Hayden: Syrian site could have produced fuel for 2 weapons

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Michael Hayden said Monday that the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in September would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.

~snip~

"In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons," Hayden told reporters after a speech at Georgetown University.

~snip~

Neither the United States nor Israel told the International Atomic Energy Agency about the Syrian site until last week, about a year after they obtained what they considered to be decisive intelligence: dozens of photographs from a handheld camera that showed both the interior and exterior of the mysterious compound in Syria's eastern desert.

~snip~

We've made it clear we did not have complete control over the totality of the information because obviously it was the result of a team effort," he said. "One has to respect the origin of the information in terms of how it is used."

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency chastised the United States on Friday for withholding information on the alleged Syrian reactor. One of the IAEA's missions is to try to prevent nuclear proliferation, and it depends on member states for information.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080428/ap_on_go_ot/nuclear_syria;_ylt=AjYo5siv6BSNo__YFIrMPycNJ_wE

[seemslikeadream]

SYRIA: More questions about alleged nuclear site

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/04/syria-more-ques.html


SYRIA: More questions about alleged nuclear site
Professor William Beeman at the University of Minnesota passed along a note today from "a colleague with a U.S. security clearance" about the mysterious Syrian site targeted in a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike.

The note raises more questions about the evidence shown last week by U.S. intelligence officials to lawmakers in the House and Senate.

The author of the note pinpoints irregularities about the photographs. Beeman's source alleges that the CIA "enhanced" some of the images. For example he cites this image:



The lower part of the building, the annex, and the windows pointing south appear much sharper than the rest of the photo, suggesting that they were digitally improved.

The author points to more questions about the photographs of the Syrian site.

Satellite photos of the alleged reactor building show no air defenses or anti-aircraft batteries such as the ones found around the Natanz nuclear site in central Iran.
The satellite images do not show any military checkpoints on roads near the building.
Where are the power lines? The photos show neither electricity lines or substations.
Here is a link to a photo of the North Korean facility that the Syrian site was based on. Look at all the buildings surrounding it. The Syrian site was just one building.
Now compare this photograph of the site:



To this one



The site looks like a rectangle in the first shot, but more like a square in the second shot. Huh?

Thanks to Beeman, a professor of anthropology and Middle East studies as well as a member of the blogosphere, for allowing us to share his colleague's comments.

— Borzou Daragahi in Amman, Jordan






http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/american-spies.html


Syrian 'Nuke' Mystery Deepens (Updated)
By Noah Shachtman April 28, 2008 | 6:43:00 PMCategories: Nukes
American spies went out of their way last week, to answer questions about that mysterious nuclear facility that once sat in the Syrian desert. But the spooks' presentation to Congress seems to have raised nearly as a whole heap of new issues, even as it put others to bed.

The question that's coming up the most is: Why now? American and Israeli spies have had clues of Syria and North Korea cooperating to build a nuclear reactor since 1997. Satellite images show the so-called "Al Kibar" facility under construction in 2003. Why wait so long to take the reactor out?

"I think the administration believes it will help them get to a deal with North Korea," Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN's "Late Edition."

Gary Samore, with Council on Foreign Relations, comes to a similar conclusion:




http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-28-voa54.cfm

Alleged Syria-North Korea Nuclear Cooperation Raises Questions
By Gary Thomas
Washington
28 April 2008



U.S. intelligence officials last week outlined details of what they said was North Korean nuclear assistance to Syria. Syria has denied U.S. allegations that it was running a covert nuclear weapons program or that it was getting help from Pyongyang. As VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports, the timing of the revelations has raised questions about the motivation for their release.

Alleged North Korean nuclear cooperation with Syria is not exactly fresh news. After a secret Israeli air strike destroyed a facility in Syria last September, Andrew Semmel, the top State Department official for nonproliferation, said publicly that the United States was concerned about nuclear activity in Syria and suggested Damascus was getting help from Pyongyang. When speaking to reporters off the record other officials were even more specific.


