[THS] Syrian Nukes: the Phantom Menace

[Peter Webster]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19807.htm

Syrian Nukes: the Phantom Menace
The Media Falls for Fake News Once Again

By JOHN W. FARLEY

25/04/08 "Counterpunch" -- -- Last September 6, Israel bombed a Syrian
building at Dair el Zor. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, little
was said in public, by either Israel or Syria, but later the Israelis started
claiming that the Syrians were building a nuclear reactor. On the radio
today (April 25), I heard NPR's Tom Jelton repeat, as if it were undisputed
fact, the US. government claim to have "proof" of a Syrian-North Korean
nuclear connection. Now I see that AP writers Pamela Hess and Deb
Reichmann have a story headlined "White House says Syria 'must come
clean' about nuclear work," while ABC news has a video entitled "Syria's
Nuclear Reactor".

Are the wonderful mainstream media, who gave us Saddam's mythical
Weapons of Mass Destruction, lying to us again? The answer is yes.

Last fall, journalist Laura Rozen spoke with Joseph Cirincione, director of
nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress. Cirincione says
"In attacking Dair el Zor in Syria on Sept. 6, the Israeli air force wasn’t
targeting a nuclear site but rather one of the main arms depots in the
country. Dair el Zor houses a huge underground base where the Syrian
army stores the long and medium-range missiles it mostly buys from Iran
and North Korea. The attack by the Israeli air force coincided with the
arrival of a stock of parts for Syria’s 200 Scud B and 60 Scud C weapons."

Cirincione says that there is a small Syrian nuclear research program, which
has been around for 40 years and is going nowhere. "It is a basic research
program built around a tiny 30 kilowatt reactor that produced a few
isotopes and neutrons. It is nowhere near a program for nuclear weapons
or nuclear fuel," he said. Over a dozen countries have helped Syria develop
its nuclear program, including Belgium, Germany, Russia, China and even
the United States, by way of training of scientists, he said.

So what is really going on here? Cirincione told the BBC that "This appears
to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted
'intelligence' to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political
agenda." The preexisting political agenda may be promoting a war with
Syria and/or Iran, or torpedoing negotiations between the US and North
Korea. Finally, Cirincione adds ominously "If this sounds like the run-up to
the war with Iraq, then it should."

A big salute to the intrepid Justin Raimundo of the Libertarian website
www.antiwar.com, who had this all figured out last October 15. This column
is much indebted to Raimundo and Rozen. For ABC, AP, Tom Jelton and
National Pentagon Radio, it's just another day of journalistic infamy.

John W. Farley writes from Henderson, Nevada.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

US Rebuked Over Syria Nuclear Case

By Al Jazeera and agencies

The head of the UN nuclear monitoring agency has criticised the US for
withholding intelligence information that it says showed the construction of
a nuclear reactor in Syria. Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Friday also hit out at Israel for bombing
the site before inspectors could investigate.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19800.htm

===

US Statement on Alleged Syria Nuclear Links

Full text: US statement

Full text of the White House statement accusing Damascus of accepting
North Korean aid to build a nuclear reactor.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19801.htm

===

Syria Statement on US Nuclear Claim

Full text: Syria Statement

"The government of the Syrian Arab Republic regrets and denounces the
campaign of false allegations that the current United States administration
continually launches against Syria claiming the presence of nuclear activity.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19802.htm

===