LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS
BULLETIN
April 29/08
Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to
Saint John 15,26-27.16,1-4. When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from
the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify
to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. I
have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the
synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think
he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known
either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you
may remember that I told you. "I did not tell you this from the beginning,
because I was with you.
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Syria's nuke facility was nearly completed when Israel bombed it. Washington
Times 28/04/08
Intelligence on Syria delayed to avoid fight.
Washington Times 28/04/08
The
neoconning of a nation. By ERIC MARGOLIS.Edmonton Sun 28/04/08
Latest
News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 28/08
US Lawmakers Criticize Bush Administration Over Intelligence on Syria-Voice
of America
Israel: UNIFIL is concealing information about Hezbollah-Ha'aretz
Jumblatt slams Hizbullah after detention of French lawmaker-Ynetnews
North Koreans May Have Died in Israel Attack on Syria, NHK Says-Bloomberg
Deputy PM heads to US, says ball in Syria's court-Ynetnews
Report: Hizbullah beefs up forces-Jerusalem Post
French Delegate says
Armed Men Linked to Hizbullah Detained him in Beirut-Naharnet
Gun Prices Shoot Up in
Lebanon after Fears of War-Naharnet
French Socialist Questioned by Armed Men-Naharnet
French Socialist official says he was detained by Hezbollah.International
Herald Tribune
March 14 in Favor of Dialogue with Opposition-Naharnet
Hariri for Dialogue
which Produces President-Naharnet
French Socialist
Questioned by Armed Men-Naharnet
Official: Peace with Syria in Israel's interests-Ynetnews
PM hints at IAF strike in Syria, says Israelis know gov't can ...Ha'aretz
Hezbollah said to be bolstering forces, readying for war with Israel-Ha'aretz
Israel ‘Okayed’ Turkey’s Syria Initiative-The Media Line
Assad Not Worried about
Hariri Tribunal-Naharnet
March 14 in Favor of Dialogue with Opposition
Former President Amin Gemayel said the ruling March 14 alliance is in favor of
dialogue with the Hizbullah-led opposition provided that round table talks would
lead to the election of a President. "We agreed that we all want dialogue,
provided that this dialogue is effective and lead to the election of a president
for the republic," Gemayel said in remarks published by the daily An Nahar on
Sunday. His comments came after talks with MP Saad Hariri in Bikfaya late
Saturday.
"We don't want dialogue about issues like the shape up of a new government
structure," Gemayel added. "MP (Walid) Jumblat, just like us, we are not going
to enter into dialogue blindfolded," Gemayel said. "He (Jumblat) too wants
guarantees." Asked if he expected dialogue anytime soon, Gemayel said: "It seems
that things have not yet matured, and the opposition has not yet received a
green light from abroad to settle issues."Before meeting Gemayel, Hariri met
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab. His meeting with Geagea followed
talks with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in Bkirki on Saturday. Hariri said
he was "optimistic concerning the election of a president on May 13. Hariri also
said he was in favor of a dialogue with the opposition."No one is against
dialogue," Hariri said in response to a question on whether he supports Berri's
call for dialogue. "But if this dialogue is to take place, a president should be
elected regardless of the outcome," Hariri stressed. "If we participate in a
dialogue it will be to elect a president," he stressed. Druze leader Walid
Jumblat had said that dialogue was the only solution to Lebanon's political
crisis. Lebanon is facing its worst political crisis since the end of its
1975-1990 civil war, with the feuding factions unable to agree on a compromise
to elect a replacement to pro-Syrian former president Emile Lahoud, who stepped
down in November at the end of his mandate. March 14 and the opposition remain
at loggerheads despite efforts by the Arab League and international mediators to
solve the crisis. Beirut, 27 Apr 08, 08:19
French Socialist Questioned by Armed Men
A French delegate to a Socialist International meeting in Beirut
was stopped and questioned by armed men in a Hizbullah-dominated area of the
Lebanese capital late Saturday before being freed, Progressive Socialist Party
member Wael Abou Faour said. Delegate Karim Pakzad was on the airport road when
a motorcyclist followed by a four wheel-drive car carrying armed men stopped him
and interrogated him, Abou Faour told Agence France Presse. The delegate,
