Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 3, 2008
Pg. 6
By William J. Broad
Syria will let nuclear inspectors visit the site of a suspected reactor that Israeli warplanes bombed last September, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday. The visit, to a desolate spot on the Euphrates River some 90 miles north of the Iraqi border, is to take place June 22 to 24.
The atomic agency, the nuclear monitor of the United Nations, had pledged to investigate after American intelligence officials released evidence in late April of what they described as a clandestine nuclear reactor that had been “nearing operational capability” a month before the bombing.
The evidence included a series of close-up photographs of what the Americans claimed was the partly built reactor before its destruction. The Israeli airstrike on Sept. 6 spurred international debate over whether the Syrians were starting a secret program to make nuclear weapons.
Syria has strongly denied the charges. However, it wiped the Euphrates site clean of rubble late last year and erected a new building where the destroyed one had been — a step nuclear experts said would complicate the job of hunting for atomic clues. Some analysts said the rapid cleanup and new construction had been tacit admissions of guilt.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the atomic agency, announced the impending visit at a meeting of the agency’s board in Vienna. “I look forward to Syria’s full cooperation,” he said.
If it proceeds, the inspection will mark the first time an international body has scrutinized the site, which the United States claims was built with years of North Korean aid.
The United States urged Syria on Monday to cooperate fully with the inspectors. “Let’s hope that the Syrian efforts haven’t been too effective in covering up what it is they are trying to cover up,” said a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack.
The press secretary at the Syrian Embassy in Washington declined to comment specifically on the inspection visit, and other Syrian officials also did not comment. But Ahmed Salkini, the press secretary, said in a statement that Syria had always had a good working relationship with the atomic agency “and we intend to keep it that way.”
He added: “This fabricated story by the U.S. administration will deconstruct from within and without. We are working on different fronts, and with different parties, to ensure that this fabrication is exposed to the world, and this administration embarrassed, once again.”
In Vienna, a senior official close to the atomic agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules, said Olli J. Heinonen, the head of the agency’s inspection arm, would lead a team to Syria. Three or four inspectors would be involved, the official said, and would bring equipment meant to check for nuclear activity.
Dr. ElBaradei, in a statement to his agency’s board of governors, noted that Syria “has an obligation to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility to the agency.” He said the inquiry would proceed “to the extent possible at this stage” — a reference, it seemed, to possible challenges stemming from the site’s rehabilitation.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington and a former United Nations weapons inspector, said three days at the site would be sufficient for only a preliminary appraisal by the atomic agency.
“They have to investigate the whole fuel cycle,” he said, a reference to everything from the mining of uranium, to the making of reactor fuel, to the extraction of plutonium from spent fuel that could be used to make an atom bomb. “It’s going to take months.”
At the Euphrates site, Mr. Albright said, the agency’s inspectors should look for evidence like special piping, old foundations and chemical traces of graphite, a basic reactor building material.
“If the Syrians think that a quick visit and some interviews” will clear up the nuclear suspicions, he said, “they’re sadly mistaken.”
The senior official in Vienna said the atomic agency’s inspectors were interested in two or three additional sites that American intelligence agencies had identified as suspicious, but suggested that this first visit would focus exclusively on the supposed reactor site.
The photographs released by the United States, taken inside the site before its destruction, clearly show what appear to be rows of nuclear control rods — one of many similarities to a reactor halfway around the globe where North Korea made fuel for its nuclear arms.
June 3, 2008
Pg. 6
By William J. Broad
Syria will let nuclear inspectors visit the site of a suspected reactor that Israeli warplanes bombed last September, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday. The visit, to a desolate spot on the Euphrates River some 90 miles north of the Iraqi border, is to take place June 22 to 24.
The atomic agency, the nuclear monitor of the United Nations, had pledged to investigate after American intelligence officials released evidence in late April of what they described as a clandestine nuclear reactor that had been “nearing operational capability” a month before the bombing.
The evidence included a series of close-up photographs of what the Americans claimed was the partly built reactor before its destruction. The Israeli airstrike on Sept. 6 spurred international debate over whether the Syrians were starting a secret program to make nuclear weapons.
Syria has strongly denied the charges. However, it wiped the Euphrates site clean of rubble late last year and erected a new building where the destroyed one had been — a step nuclear experts said would complicate the job of hunting for atomic clues. Some analysts said the rapid cleanup and new construction had been tacit admissions of guilt.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the atomic agency, announced the impending visit at a meeting of the agency’s board in Vienna. “I look forward to Syria’s full cooperation,” he said.
If it proceeds, the inspection will mark the first time an international body has scrutinized the site, which the United States claims was built with years of North Korean aid.
The United States urged Syria on Monday to cooperate fully with the inspectors. “Let’s hope that the Syrian efforts haven’t been too effective in covering up what it is they are trying to cover up,” said a State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack.
The press secretary at the Syrian Embassy in Washington declined to comment specifically on the inspection visit, and other Syrian officials also did not comment. But Ahmed Salkini, the press secretary, said in a statement that Syria had always had a good working relationship with the atomic agency “and we intend to keep it that way.”
He added: “This fabricated story by the U.S. administration will deconstruct from within and without. We are working on different fronts, and with different parties, to ensure that this fabrication is exposed to the world, and this administration embarrassed, once again.”
In Vienna, a senior official close to the atomic agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under normal diplomatic rules, said Olli J. Heinonen, the head of the agency’s inspection arm, would lead a team to Syria. Three or four inspectors would be involved, the official said, and would bring equipment meant to check for nuclear activity.
Dr. ElBaradei, in a statement to his agency’s board of governors, noted that Syria “has an obligation to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility to the agency.” He said the inquiry would proceed “to the extent possible at this stage” — a reference, it seemed, to possible challenges stemming from the site’s rehabilitation.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington and a former United Nations weapons inspector, said three days at the site would be sufficient for only a preliminary appraisal by the atomic agency.
“They have to investigate the whole fuel cycle,” he said, a reference to everything from the mining of uranium, to the making of reactor fuel, to the extraction of plutonium from spent fuel that could be used to make an atom bomb. “It’s going to take months.”
At the Euphrates site, Mr. Albright said, the agency’s inspectors should look for evidence like special piping, old foundations and chemical traces of graphite, a basic reactor building material.
“If the Syrians think that a quick visit and some interviews” will clear up the nuclear suspicions, he said, “they’re sadly mistaken.”
The senior official in Vienna said the atomic agency’s inspectors were interested in two or three additional sites that American intelligence agencies had identified as suspicious, but suggested that this first visit would focus exclusively on the supposed reactor site.
The photographs released by the United States, taken inside the site before its destruction, clearly show what appear to be rows of nuclear control rods — one of many similarities to a reactor halfway around the globe where North Korea made fuel for its nuclear arms.