The Syria-North Korea Nuclear Connection

THE SYRIA-NORTH KOREA NUCLEAR CONNECTION....I don't know how closely you've all been following the story of the Iraqi air strike in Syria a couple of weeks ago, but in one of the initial accounts of the raid the New York Times slipped in a suggestion that it was actually aimed at a nuclear installation that had been imported from North Korea. It was kind of weird because this allegation popped up casually in about the seventh paragraph of the story and then popped back out without a trace.

Since then the nuclear story has continued to putter along in the background, but most observers have discounted it. The consensus seemed to be that it was just some garden variety saber rattling, maybe from Cheney's shop, and in fact the raid was actually a test of Syrian air defenses or perhaps a dry run for attacking Iran. Or a raid against a Hezbollah weapons dump. Or something.

Well, maybe so. But today the Washington Post has a long front-page story that puts the nuclear scenario front and center again. The whole thing is still murky, since everyone seems to agree that it doesn't really make sense, but it's now pretty hard to ignore. Either someone is dead serious about planting some disinformation about a Syria-North Korea nuclear connection in the press, or else there really is such a connection. I don't know what to think about it myself, but it's now officially a story to follow.