touring the capital in an open-top car, was at the time taking pictures of
posters showing Hizbullah "martyrs" who died in combat, he said. The road
leading to the airport is in a zone dominated by Hizbullah. Walid Jumblat, PSP
chief and one of the leaders of the anti-Syrian majority, was to hold a press
conference early Sunday to explain the circumstances surrounding the incident,
Abou Faour said.(AFP) Beirut, 27 Apr 08, 05:52
Hariri for Dialogue which Produces President
MP Saad Hariri on Saturday said he supports Speaker Nabih Berri's call for
all-party talks, but stressed that Lebanon should have a President regardless of
the outcome of the dialogue. Hariri, said he was "optimistic" concerning the
election of a president on May 13. "It is time to sit together as Lebanese and
elect Gen. Michel Suleiman (president) immediately," Hariri told reporters after
meeting Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea at his mansion in Maarab. "No one is
against dialogue," Hariri said in response to a question on whether he supports
Berri's call for dialogue. "But if this dialogue is to take place, a president
should be elected regardless of the outcome," Hariri stressed. "If we
participate in a dialogue it will be to elect a president," he concluded. Before
meeting Geagea, Hariri held separate talks with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah
Sfeir in Bkirki. Beirut, 26 Apr 08, 20:09
Assad Not Worried about Hariri Tribunal
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he is not worried about the
international tribunal to try suspects in the killing of former Premier Rafik
Hariri.
"We are neither concerned nor worried about the tribunal," Assad said in an
interview published by Qatar's Al Watan daily on Sunday. Assad denied any deal
over the Hariri tribunal. On the assassination of top Hizbullah commander Imad
Mughniyeh, Assad said that the "investigation is still underway and could take
some time." Assad, however, assured that no Arab country is involved in
Mughniyeh's murder. Assad announced that he will visit Riyadh and Cairo soon in
his capacity as president of the Arab League, adding that there is "no dispute"
between Syria and the pro-U.S. camp – Saudi Arabia and Egypt. "It's a mere
misunderstanding," Assad said. Beirut, 27 Apr 08, 10:25
The neoconning of a nation
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Edmonton Sun/ PARIS -- U.S. intelligence released a dramatic
video last Thursday, supposedly taken by an Israeli spy, that purportedly showed
North Korean technicians helping build a nuclear reactor in Syria. The reactor
was destroyed seven months ago by Israeli warplanes. Until now Israel and the
U.S. have remained silent about the attack. Syria claimed a warehouse was hit,
but curiously said nothing more about what was an act of war. Washington offered
no proof the reactor, if it was one, would have produced weapons rather than
electric power. U.S. and Israeli intelligence have long stated Syria had no
nuclear weapons capabilities. Vice-President Dick Cheney and fellow neocons
forced the CIA to release the James Bondish video in an effort to sabotage an
impending six-nation agreement to end North Korea's nuclear program. They
bitterly oppose the deal for being too soft on Pyongyang. Neocons long have
worried the possibility of North Korea selling nuclear technology to Arab states
posed a potential threat to Israel. This mysterious imbroglio also is being used
by Israel's rightwing Likud Party, a close ally of U.S. neocons, to attack
political rival Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Kadima Party.
Back-channel talks
Olmert has been involved in Turkish-brokered, back-channel peace talks with
Syria for years. Likud and its U.S. allies are determined to sabotage any deal
with Damascus that would return the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered in the
1967 war, to Syria. The Likudniks also sought to derail efforts by former U.S.
president Jimmy Carter to encourage the Israeli-Syrian talks, and get Israel and
the militant Palestinian movement, Hamas, to talk.
Under the purported deal, Israel would return the Golan Heights in exchange for
Damascus' agreement to sever its close links with Iran, Lebanon's Hezbollah, and
Hamas. Syria also would grant Israel important water rights. The fate of up to
250,000 Syrian inhabitants driven from Golan remains uncertain.
Israel, backed by the Bush administration, certainly has been using the carrot
of a return of Golan to entice Syria away from Iran. But there is also a big
stick: Ever-stronger threats of a U.S.-Israeli attack on Syria. Israel's
September attack on Syria was a clear warning.
Cheney and fellow militarists are pushing hard for attacks on Syria, Lebanon and
Iran before President George W. Bush leaves office. Neocons have flocked to Sen.
