UN probes US Syria reactor claim; ElBaradei rejects US claims at face value

[seafan]

UN probes US Syria reactor claim

25 April 2008 14:09 UK
BBC

The UN's nuclear watchdog has said it will investigate US claims that Syria was building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korean help.
The International Atomic Energy Agency criticised the US for withholding its intelligence until seven months after Israel bombed the site.

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The director general of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, has now been briefed by the US on their claims but "deplores" the delay, a statement from the agency said.
"The agency will treat this information with the seriousness it deserves and will investigate the veracity of the information," the statement said.

The agency was critical of both the US delay in releasing the information and of Israel's bombing of the site before the IAEA could inspect it.
"The director general views the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the non-proliferation regime," the statement said.
The statement is a clear indication that Mr ElBaradei is not accepting the US claims at face value and wants his own first-hand information, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall.

Syrian officials have said the site that was bombed by Israel on 6 September 2007 was an unused military facility under construction. Building on the site had stopped some time before the air strike, the Syrians said.

On Thursday, American security officials showed members of Congress evidence they said proved Syria was building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance.
Among the evidence they displayed were pictures - said to have been obtained by Israel - allegedly taken inside the facility showing the reactor core being built. ..... In late October 2007, an independent American research organisation, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), released pre- and post-strike satellite images of the site which indicated it had been bulldozed flat after the bombing.

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Syrian officials have denied any North Korean involvement in their country.
"These allegations are ridiculous," Syria's ambassador to the UK, Sami Khiyami, told the BBC.

"We are used to such allegations now, since the day the United States has invaded Iraq - you remember all the theatrical presentations concerning the WMDs in Iraq."

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Oh, the photos of so-called evidence...

We've seen this bad movie before.


George HW Bush claimed in 1990 that he had photos of Saddam's army amassing on Saudi Arabia's border, so attacking Iraq was necessary immediately. It was a lie.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0906/p01s02-wosc.html">In war, some facts less factual

By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
September 6, 2002



12 YEARS AGO: US troops deploy in the Saudi desert Nov. 4, 1990, before the Gulf War. As the US mulls an attack on Iraq, wary experts recall faulty information used to justify past campaigns.
GREG ENGLISH/AP/FILE


MOSCOW – When George H. W. Bush ordered American forces to the Persian Gulf – to reverse Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait – part of the administration case was that an Iraqi juggernaut was also threatening to roll into Saudi Arabia.

Citing top-secret satellite images, Pentagon officials estimated in mid–September that up to 250,000 Iraqi troops and 1,500 tanks stood on the border, threatening the key US oil supplier.

But when the St. Petersburg Times in Florida acquired two commercial Soviet satellite images of the same area, taken at the same time, no Iraqi troops were visible near the Saudi border – just empty desert.

"It was a pretty serious fib," says Jean Heller, the Times journalist who broke the story.

The White House is now making its case. to Congress and the public for another invasion of Iraq; President George W. Bush is expected to present specific evidence of the threat posed by Iraq during a speech to the United Nations next week.

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Shortly before US strikes began in the Gulf War, for example, the St. Petersburg Times asked two experts to examine the satellite images of the Kuwait and Saudi Arabia border area taken in mid-September 1990, a month and a half after the Iraqi invasion. The experts, including a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who specialized in desert warfare, pointed out the US build-up – jet fighters standing wing-tip to wing-tip at Saudi bases – but were surprised to see almost no sign of the Iraqis.

"That was the whole justification for Bush sending troops in there, and it just didn't exist," Ms. Heller says. Three times Heller contacted the office of Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (now vice president) for evidence refuting the Times photos or analysis – offering to hold the story if proven wrong.

The official response: "Trust us." To this day, the Pentagon's photographs of the Iraqi troop buildup remain classified.

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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell waved photos of vehicles and buildings in Iraq, claiming they were proof of Saddam's massive stockpiles of WMD's. It was a lie.











