Syrian Nuke Site Images Claim Scrutinized

Think Tank Says U.N. Using Imagery To Probe Allegations Stemming From Israeli Airstrike

(CBS/AP)  Privately obtained satellite images being scrutinized by the United Nations nuclear agency show what appears to be a nuclear reactor construction site in Syria, and could be the site struck last month by Israeli warplanes, according to a Washington-based security firm.

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said Tuesday it had obtained the same images being used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to check claims made by a senior U.S. official that Syria was constructing a reactor, possibly with the help of North Korea.

Israel's Sept. 6 strike on its Arab neighbor was shrouded for weeks in secrecy before officials would even confirm that warplanes had crossed the border. When they did, they still refused to comment on the target of their strike.

David Albright - a former nuclear inspector who is now a scholar with the ISIS - coauthored the report which found various buildings at the site just east of the Euphrates River in Syria strongly resemble a reactor facility.

"The tall building in the image may house a reactor under construction and the pump station along the river may have been intended to supply cooling water to the reactor," the ISIS report says.

ISIS said trucks could be seen about 100 yards from the buildings, which, "along with evidence of heavy machinery tracks around this site, indicates recent construction activity." The image being referred to was provided by DigitalGlobe, and dated Aug. 10, 2007, less than a month before the Israeli incursion.

The Washington Post, which received a draft of the ISIS findings prior to their publication, reported Wednesday that, "U.S. and international experts and officials familiar with the site, who were shown the photographs yesterday, said there was a strong and credible possibility that they depict the remote compound that was attacked" by Israel.

IAEA analysts have not yet reached any conclusions about the nature of the site, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar, though they do agree that construction activity there is recent and was apparently ongoing.

The site being examined is about 90 miles from Iraq's western border. ISIS reports there is an airstrip about 2 miles north of the site which "would serve as quick transportation of personnel and officials."

Diplomats acknowledged Friday that U.N. experts were analyzing satellite imagery of the Syrian site, disclosing what amounts to the first independent look at claims that Damascus was hiding a nuclear facility.

One of the diplomats linked to the IAEA confirmed that agency experts were looking at commercial images, discounting suggestions from other quarters that they had come from U.S. intelligence.

The first claim by an official that Israel had targeted a suspected nuclear site in Syria was made by former senior U.S. diplomat John Bolton.

Soon after he made the claim public, a State Department nuclear official suggested that North Korea was helping Syria to develop a clandestine nuclear program, saying North Koreans were in the Mideast state and that Syria may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment.

U.S. officials told CBS News in September that the airstrike destroyed a building Israeli intelligence believed housed nuclear equipment, and that it was launched three days after a North Korean ship docked at a Syrian port.

U.S. officials say the arrival of that ship triggered the strike against the building which had been under surveillance by an Israeli satellite sent into orbit last June, reported CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

The Washington Post reported Friday that an anonymous official had indicated similarities between the site seen in the satellite images from Syria and a key nuclear reactor in North Korea.

ISIS says if the site in Syria is a reactor being built to North Korean specifications, it is likely of the same kind as the Yongbyon reactor facility near Pyongyang. ISIS' analysis of the buildings in the images shows similar size and shape to those found at Yongbyon.

"The Syrian building size suggests that the reactor would be in the range of about 20-25 megawatts-thermal, large enough to make about one nuclear weapon's worth of plutonium each year," the think-tank's report concluded.

Syria denies that it has an undeclared nuclear program and North Korea has said it was not involved in any nuclear program in the Mideast nation. Damascus has said the Israelis targeted an empty building, and the agency has said it has no evidence to the contrary.

The diplomats said that Vienna-based Syrian diplomats have met with senior IAEA representatives since the bombing, but have provided no substantive information that would indicate their country had nuclear secrets.

Syria has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and has allowed agency experts to inspect its only known nuclear facility - a small, 27-kilowatt reactor, according to diplomats linked to the IAEA.