John McCain's banner -- in spite of Hillary Clinton's vow to "obliterate" Iran
if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. They believe U.S. attacks on Arab
states and/or Iran would prove decisive in winning the presidency for McCain
this November. A U.S. attack on Syria could well be the first step of a broader
air war against Lebanon and Iran.
Syrian reactor
Meanwhile, Cheney and allies in Congress and the media are also using the Syrian
reactor hubbub to undermine efforts by the U.S. state department, a primary hate
object for neocons, to implement the nuclear weapons freeze with North Korea.
State department boss Condoleezza Rice has run for cover, leaving her chief
negotiator with North Korea to twist in the wind.
As the latest furor builds over the nefarious North Korean, we should remember
that this scare story comes from the same Washington fib factory that
manufactured all the alarms and "evidence" about Saddam Hussein's non-existent
weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaida.
North Koreans are pretty scary, but their nuclear capabilities and the threat
they supposedly pose have been exaggerated. South Korea and European
intelligence agencies, for example, are cautious about Washington's claims about
North Korea and Syria.
The New York Times revealed last week what this column has long said: The
Pentagon has duped Americans and Canadians by organizing a bunch of retired U.S.
generals -- mislabelled "independent military experts" -- to shill for the Iraq
and Afghanistan wars. Watch these rent-a-generals again prostitute themselves on
TV by promoting the administration's party line about the great Syrian nuclear
menace.
Israel ‘Okayed’ Turkey’s Syria Initiative
Written by Rachelle Kliger
Published Sunday, April 27, 2008
A Turkish initiative to lay the groundwork for negotiations between Israel and
Syria was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, officials in Jerusalem
told Israel’s Army Radio. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with
Syrian president Bashar Al-Asad in Damascus on Saturday and presented a plan to
restart negotiations between Syria and Israel. According to the Turkish plan,
senior officials from Israel and Syria will meet and lay the groundwork for
negotiations. In the next stage Olmert will meet with Al-Asad and discuss the
main issues at stake.
Erdogan said Israel and Syria asked Turkey to mediate as it has good relations
with both countries. Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said it was “not
commenting” on the matter. Following the meeting between the Turkish and Syrian
leaders, Al-Asad said Syria was ready to cooperate with Turkey “in any effort
that brings security and stability to the region.”Ahmad Munir Muhammad, a member
of the Syrian parliament’s National Security Committee, said Syria was fully
prepared to forge a peace deal with Israel on condition that United Nations
resolutions were implemented. These conditions would include giving back the
entire Golan Heights, he told The Media Line. Whether a peace deal can be forged
within the next year depends on Israel and the United States, Munir said. If the
U.S. continues to support Israel and be an obstacle to peace, there will be no
peace, he said.
Prof. Eyal Zisser, an expert on Syria from Tel Aviv University, said the latest
initiative is “more than just a rumor mill.” However, he stressed contacts were
still in the very initial stages and it was uncertain whether this initiative
would yield any results. “This is an Israeli attempt to feel things out and see
whether there are conditions for renewing negotiations with the Syrians and
willingness to feel things out from the Syrian side,” Zisser said. The U.S.,
Zisser said, would have to be included in this process because Turkey could not
handle this alone. “Turkey can play the part of passing messages between the
parties and mitigating the hostility, because Turkey has good relations with
both countries,” he said. However, a backing from Washington was imperative to
handle issues such as compensation for Israelis who might be evacuated from the
Golan, or pressuring either side into making concessions.
The Turkish plan coincides with rumors in the Israeli media that Olmert has
agreed to give the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for a peace deal between
the two countries. The Golan is a plateau on the border of Israel, Lebanon and
Syria spanning an area that fits more than twice into Rhode Island. Israel
captured the Golan from the Syrians in 1967 and soon thereafter sent Israelis to
populate the area. The Golan is an important asset for Israel because of its
natural and strategic benefits, particularly in water resources and security. It
is currently home to an estimated 35,000 people, half of whom are Druze. Israel
annexed the Golan Heights in 1981. The United Nations views the Golan as land
occupied by Israel. Negotiations between Israel and Syria over the fate of the
Golan Heights collapsed in 2000.
Meanwhile, Syria is denying allegations that it has been striving to build a
secret nuclear program with North Korean help. A CIA briefing to the United
States Congress last Thursday said Syria was building a nuclear facility, but
that the facility was severely damaged in an aerial strike that took place in
September 2007. It is widely believed Israel carried out the attack, although
Jerusalem has not explicitly confirmed this.
