korea rather than Syria was the target of the briefing, as "very few officials ... are actually worried that Syria had then or does have now a programme that would threaten the US and Israel".

"There are conservatives in the US who don't like the terms of the deal the US has worked out, they think it's a little too weak," he said.

"There are others, such as the neo-conservatives Dick Cheney, John Bolton ... who don't like any agreement and who don't want to set a precedent of negotiating with a tyrannical regime [North Korea] for fear that it would set a precedent for the US negotiating with Iran."

In addition to the US briefing, John Rood, acting under secretary for arms control and international security, briefed Mohamed El Baradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), about the details being presented to Congress, US officials told AFP news agency.

The allegations of Syrian-North Korean nuclear co-operation come at a sensitive time for Pyongyang, which reached agreement over its nuclear weapons programme last year in six-party talks with the US, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

On Tuesday, a delegation of US nuclear experts travelled to North Korea for talks with senior officials on the nuclear issue and are expected to report back to Washington on Friday.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
english.aljazeera.net

No sailor in my blood matzah-Ghezzi.
And this thread is as wrong as two boys kissin'.
Arencha disappointed?

Nah, much more inflammatory as it is.

Circle the wagons boys! Merika bombed another innocent country jus trying to feed its babies!

forgive me gentlemen BUT there is a common theme is there not ?

ps even got pic's

Originally Posted by Mid

forgive me gentlemen BUT there is a common theme is there not ?

Yep. Common theme is we are talking about the same facility. But mid, the title is inappropriate. The reason I think another thread is appropriate is this thread debate is going to go on for a long time given the implications. Not sure why you would object to a title more appropriate to the debate. It would still be your's if split. Guess the mods will have to decide.

no prob's should a Mod wish to split ,

no real objections either

just find it interesting that folks want seperate threads on common subjects but I'll be more free with starting new threads in future .

thanxs for the heads up .

Dewey defeats Truman springs to mind.

^

save me some ........................

Why was the nuclear facility empty?

prior warning of the strike ??

Slow day at the morgue. No available bodies to scatter among the carnage. Damn the bad luck.

Why didn't Syria object to the world when it's baby milk facility was bombed last year? Hmmmmm.

Always wondered about that myself, maybe thats why there wern't any bodys, they hid them too.

Originally Posted by machangezi

Why was the nuclear facility empty?

Good question if it was indeed empty.

This shall all be cleared up quickly. The UN to the rescue.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN probes US Syria reactor claim

Originally Posted by Texpat

Air Force releases B-52 munitions transfer investigation results

denied?

Bangkok Post = Charlatan Post
Al Jazeera = Bullshit
af.mil = Truth

Bangkok Post + Al Jazeera leanings = dangerous
Thai Com with Hezbollah Channel = banned

^ Once again, in English.

Are those opinions on various media outlets yours?