IAEA Chief: Syria Tried To Build Nuclear Reactor

[bananas]

Source: Associated Press

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said for the first time that a target destroyed by Israeli warplanes in the Syrian desert in 2007 was the covert site of a future nuclear reactor, countering assertions by Syria that it had no atomic secrets.

Previous reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency have suggested that the structure could have been a nuclear reactor. Thursday's comments by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano were the first time the agency has said so unequivocally.

By aligning Amano with the U.S., which first asserted three years ago that the bombed target was a nuclear reactor, the comments could increase pressure on Syria to stop stonewalling agency requests for more information on its nuclear activities.

<snip>

"The facility that was ... destroyed by Israel was a nuclear reactor under construction," he told a full news conference in response to a question from The Associated Press, repeating to the AP in taped comments afterward: "It was a reactor under construction."

<snip>

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=135804501

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Out of curiousity, what right does Israel have to bomb another nation

without provocation?

I mean, that was an act of war, right? Reactor or not?

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[bananas]

3. That's why Syria bulldozed the site right away.

They wanted to hide any evidence that they had been bombed.
There's no longer any proof that Israel bombed them.

[hack89]

4. Couple of reasons.

First, Syria and Israel are technically at war right now - both sides are still trying to negotiate a peace treaty.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/05/syria-israel-peace

So in that context, we have Syria working with a rouge nation (North Korea) known for missile and nuclear proliferation to secretly build a nuclear reactor of the type use to fuel a nuclear weapons program. It is not unreasonable to expect Israel to consider that a provocation.

[Name removed]

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[plumbob]

5. Were they also throwing babies out of incubators?

Got WMDs?

Just checkin'

[Prometheus Bound]

7. I watched the whole presentation on my local TV, and there's something missing here.

He had great difficulty making himself understood in English. I was very surprised to hear him say that it was a reactor, but then I was even more surprised to hear him contradict himself in the following sentence, saying something like we're not sure and have to do further investigation.

So all the Israeli newspapers, the NY Times and NPR jumped on his first sentence and ignored the following contradiction, not mentioning to readers that the man's English was so poor that he may have had no idea what he actually said.