Israel is worried that the briefing detailed intelligence information that could
expose Israel’s intelligence sources in Syria.
Copyright © 2008 The Media Line. All Rights Reserved.
Syria president denies building nuclear reactor
DOHA (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied in remarks
published on Sunday that a site raided by Israel last year was a nuclear reactor
under construction as charged by the United States. Last September's Israeli air
strike "hit a military site under construction, not a nuclear site as Israel and
America claimed," Assad told the Qatari daily Al-Watan in an interview. "Does it
make sense that we would build a nuclear facility in the desert and not protect
it with anti-aircraft defences?" he asked. "A nuclear site exposed to (spy)
satellites, in the heart of Syria and in an open space?
"We don't want a nuclear bomb even if Iran acquires one," added Assad, whose
country is a close ally of Tehran, itself embroiled in a standoff with
Washington over its nuclear activities. "Where would we use it?... War in the
region will effectively remain conventional," he said.
Assad underlined that he believed Iran "does not think differently" on this
score. Iran has repeatedly rejected Western suspicions that its nuclear
programme is cover for a drive to develop an atomic bomb. It says nuclear
weapons are un-Islamic and insists the programme is aimed solely at generating
power for a growing population once fossil fuels run out. The United States has
accused Syria of building a secret atomic reactor with North Korean help.
On Thursday, US national security officials briefed US congressmen, presenting
intelligence they said showed Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor
for military ends. They said the plant was being built with the help of North
Korea, until its destruction by Israel in an air raid on September 6.
The International Atomic Energy Agency launched an investigation into the US
accusations on Friday but chided both Israel and the United States for their
handling of the affair. Syria promised its full cooperation.
Official: Peace with Syria in Israel's interests
Roni Sofer
Published: 04.27.08,/ Israel News
"Peace with Syria is in Israel's interests, on the condition that Damascus is
cut off from the axis of evil," a senior Israeli official said Sunday, following
reports on Turkish mediators' plans to bring Israeli and Syrian representatives
together in an effort to advance the peace process.
However, the official stressed that negotiations could take time and required
patience, and that while the Turkish channel between Israel and Syria did exist,
expectations regarding the issue should be kept realistic. "If Syria breaks away
from the axis of evil, if the transfer of arms to Hizbullah is halted and if
Jihad and Hamas bases are removed from Damascus – this will constitute progress,
and not all this talk and decelerations," he stated.
According to the official, "If Israel will be required to pay the price in
question, namely ceding the Golan Heights, without getting anything in return –
then we have gained nothing." Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Office refused to
comment on reports from Ankara that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Chief of Staff
Yoram Turbowicz relayed a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
several weeks ago which conveyed Israel's willingness to relinquish the Golan.
Erdogan met with Syrian President Bashar Assad to discuss the renewal of talks
between Damascus and Jerusalem. "Syria is willing to continue cooperating with
Turkey in any way that will lend security and stability to the region," Assad
said ahead of the meeting.
Intelligence on Syria delayed to avoid fight
By Bill Gertz and Sara A. Carter
April 25, 2008
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden breaks the administration's silence on Syria's
nuclear activity in closed-door sessions.
The U.S. delayed disclosing its intelligence on Syria's nuclear program for
months after an Israeli raid in order to give Damascus breathing room and avoid
goading it into military retaliation, senior U.S. intelligence officials said
yesterday.
The secret intelligence had remained under wraps for seven months, a gap that
led top congressmen to criticize the Bush administration yesterday for its "veil
of secrecy" and lack of trust in Congress regarding North Korea's proliferation
activities.
"Our first concern was to prevent conflict and broader confrontation in the
Middle East," said one of the top senior intelligence officials, who held a
briefing with reporters late yesterday afternoon.
TWT Video: Intelligence briefing on Syrian nuclear facility
The official said if information regarding the details behind Israel's strike on
Syria's Al Kibar facility on Sept. 6 had been released to the public earlier,
"Syria would feel great pressure to retaliate" against Israel but added that "as
time has passed, that assessment has receded."
