Source: Some in U.S. Think Syria Has Atomic Centrifuges

[maddezmom]

May 5 — By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - Some members of the Bush administration believe Syria has centrifuges that can purify uranium for use in bombs, though the intelligence community is divided on the issue, diplomats and experts told Reuters.

Last week, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton said Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani scientist who sold nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea, had "several other" customers who may want the bomb. Western diplomats in Vienna said Bolton was clearly referring to Syria.

One atomic energy expert, who follows nuclear intelligence closely, said Bolton leads a faction in President Bush's administration that believes they have strong evidence Syria is operating uranium-enrichment centrifuges.

But a U.S. official, who asked not to be named, warned the intelligence on Syria had not dispelled all doubts.

~snip~
more: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040505_164.html


Here we go... :(

[aquart]

1. Obviously, we must invade. December good for you?

[FreakinDJ]

13. I really think this may be the October Surprise

"We had to invade it was a matter of National Security"

sound familiar

[radwriter0555]

18. No no no, this is already scheduled for JULY... we can save December for

Iran though, will that work for you?

[hatrack]

2. Let me guess - they got this from Ahmed Chalabi, perhaps?

After all, the other "intelligence" he's been providing is so solid that we have no choice but to strike now, before the threat becomes "imminent".

:puke:

[ozymandius]

8. I thought the same.

It has to be Bolton, based upon the liquored-up testimony of some Syrian ex-pat.

[Just Me]

3. Oh, please. "They" don't think,...they make shit up!!!

Surely we have learned that.

[yellowcanine]

4. Here we go again...fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice........

"and I'll never be fooled again" - no wait that's "shame on me" - ack! I was channeled by Smirky Bush!

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. i bet

Syria's got a potato and two AAA batteries, the way our intelligence services work nowadays.

[sniffa]

6. don't forget cuba and iran

they got wmd's that can hit our cities in 10 minutes.

[mzmolly]

7. Here we go again indeed, but don't forget to vote Nader in 04!!!

:eyes:

[FreakinDJ]

20. No I think the Vote for Nader fits under CIA Black Ops read this

In the 1970s, Idaho Senator Frank Church's investigatory committee established that the CIA also engaged in so-called "benign" operations including rigging elections. The agency used the term "demonstration elections" - elections that are superficially democratic but the results manipulated by the CIA.

The Company did everything from stuffing ballot boxes, creating political parties, merging smaller political parties into large coalitions as in Uno in Nicaragua

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0309/S00046.htm

Hummmmm......................

[mzmolly]

22. Hummmmmmmmm....

is right.

[Minstrel Boy]

9. "Yee haw! Gonna kick us some Syrian ass!"

Coming this Fall: a new front on the War on Terra. Overextended military, you say? No problem. This is going to be a joint US-Israeli venture.


On Friday, the White House said that implementation of sanctions was imminent, based on Syria's ties to terrorists; tacit support for insurgents in Iraq; and efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040504/pl_afp/us_syria_sanctions_040504200259

Lots of buzz about Syria.

I have a friend from my Army days who's still serving. He's currently in Landstuhl Germany. They're currently undergoing a lot of heavy prep work and the rumors are that it's in advance of a near future invasion of Syria.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1450929

he saw a huge train hauling freshly painted desert-sand heavy armament on it's way to Fort Hood from Stewart and Stevenson (near Houston). Said it was armored personnel carriers and 109-A2's (self-propelled Howitzers). He's thinking Syria is next.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1448892

The United States has been fighting what officials term a silent war with Syria which killed at least five soldiers over the weekend.

U.S. officials said U.S. Marines have deployed along the Syrian border to stop the flow of insurgents and equipment to Iraq. They said Marines have engaged with both Sunni insurgents as well as some Syrian security personnel along the border in clashes that have intensified over the last few weeks.
http://216.26.163.62/2004/ss_syria_04_19.html

"Cambodia is to 1970 as Syria is to 2005"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1451333

But for all the sabre rattling, and despite the administration's recklessness, there's disbelief that the US could be so foolhardy. Where, for example, could the extra troops come from?

Well, how about Israel?

Israeli Army Radio reported that a cabinet minister, Gideon Ezra, told Sunday's meeting the next target would be Hamas's main leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, who lives in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

"The fate of Khaled Meshaal is the fate of Rantissi," Mr Ezra told the meeting. "The minute we have the operational opportunity we will do this."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/19/1082357118446.html

And how would Syria regard such an act?