And now it's on to Syria for this administration of war criminals.

There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again. George W. Bush, September 17, 2002

YouTube

Will we be fooled again?



(bold type added)

[L. Coyote]

1. I guess the LIES about Iran were wearing thin. NEW DISTRACTION from Iraq, folks!!

Just more propaganda for internal consumption. Good to see it getting questioned, albeit after it splashes around on the M$M without critical comment.

[slipslidingaway]

2. Thank you K&R n/t

[seafan]

3. AP: Syrian envoy says CIA fabricated evidence

Syrian envoy says CIA fabricated evidence

By PAMELA HESS
April 25, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — Syria's ambassador to the United States said Friday that the CIA fabricated pictures allegedly taken inside a secret Syrian nuclear reactor and predicted that in the coming weeks the U.S. story about the site would "implode from within."
"The photos presented to me yesterday were ludicrous, laughable," Ambassador Imad Moustapha told reporters at his Washington residence.

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Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday they believe it was a secret nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium, which can be used to make high-yield nuclear weapons. They alleged that North Korea aided in the design, construction and outfitting of the building.
Syria bulldozed the building's ruins a month after it was bombed and constructed a new, larger building in its place, leaving little or no evidence of what had been on the site.

Moustapha would not explain the purpose of the new building. But he said the lack of military checkpoints, air defenses or barbed wire fences around either building should show that it was not a sensitive facility.

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But some outside nuclear experts were questioning some of the CIA's analysis, though not disputing its conclusions.

David Albright, president of the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security, analyzed commercial satellite imagery of the bombed facility last fall and surmised then it was a nuclear reactor. He questioned the intelligence agencies' conclusion that the reactor was within months or weeks of completion.

"It's not clear-cut it was ready to turn on," Albright said.

He also took issue with the Bush administration's assertion that the reactor was solely intended to support a nuclear weapons program. Officials said Thursday the reactor was ill-suited for electrical generation — it lacked distribution wires or substations — and did not bear the hallmarks of a research reactor. They concluded the plutonium was therefore meant for weapons but acknowledged they had no direct evidence of that.

Almost all reactors produce plutonium, even those dedicated to peaceful purposes, Albright said.
"Civilian uses are possible and cannot be dismissed out of hand," he said. "I think the CIA and the White House have not shown that the only possibility for this reactor is that it was to make plutonium for nuclear weapons."

"It very well could be true," he said, "but it is far less than ironclad, absent other information."

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One piece of evidence that casts doubt on Syrian intentions to produce plutonium for weapons was the absence of a reprocessing facility, necessary to extract plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.
But Anthony Cordesman, a military expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that may not have been a serious impediment. Syria could quickly build such a reprocessing capability, he said.

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[seafan]

4. Australian Broadcasting Corp: Cheney camp 'behind Syrian reactor claim'

Cheney camp 'behind Syrian reactor claim'

Posted Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:04pm AEST
Updated Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:26pm AEST



'Out to scupper diplomacy': Dick Cheney (File photo) (Getty Images: Win McNamee)

US Government allegations that North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor have been greeted with scepticism because of their timing.
Israeli jets bombed the alleged site in Syria's eastern desert last September.
Today, after months of whispers, the White House publicly claimed that the target of the strike was a nuclear reactor.
It said the reactor was being built with North Korean help and was not intended for peaceful purposes.
US intelligence officials said the reactor had been close to becoming operational when it was destroyed.

But Mike Chinoy, from the Pacific Council on International Policy, says the claim needs to be taken in its political context, as North Korea's denuclearisation reaches a critical stage.

"Everything I'm hearing from my own sources in Washington is that what you have now is a kind of push back by Vice-President Cheney and his office and other hardliners who are opposed to diplomatic dealings with North Korea," he said.

"(They are) hoping that by making public these allegations of nuclear cooperation it will torpedo the diplomatic process."

Earlier White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the US would be continuing its six-country talks with North Korea.