Intelligence officials also said that mounting evidence collected over the past
10 years revealed that North Korea and Syria had begun nuclear cooperation as
early as 1997, during the prior Syrian administration led by Syrian President
Hafez al-Assad.
But the officials emphasized that while evidence of a mature Syrian
nuclear-weapons program existed, it was "in short supply."
One official compared the strength of evidence to the difference between a
clinical diagnosis and "a powerful chain of logic," particularly emphasizing
that the Syrian facility had no means of generating civilian electricity, but
only "had a single purpose: to produce plutonium."
The officials denied, however, that Washington had neither any direct
involvement in the Israeli strike nor an approval veto over it.
"Israel made its own decision to take action without a green light from us,"
said another top intelligence official.
A video made by U.S. intelligence officials, which included photographs of the
nuclear reactor before and after it was destroyed, as well as photographic
evidence of a top North Korean nuclear official visiting with Syria's top
nuclear expert, was given to reporters invited to the briefing.
The video was also shown to 22 top congressional representatives who were
briefed yesterday.
The photo shows Chon Chibu, who oversees North Korea's Yongbyon reactor-fuel
plant and has participated in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear
program, meeting in Syria with Ibrahim Othman, the head of Syria's Atomic Energy
Commission.
Officials said the disclosure of the intelligence is designed to force Syria to
admit to the secret nuclear-arms program, which was evading International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) controls. The disclosure also seeks to pressure North Korea
to abide by the six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament under which Pyongyang
agreed to disclose all details of its nuclear activities, including its
assistance to other nations, U.S. officials said.
Administration officials told The Washington Times on Wednesday that the plant
in northern Syria, which would have produced plutonium, was nearly complete when
it was bombed by Israeli warplanes.
A top U.S. intelligence official elaborated yesterday that while the facility
was "nearing completion," it had not been loaded with uranium fuel.
Syria undertook extensive efforts to hide from spy satellites the nuclear
reactor and then also tried to hide the bombed facility after it was destroyed
by the Israelis, U.S. officials said yesterday.
"We are convinced, based on a variety of information that North Korea assisted
Syria's covert nuclear activities, both before and after the reactor was
destroyed," U.S. intelligence officials said.
The Syrian reactor was identical in design to a reactor built by North Korea at
its Yongbyon facility, which North Korea is dismantling as part of the
six-nation nuclear talks. That reactor was fueled by natural uranium to produce
the plutonium now contained in North Korea's nuclear bombs.
The efforts after the Israeli raid included removing all material and equipment
from the site that would reveal it was a nuclear plant and then burying the
reactor debris, U.S. officials said on the condition of anonymity.
The Syrian nuclear reactor was built without the knowledge of the IAEA and was
so secret that it escaped detection by U.S. intelligence agencies during its
construction.
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and other intelligence officials briefed several
congressional committees in closed-door sessions yesterday, breaking the
administration's silence on the issue, a point that led to harsh criticism from
several of the top lawmakers on intelligence issues.
"It's bad management and terrible public policy to go for eight months knowing
this was out there and then drop this in our laps six hours before they go to
the public," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the
intelligence committee.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat and panel chairman, echoed those comments.
"The challenge that we are having, particularly with the administration today,
is that there's a veil of secrecy that gets in the way [of] our committee
feeling comfortable that we are getting the kind of information that we are
supposed to have in order to carry out oversight responsibilities," he said.
Mr. Hoekstra warned that the administration's delay in informing lawmakers
amounts to a lack of trust that could make it harder for Congress to approve any
future nuclear agreement with North Korea.
The delay has "really damaged the relationship between Congress and the
administration," Mr. Hoekstra said. "And that's a big disappointment, but I
think that's something that we heard consistently from all of our [committee]
members today." But other congressmen focused on the revelations, saying that
they prove that the U.S. needs to maintain its tough stance against North Korea.
"Unless we are able to confirm that North Korea is no longer in the
nuclear-proliferation business, the United States should not lift sanctions on
the North," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat and chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who also said the six-party talks should
continue and that U.S. goals must remain "both shutting down Pyongyang"s nuclear
programs and ensuring that North Korea does not transfer" nuclear material to
others.
White House press secretary Dana Perino called on Syria to disclose the nuclear
program.
"The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit
nuclear activities," Mrs. Perino said.
