A lot of buzz today in the news about the nuclear reactor under construction in Syria that the Israeli military bombed September 6, 2007. Robin Wright from the Washington Post has an informative story:
A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.
The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel’s decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.
Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core’s design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. It shows “remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon,” a U.S. intelligence official said. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video “very, very damning.”
The full article is here.
How this will affect negotiations with Kim Jong-IL and the North Korean government remains to be seen. If the U.S. negotiators have taken the opportunity to watch the 2004 Paramount Pictures film, Team America: World Police, they might just realize that the North Korean dictator is just a little ronery.
UPDATE: New Video
If you are offended by the TV show South Park, then you will not like this and should not watch it.
Peace & solidarity,
CHC
