CIA Asserts Israelis Struck North Korean Inspired Plutonium Facility in Syria

CIA officials will tell Congress on Thursday that North Korea had been helping Syria build a plutonium-based nuclear reactor, a U.S. official said, a disclosure that could touch off new resistance to the administration's plan to ease sanctions on Pyongyang.

The CIA officials will tell lawmakers that they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons but was destroyed before it could do so, the U.S. official said, apparently referring to a suspicious installation in Syria that was bombed last year by Israeli warplanes.

The CIA officials also will say that though U.S. officials have had concerns for years about ties between North Korea and Syria, it was not until last year that new intelligence convinced them that the suspicious facility under construction in a remote area of Syria was a nuclear reactor, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing plans for the briefing.

By holding closed, classified briefings for members of several congressional committees, the administration will break a long silence on North Korean-Syrian nuclear cooperation and on what it knows about last year's destruction of the Syrian facility. Nonetheless, it has been widely assumed for months that many in the administration considered the site a nuclear installation.

It was not clear Tuesday how recently North Korea may have been aiding Syria. But disclosure of the relationship to the committees is likely to bring criticism from conservative lawmakers who already believe that U.S. overtures to North Korea have offered the government in Pyongyang too many benefits without assurances that it will disclose the extent of its nuclear arms effort or ultimately surrender its weapons.

No surprises here, and it's been suspected that the Israelis struck something of tremendous importance based on the resounding silence from the Syrians following the raid.

The fact that the Syrians didn't want anyone to know what happened in the September 6, 2007 raid was highly suggestive that they didn't want any attention on what was going on at the area that was bombed. I also suspected that the North Koreans or Iranians didn't want their hand tipped either, and may have leaned on Assad not to squawk because it would lead to repercussions in IAEA investigations into both countries' nuclear programs. It was even more plausible that the North Koreans were involved because the structure looked quite similar to one found in North Korea - sharing technical expertise.

UPDATE:
The CIA's Michael Hayden went much more in depth on what we know about the Syrian facility, and they apparently had the videotape to prove it.

A videotape taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced both the Israeli government and the Bush administration that it was modeled after a North Korean reactor that produced plutonium for nuclear weapons, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers tomorrow.

The videotape of the interior of the site, code named Al Kibar by the Syrians, also showed North Koreans working inside the facility, the officials said. It played a pivotal role in Israel's decision to bomb the facility last September, a move that was publicly denounced by Syria but not by Washington.

Sources familiar with its contents say the video shows the design of the Syrian reactor core is the same as the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical physical configuration and number of holes for the fuel rods. It shows "remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon," said a U.S. intelligence official. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video "very, very damning."

Of course, there are critics both inside the US and the Syrians who are busy throwing up a whole lot of smoke about the evidence to be proffered.

The biggest piece of evidence is that the Syrians didn't scream bloody murder when the Israelis struck the reactor on September 6 and have bulldozed the entire site to prevent anyone from getting a closer look at what could have been there. Their silence over the Israeli attack is quite telling that whatever was hit, it was so sensitive to the Syrian government that they couldn't risk anyone knowing what exactly was hit. Their cover story that it wasn't an important military facility doesn't wash since Israel essentially launched an attack that could rightfully be considered an act of war. Syria didn't even go to the UN.