Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ABC; CBS
April 24, 2008 By Jonathan Karl; David Martin
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: We’re going to turn next to what is a major international story. The White House said late today that North Korea helped Syria develop a nuclear weapons program. You may recall a Syrian reactor under construction was bombed by Israel last year, a reactor the White House said was not intended for peaceful purposes.
Our national security correspondent Jonathan Karl is joining us from near the CIA headquarters outside Washington. Jon?
JONATHAN KARL: Charlie, this is a highly unusual release of sensitive intelligence information. It shows not only that Syria was building a nuclear reactor, but that somebody had spies on the ground while it was happening.
The video presentation includes a series of photographs taken at a remote construction site in Eastern Syria. The unidentified narrator compares it to the facility North Korea used to create fuel for its nuclear weapons.
NARRATOR: Note the similar arrangement of vertical tube openings in the top of the Syria reactor on the left and North Korea’s Yongbyon plutonium production reactor on the right.
KARL: And then a snapshot of the head of the North Korea’s nuclear program posing with his Syrian counterpart. The North Korean official Chon Chi-byun (ph) is well known to U.S. officials as one of North Korea’s top nuclear negotiators. U.S. officials believe that as construction neared completion, the Syrians attempted to conceal its designs.
NARRATOR: These photographs show how a light roof and thin curtain walls were added after the main reactor hall was completed.
KARL: Finally, the facility is shown destroyed. U.S. officials say it was demolished by Israeli airstrikes last September. The airstrikes, however, did not end Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation.
Today, officials said a high level North Korean team traveled to Syria after the airstrikes to assess damage. The video leaves unanswered questions: Who took the photographs, and why is the U.S. government releasing this now eight months after the reactor was destroyed?
A senior administration official said today this intelligence was released now to strengthen talks now underway between the U.S. and North Korea about its nuclear program. But senior State Department officials wanted this information to remain secret and feared that their talks with North Korea may now be doomed. As for Syria, their ambassador to the United Nations said today that there was no cooperation between Syria and North Korea and called all of this, quote, “rumors.”
GIBSON: Jonathan Karl, reporting from outside Washington, thanks.
CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
KATIE COURIC: Good evening, everyone. When Israeli warplanes suddenly attacked Syria last September there were a lot of unanswered questions until now. Eight months later, the Bush administration told Congress the target was a nuclear reactor built in partnership with North Korea and destroyed just weeks before it would have been functional. The White House called this a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world.
David Martin has the photographic evidence.
DAVID MARTIN: It’s a mystery how these ground level photos of a top secret site in Syria were obtained, but U.S. intelligence says there’s very little mystery about what they show. Analysts say it looks exactly like the reactor North Korea used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
NARRATOR: Only North Korea has built this type of reactor in the past 35 years.
MARTIN: A videotape produced and narrated by U.S. intelligence lays out the case with more photos of the building under construction.
NARRATOR: This photograph shows the top of the reactor vessel in the reactor hall.
MARTIN: Satellite photos showed construction was all but complete in August, 2007. Before it could be fueled and begin operation, the Israelis bombed it. Subsequent photos show the Syrians cover the holes with tarps to hide what was inside, finished the job of blowing up the reactor vessel and then bulldozed it.
The director of national intelligence and the head of the CIA presented the photos to members of Congress, many of whom were outraged the administration had sat on the evidence for so long.
REP. PETER HOEKSTRA [Ranking Republican, Intelligence Committee]: This could have and should have happened eight months ago.
MARTIN: Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Congress is now unlikely the go along with any agreement the administration makes with North Korea.
U.S. negotiators have been trying hard to close a deal in which North Korea would admit to and give up all its nuclear activities in return for being taken off the list of countries that support terrorism. But at the same time, the administration had all these photos showing North Korea was secretly helping Syria build a reactor that could produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, including this photo. According to U.S. intelligence, that’s the head of Syria’s nuclear agency on the right and on the left, one of the North Koreans who was negotiating with the U.S.
By making these photos public, the U.S. is telling North Korea if you won’t come clean, we’ll come clean for you. Katie?
COURIC: David Martin. David, thank you very much.