Syrian President Bashar al-Asad has warned Israel that Damascus would consider any attempt to assassinate Syria-based leaders of Palestinian groups as aggression against Syria.

Targeting leaders of anti-Israel Palestinian groups in Syria would be "an aggression that will be handled as an aggression," al-Asad said in an interview with Aljazeera aired on Saturday.

Israeli officials have vowed to kill officials of guerrilla groups responsible for "terror acts", one of the most prominent of whom is Khalid Mashaal, the political leader of the Islamist resistance group Hamas, who lives in Syria.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/40209C3C-3CC6-4B25-9792-F55741DF41E7.htm

A Syrian parliamentarian has expressed his rejection of the American repeated demands for his country to dispatch forces to guard its border with Iraq in order to prevent the sneaking of what Washington call foreign fighters, noting that Damascus will not isolate its borders with Israel in order to help the American forces in Iraq.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040421/2004042116.html

Just last year, the sight of US and Israeli troops conducting a joint action upon an Arab country would have been inconceivable. But is anything inconceivable now? Bush and Sharon have torn up the road map. There's not even the pretense anymore that the Bush White House cares about the "Arab street," other than that it be brought to heel.

Remember geography - Syria is surrounded - and remember what's at stake this Fall, and what a war "bounce" could mean. (Even if it just shocks and awes a terrorized electorate into snapping a salute to the Commander in Chief.)

[mouse7]

10. There's aluminum in Syria!

They can melt down aluminum foil and make aluminum tubes with it.

[htuttle]

11. Some in US think the planet is only 4,000 years old, too...

Crazy Americans.

:shrug:

[daleo]

25. I thought it was 7000?

I thought Ussher said 4004 B.C. - it shouldn't matter, but the extra 3000 years could stave off the rapture for a while, and give us geological sinners a bit of breathing room.

[PurityOfEssence]

12. Must destroy Syria. Must do everything to help Israel.

We've found neuronium in a taxi in Turkey. They've got poundcake. Some of their missiles exude ranginess. Their apiaries have drones. Some of their mustards are gaseous. They're known to harbor territorialists. They hate us for our libertines. They suppress women in ways of which we don't approve. This has to end!

[LizW]

14. (giggle) You speak Rumsfeldian

very well. :D

Unnamed diplomats say that Bolton says that Khan says that there MAY be centrifuges in Syria. That's almost better than Saddam desiring weapons of mass destruction-related program plans.

These people need a slap upside the head.

[tabasco]

15. OH MY GOD! The Smoking Gun Will Be A Mushroom Cloud!

Please President Bush - invade now to keep us safe! </freeper imitation>

[RogueTrooper]

16. would these be the same people who thought

saddam had weapons of mass destruction?

[keithyboy]

17. Please note that Israel has started the Syrian war for us.

The news is reporting that Isreali jets have bombed Lebanon site BECAUSE they fired on Israeli jets....you know, the jets that were invading their air space. Here we go again!

[David__77]

19. Syria would not be the same as Iraq, that's for sure.

They better be careful where they wage their wars. Invading Syria would create a pan-Arab theater of war.

[Just Me]

23. PNACers want a "pan-Arab theater of war",...

,...that's why they (the PNACers) really scare the crap out of me.

:scared:

[mzmolly]

24. That's what they want. Armageddon. Bush feels it's his *calling* to

bring the apocolypse. :scared: yet?

[TruthIsAll]

21. This must be true. Bush was right on Iraq WMD.

It turned out Saddam had uranium, bio and chem weapons. They found them and Colin Powell reported the truth at the U.N.

It is on the public record. I believe Bush.

How much do you want for that bridge?

[JohnOneillsMemory]

26. The Crusades continue. There really is nuclear proliferation, though.

The really dangerous thing is that we can't trust the neocons not to keep crying wolf even when we know there really are wolves.

I'm in the middle of Richard Clarke's book and I recommend it to everyone. He doesn't tell all. After all, he spent decades playing for the red-white-and-blue team against the world.

But he details the way that we've been almost at war with Iran and Hezbollah for 30 years. Everything happening in the middle east is in the context of this modern attempt by the world's largest arsenal to reach for the world's largest fuel supply and being resisted by religious and cultural alliances.