North Korea helped Syria construct a nuclear reactor that was ”within weeks of completion” when Israel destroyed the facility in September, according to a senior US official.
For months, the White House has maintained a shroud of secrecy around the September 6 Israeli strike on the facility, which Syria codenamed “al-Kibar”. The Central Intelligence Agency will on Thursday brief about 200 members of Congress on the mysterious incident.
The US official told the Financial Times that North Korea started discussing ways to help Syria build a nuclear reactor in 1997. He said US intelligence believed construction work began in 2003.
The presentations to Congress would provide an ”eye popping, comprehensive briefing that will demonstrate how close Syria came to having a nuclear weapons making capability,” the official added.
Unfortunately, many of us aren’t sure what to believe from this White House and ‘senior Administration officials’. Is this a true report? Perhaps. Is it simply one more slanted, cynical ‘report’ made to inflame public opinion to support the neocons’ occupation of Iraq? Perhaps.
Foreign affairs, especially in the Middle East, are far more complex and call for far more nuance than this White House seems capable.
As one who often shares similar scepticism for the same reason, it needs to be remembered that neo-cons aren’t the only channels of information and that nuance is usually missing in press reports.
This broke in the Israeli press April 8. But that report had an interesting angle: at least part of the facility had been transfered from Iraq.