April 24, 2008 By Jonathan Karl; David Martin
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: We’re going to turn next to what is a major international story. The White House said late today that North Korea helped Syria develop a nuclear weapons program. You may recall a Syrian reactor under construction was bombed by Israel last year, a reactor the White House said was not intended for peaceful purposes.
Our national security correspondent Jonathan Karl is joining us from near the CIA headquarters outside Washington. Jon?
JONATHAN KARL: Charlie, this is a highly unusual release of sensitive intelligence information. It shows not only that Syria was building a nuclear reactor, but that somebody had spies on the ground while it was happening.
The video presentation includes a series of photographs taken at a remote construction site in Eastern Syria. The unidentified narrator compares it to the facility North Korea used to create fuel for its nuclear weapons.
NARRATOR: Note the similar arrangement of vertical tube openings in the top of the Syria reactor on the left and North Korea’s Yongbyon plutonium production reactor on the right.
KARL: And then a snapshot of the head of the North Korea’s nuclear program posing with his Syrian counterpart. The North Korean official Chon Chi-byun (ph) is well known to U.S. officials as one of North Korea’s top nuclear negotiators. U.S. officials believe that as construction neared completion, the Syrians attempted to conceal its designs.
NARRATOR: These photographs show how a light roof and thin curtain walls were added after the main reactor hall was completed.
KARL: Finally, the facility is shown destroyed. U.S. officials say it was demolished by Israeli airstrikes last September. The airstrikes, however, did not end Syrian-North Korean nuclear cooperation.
Today, officials said a high level North Korean team traveled to Syria after the airstrikes to assess damage. The video leaves unanswered questions: Who took the photographs, and why is the U.S. government releasing this now eight months after the reactor was destroyed?
A senior administration official said today this intelligence was released now to strengthen talks now underway between the U.S. and North Korea about its nuclear program. But senior State Department officials wanted this information to remain secret and feared that their talks with North Korea may now be doomed. As for Syria, their ambassador to the United Nations said today that there was no cooperation between Syria and North Korea and called all of this, quote, “rumors.”
GIBSON: Jonathan Karl, reporting from outside Washington, thanks.
CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
KATIE COURIC: Good evening, everyone. When Israeli warplanes suddenly attacked Syria last September there were a lot of unanswered questions until now. Eight months later, the Bush administration told Congress the target was a nuclear reactor built in partnership with North Korea and destroyed just weeks before it would have been functional. The White House called this a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the region and the world.
David Martin has the photographic evidence.
DAVID MARTIN: It’s a mystery how these ground level photos of a top secret site in Syria were obtained, but U.S. intelligence says there’s very little mystery about what they show. Analysts say it looks exactly like the reactor North Korea used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
NARRATOR: Only North Korea has built this type of reactor in the past 35 years.
MARTIN: A videotape produced and narrated by U.S. intelligence lays out the case with more photos of the building under construction.
NARRATOR: This photograph shows the top of the reactor vessel in the reactor hall.
MARTIN: Satellite photos showed construction was all but complete in August, 2007. Before it could be fueled and begin operation, the Israelis bombed it. Subsequent photos show the Syrians cover the holes with tarps to hide what was inside, finished the job of blowing up the reactor vessel and then bulldozed it.
The director of national intelligence and the head of the CIA presented the photos to members of Congress, many of whom were outraged the administration had sat on the evidence for so long.
REP. PETER HOEKSTRA [Ranking Republican, Intelligence Committee]: This could have and should have happened eight months ago.
MARTIN: Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Congress is now unlikely the go along with any agreement the administration makes with North Korea.
U.S. negotiators have been trying hard to close a deal in which North Korea would admit to and give up all its nuclear activities in return for being taken off the list of countries that support terrorism. But at the same time, the administration had all these photos showing North Korea was secretly helping Syria build a reactor that could produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, including this photo. According to U.S. intelligence, that’s the head of Syria’s nuclear agency on the right and on the left, one of the North Koreans who was negotiating with the U.S.
By making these photos public, the U.S. is telling North Korea if you won’t come clean, we’ll come clean for you. Katie?
COURIC: David Martin. David, thank you very much.