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Published: 04.25.08, 08:36 / Israel News
VIDEO - Images from the core of evil. First images of the Syrian reactor bombed by Israel last September were published Friday by Yedioth Ahronoth.
One of the images released by the US government show the steel liner for the reinforced concrete reactor vessel before it was installed at the reactor. Another image shows the North Korean reactor fuel plant with the head of the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission in Syria.
The reactor's courtyard and the central building surrounding the heart of the reactor under construction were also displayed.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...535736,00.html
US: Clear Syrian reactor was not for peaceful purposes
Associated Press
Latest Update: 04.25.08, 00:40 / Israel News
The White House said Thursday that North Korea's secret work on a nuclear reactor with Syria was ''a dangerous and potentially destabilizing development for the world,'' raising doubts about Pyongyang's intention to carry through with a promised disclosure of its nuclear activities.
Seven months after Israel bombed the reactor, the White House broke its silence and said North Korea assisted Syria's secret nuclear program and that the destroyed facility was not intended for ''peaceful purposes.''
''The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities.'' White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
According to a US official the reactor was mere weeks away from becoming functional.
"The facility was mostly completed but still needed significant testing before it could be declared operational," the official said.
The disclosure threatened to undermine six-party negotiations to try to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea, but though it called North Korea's nuclear assistance to Syria a ''dangerous manifestation'' of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and its proliferation activities, the US said it remained committed to the talks.
The administration said that after the reactor was damaged beyond repair, Syria tried to bury evidence of its existence. However no uranium - needed to fuel a reactor - was evident at the site, a remote area of eastern Syria along the Euphrates River.
Top members of the House intelligence committee said Thursday after being briefed on the facility by intelligence and administration officials that the reactor posed a serious threat of spreading dangerous nuclear materials.
Intelligence officials who have seen the evidence consider it ''extremely compelling,'' a US official said, adding that it was gleaned from a variety of sources, not just Israeli intelligence.
CIA Director Michael Hayden, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley briefed lawmakers, who were shown a video presentation of intelligence information that the administration contends establishes a strong link between North Korea's nuclear program and the bombed Syrian site.
The Syrian reactor was similar in design to a North Korean reactor at Yongbyon that has in the past produced small amounts of plutonium, US Officials said.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush stood by the statement he made in October 2006 when he described North Korea as one of the world's leading proliferators of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...535609,00.html
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