Imad Moustapha, Syria's ambassador to the U.S., dismissed the claims as
ridiculous, telling CNN that he had been called yesterday into the State
Department, where officials "told me a ridiculous story about an alleged Syria
nuclear project."
Syria's ambassador to Britain, Sami al-Khiyami, told reporters that the U.S. and
other nations "just want to exert more pressure on North Korea. This is why they
are coming up with this story."
• Sean Lengell contributed to this report.
Syria's nuke facility was nearly completed when Israel bombed it
By Nicholas Kralev and Sara A. Carter
April 24, 2008
Satellite imagery collected in Syria before the Israeli bombing in September
reveals a large building thought to have housed a nuclear reactor.
The Bush administration is set to tell Congress today that a nuclear facility in
Syria built with North Korean help was nearly complete when Israel bombed it in
September, but that Pyongyang has not provided any further nuclear assistance to
the hard-line Arab nation, at least at that site, U.S. officials said.
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and other intelligence officials are expected to
brief several congressional committees in closed-door sessions, breaking the
administration's silence on the issue. The facility has become a major issue in
six-nation negotiations to end the North's nuclear programs.
"The belief is that the reactor was nearing completion," said one official
familiar with the content of the briefings. "It would have been able to produce
plutonium."
According to wire services, another U.S. official said the intelligence that
will be presented to lawmakers would include "some pretty compelling before and
after [aerial] pictures of the site."
The presentation is expected to include still photographs taken from videotape
recorded inside the Syrian facility, the official said, adding that the
intelligence is expected to show that Syria was building a nuclear reactor
complex much like the North Korean nuclear reactor complex at Yongbyon.
The Yongbyon reactor has been almost disabled by U.S. specialists. Both programs
were based on technology to produce plutonium — a man-made element used to make
the fissile core of atomic bombs.
Administration and congressional officials spoke about the Syrian facility in
the past tense. One official said it was "good that it was put out of
commission," and others added that the Israeli air strike occurred before fuel
"had been placed in the reactor."
Satellite photos taken before the Israeli strike show a large cubical building
thought to have housed the reactor. The building is absent from photos taken
afterward.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the administration will be able to
discuss the issue publicly "soon," but the official spokesmen for the main
national security agencies refused to comment on the matter and only offered
general statements.
"We have certain responsibilities to brief the Congress on matters of foreign
policy and national security, in this case, intelligence matters," State
Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
U.N. officials said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could not
confirm the administration's conclusions because Syria refused access to the
site in question, and the IAEA authorities needed to take ground samples and
conduct interviews.
The chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea, Christopher R. Hill, has said that
Pyongyang insists it is not currently engaged in proliferation activities and
will not be in the future.
Asked yesterday whether the North has assisted Syria's nuclear program since the
Sept. 6 bombing, officials said, "Not at that site." They declined to elaborate.
The officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the matter, said they based their conclusions on "very good
intelligence derived from a variety of sources." They added that the Israeli
government was informed about the congressional briefings.
However, Yuval Steinitz, a member of the Israeli Knesset's Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee, said that no such information had been provided to
legislators.
"This is inconsistent with the standard procedure," he said. "I'm upset with our
government. It is not healthy that such a briefing is taking place in another
parliament, even if it is a friendly parliament like the U.S. Congress."
Administration officials and outside analysts said that after today's briefings,
members of Congress are likely to ask what North Korea's behavior means for the
future of the six-party talks. Even though they disagreed on the answer to that
question, they all deplored the North's assistance to Syria.
"It's a very outrageous step, but what do you do now? Throw away the whole
process? That's a conundrum," a former administration official said.
Another former official, John R. Bolton, who was undersecretary of state for
arms control and international security during President Bush's first term,
said: "North Korea is outsourcing its nuclear weapons program. And if you want
to hide your activities from inspectors in North Korea, what better place than
in Syria?"
The United States has insisted that North Korea disclose any nuclear assistance
it has provided to Syria, as well as other countries, in a declaration that was
due Dec. 31 as part of a deal reached in the six-party talks last year.
Pyongyang, however, has refused to do so, and the administration has looked for
"creative" ways to help both countries save face but move the process forward,
so that Yongbyon's dismantling can at least begin before Mr. Bush leaves office
in January.
• Joshua Mitnick contributed to this report from Tel Aviv and Betsy Pisik from
New York.