US officials said this Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help, which was hit by Israeli strike
However, intelligence officials only briefed members of Congress in detail about it last week. And, in a surprising move for the usually secret intelligence community, they also briefed selected members of the media.

Semmel, now retired, says he is puzzled that it took so long to reveal the information since Congress has been pressing for details of Syria's activity since the Israeli raid.

"Congress has been pressing the administration,and others have been, too, to come clean on this or to come out some more with a little bit more information. And at this point in time maybe the feeling was, 'maybe' is the key word here, maybe the feeling was that somehow or another the intelligence community and others could not keep the lid on it any more, so they wanted to go out, I'm putting a positive spin on this, by the way, so there would be no major distortions of what actually happened, he said."





http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN28474535


RPT-ANALYSIS-Congressional calculus triggered Syria disclosures


'NO CHOICE'

"Congress has been asking for the specifics on Syria before they would agree to any sanctions lifting," said Mike Green, a former Bush administration Asia specialist now at the CSIS think tank. "The administration had no choice but to brief."

The U.S. Congress holds sway over whether to provide money to the administration to dismantle North Korean nuclear sites and it could also block removing the country from the U.S. terrorism list.

Heritage Foundation Korea expert Bruce Klingner said the intelligence briefings partly reflected the administration's realization that they were otherwise "unlikely to get funding" to dismantle North Korea's nuclear facility at Yongbyon.

Several people familiar with the matter say Washington has devised a face-saving formula for North Korea under which it would produce a declaration of its plutonium program, but would simply "acknowledge" U.S. concerns about its suspected uranium enrichment and proliferation activities, including in Syria.

The formula, first disclosed two weeks ago, appears to have brought Washington closer to securing the declaration but it has been criticized by a number of Bush's fellow Republicans.

Several analysts and congressional aides rejected media reports that this week's briefings were prompted by U.S. officials who oppose the talks with North Korea and hope to scuttle them.

"The crunch point here was linked to progress in the six-party talks, rather than an effort to undermine the six-party talks," said a congressional aide who asked not to be named.



http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870511303&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Ten North Koreans were killed in an IAF air strike on a Syria installation September, Bloomberg reported Monday, quoting an NHK report that cited unidentified South Korean intelligence officials.




'IAF strike on Syrian installation killed 10 North Koreans'

According to the report, the Koreans' remains were returned to North Korea after being cremated.

The report quoted a Japanese broadcaster who said that they had been assisting the Syrians in the construction of a nuclear reactor. Several North Korean workers survived the air strike, the report said.

Yielding to months of pressure from the US Congress, the Bush administration gave members briefings on Thursday indicating that on September 6, Israel destroyed an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help

[Taverner]

2. Post this high and nigh my friend!

!

[Taverner]

1. OK...I want what they're smoking

[GainesT1958]

3. That's probably part of the reason...

That no Arab state made any real noise about Israel's bombing of the facility.

B-)

[LynnTheDem]

4. IF Syria had had a nuclear plant, and IF Syria had been developing nukes, and IF

Syria had had no troubles whatsoever developing nukes at their non-existant nuclear plant, then Syria COULD have had enough plutonium for one or two nukes.

OH MAH GAWD how FWIGHTENED I am!!!

Grow a pair, America, and tell the warmongering fearmongering assholes to FUCK OFF already!

[frylock]

5. yuh-huh..

[Baby Snooks]

6. And Iraq had weapons of mass destruction!

The only people who listen to the CIA at this point are the people who want to continue to support the Bush Administration which given the further funding for the war in Iraq includes quite a few Democrats. Or people who claim to be Democrats. And people who claim to be Republicans. Who are all merely Republicrats. To whom war is good.

Certainly profitable. Certainly to politicians wanting to add to their own war chests. In their war against the American people.

[daleo]

7. IF it was a nuclear reactor

Which is highly unlikely, or they wouldn't have put it out in the open, just begging to be bombed.

[Javaman]

8. the key word is "could". doesn't mean they "did". nt