[ziparmux]

posting below on wrong page apologies lol :)

[ziparmux]

Posted by rerrorislam3 at 02:07 PM : Oct 26, 2007

Notice I never mentioned religion, and that''s where we have to start, if you let any religious doctrine determine the outcome then it will never work, it''s like a comment I read earlier about Condoleezza Rice, and the statement put out today from US to Iran, basically there''s no talking, do as we say or else period. No room for negotiation. Most important thing in this world is peace and stability, food/shelter/water/healthcare/education for ALL of mankind. None of that can be achieved if we let religious differences get in the way, all religion needs to be set on the back burner as it were and sort out the important things, yes ?

Extremists are a minority, so we let a handful of nutters, affect all of mankind, NO we don''t and should not, can we agree on that ? If so then there''s no reason that anyone from anywhere on this planet can find a way to achieve the most important things first.

[grazinggoat]

Shortly after, the whole field was floodded with water and it went on to cover a big land shaping a lake the Syrians call Hims Lake.
Posted by grazinggoat at 11:41 AM : Oct 26, 2007

Oops: forget about the salt water. Typo and conception error! It was not salty! LOL!

[grazinggoat]

Shoakat is the CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family.

In February 2003, a month before America''''s invasion in Iraq, very few are aware about the efforts to bring the Weapons of Mass Destruction from Iraq to Syria, and the personal involvement of Bashar Assad and his family in the operation.
Posted by AJMarine1 at 09:44 PM : Oct 24, 2007

-AJ, a report by the CIA and Mossad was questioning the sudden surge of salt water in the basement of Bashar Assad''s house (I forgot also the bright M6!). AN inquiry came up with this explanation. Iraqi Chemical Weapons Warheads were stored in the basement of the Syrian president Summer home in Northern Syria. The weapons started leaking since the expiry date was passed a couple of days. The Chemicals mixed with Bioligical matter and formed an extrordinarily corrosive liquid. This mixture melted the ground on which the weapons were stored and continued its way of unprecedented corrosion, reached Earth''s center making its way to the other side of the Planet. The big hole in the basement was soon filled with water form the other side of Earth and started to fill up the basement (the hole was discovered in Erie Lake, East of Peninsula and Erie city, NJ). The flow went on to completely flood Assad''s summer House which was located in the middle of a depressed land field. Shortly after, the whole field was floodded with water and it went on to cover a big land shaping a lake the Syrians call Hims Lake.

[ziparmux]

Bushy_baby is jus reaping the benefits of Ronnie Rayguns halting of shale oil research and developement. We could have thumbed our nose at the ME and cut them out of major profits from oil if that had not happened.

Posted by ToolMangler at 05:01 PM : Oct 24, 2007

There may be another reason for the RR''s halting of shale oil research, if I remember my geography/geology lessons correctly, the largest deposit of oil shale rocks are in Western Europe, perhaps if shale oil had been predominately in the US, and not so much of it here then history may had changed course.

[prinzowhales]

If it was an Israeli airstrike, it was obviously a failure by Zionist standards as no women or children were murdered.

[cbs_oliver]

What the UN should investigate is whether Israel warplanes attacked Syria.

There is no possible justification for this attack.

[jowand]

some armenians was telling me on youtube that turks are responsible wildfires...

Posted by kretos at 09:36 PM : Oct 24, 2007

They probably think Hillary is going to win in 08 too HAHAHA.

[jowand]

AJMarine1,,, jowand ---- Fox News said the California fires was started by Al Queda ------ Watch the hype & your information sources the full spin is on

Posted by j-whitman at 08:46 PM : Oct 24, 2007

You''re nuttier than a fruit cake WHITMAN

[jowand]

This wasn''''t the Syrian nuclear facility, it was a decoy. The reason the Syrians aren''''t shouting from the rafters that the Israelis bombed a "baby milk factory" is because NOW the Israelis believe they succeeded.

If they can keep the inspectors at arm''''s length, then unlike Colin Powell''''s Iraqi chemical weapons plant that was found to be a bakery within the week, these buildings will be a destroyed nuclear facility.

Regards,

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 05:41 AM : Oct 25, 2007

Don''t think it was an asprin factory though, you''re making things up as you go along, Bush hate sydrome.