Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the UN nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site.
That's certainly .. creative ...
Moallem said the leaks by the diplomats about the traces found at the site that was reportedly targeted by Israeli warplanes in September 2007 were politically motivated and aimed at pressuring Syria.
"No one has ever asked himself what kind of Israeli bombs had hit the site, and what did they contain?" he went on, adding that the United States and Israel had "similar acts" of using bombs containing depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Depleted uranium has a different isotope signature. Let's compare. You show us yours ...
"These media leaks are a clear-cut signal that the purpose was to pressure Syria. This means that the subject is not technical but rather political," al-Moallem said at a news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
The latest nuclear accusations against Syria were disclosed by unnamed diplomats at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. They have said samples taken from a suspected nuclear site bombed by Israeli planes last year contained uranium combined with other elements that merit further investigation.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tuesday his agency is taking allegations of a secret Syrian atomic program seriously and urged Damascus to cooperate fully with his investigation. He also urged other nations with information that could help the investigation to share what they know. Elbaradei declined to comment on what the diplomats had said, telling reporters during a visit to the Czech capital of Prague only that his agency still has "a number of questions" linked to the allegations.
The US has said the facility was a nearly completed reactor that - when on line - could have produced plutonium, a pathway to nuclear arms.
Al-Moallem said the original US contention was that the alleged Syrian reactor was under construction, and not operational. "So the question is: From where the traces of enriched uranium came?"
Syria has previously denied any covert nuclear program, and al-Moallem said Wednesday Damascus was waiting for ElBaradei's report to respond.
IAEA mouthpiece Melissa Fleming said Tuesday the latest findings on Syria were "still being drafted and our assessment and evaluation is still under way." Once the process is finished, the report will be submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors ahead of its next meeting, which is scheduled to take place Nov. 27-28.
Continued on Page 47
#1
The IAF is responsible for uranium traces at the nuclear site. They scattered it around in the raid from the bombing. However, Syria (and their NORK friends) provided the uranium for the party, so both sides are to blame. Now is everyone happy? Hey, we are trying to build on common ground. Work with me, people.
[insert strongly worded statement of condemnation from the UN here]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/12/2008 15:44 Comments ||
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#2
Well, we all agree on one thing: That Uranium should not exist at the site.
Now all we have to do is figure out who the bad guy is.
Unsure if this was photoshopped
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said it test-fired a new generation of surface-to-surface missile Wednesday and that the Islamic Republic was ready to defend itself against any attacker.
Iran's latest missile test followed persistent speculation in recent months of possible U.S. or Israeli strikes against its nuclear facilities, which the West suspects form part of a covert weapons program, a charge Tehran denies. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, like outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush, has not ruled out military action although he has criticized the Bush administration for not pursuing more diplomacy and engagement with Tehran.
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the Iranian-made surface-to-surface Sejil missile had "extremely high capabilities" and was only intended for defensive purposes. He said it had a range of close to 2,000 km (1,200 miles), almost as much as another Iranian missile called Shahab 3. That would enable it to reach Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.
"This missile test is in the framework of Iran's deterrent doctrine," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. "It will only land on the heads of those enemies ... who want to make an aggression and invade the Islamic Republic," said Najjar, who did not mention any country by name.
Iran's English-language Press TV said the Sejil missile had two stages and was of a type that used combined solid fuel. A missile was shown soaring from a platform in desert-like terrain, leaving a long vapour trail.
It came a day after media said the Revolutionary Guards had test-fired another missile called Samen near the Iraqi border. "They do it all the time. It's Iranian machismo," said Tim Ripley, an analyst at Jane's Defense Weekly.
Two stages could increase a missile's range, he said, noting that Iran had in the past borrowed technology from North Korea although he said he could not say if that was true this time.
Continued on Page 47
#3
ION WORLD MIL FORUM Poster > IFF RUSSIA IS UNABLE TO STOP HER DEMOGRAPHIC/POPULATION DECLINE, SOONER OR LATER SHE WILL BE DISMEMBERED AS A NATION. Pervasive, perennial, unchecked loss of identity + socio-cultural beliefs will inevitably result in loss of physical territories.
* IIRC, ARISTOTLE? or twas it HERODOTUS > TOLERANCE/DIVERSITY IS THE BELIEF OF A WEAK AND DYING NATION, or words to that effect.
Claims that traces of uranium were found at the site of an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor which was bombed by Israel last year prompted a row about politically-motivated leaks yesterday. Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the UN body was taking very seriously allegations that Syria has a hidden atomic programme. But he declined to confirm that uranium had been detected.
And he'll twist himself into a pretzel to keep from confirming it.
Unnamed diplomats said on Monday that samples taken by UN inspectors from Kibar in northern Syria contained traces of uranium combined with other elements. The uranium was processed, suggesting some kind of nuclear link.
The Israelis didn't flatten it because it was a baby-milk factory ...
"It isn't enough to conclude or prove what the Syrians were doing, but the IAEA has concluded this requires further investigation," said a diplomat with links to the Vienna-based watchdog.
Melissa Fleming, an IAEA spokeswoman, said the agency was drafting its first ever report on Syria and had put it on the agenda of the agency's governors meeting at the end of this month. But she added that the IAEA's evaluation of findings from the June visit to the site was not finished and that a public verdict was unwarranted until then. "We regret that people are trying to prejudge the IAEA's technical assessment," she said. "We are, however, accustomed to these kinds of efforts to hype and undermine the process before every meeting of the IAEA board."
These folks could give Carla del Ponte lessons in obfuscating an investigation ...
The IAEA did not challenge the substance of Monday's revelations about the uranium traces. The concern is that the leak of confidential information could jeopardise future Syrian cooperation.
They've been so forthcoming so far, haven't they ...
Syria has repeatedly denied being involved in any illicit nuclear activity. But Damascus fuelled suspicions immediately after last September's Israeli air strike by razing the remains of the bombed structure it described as a military facility and then stonewalling before reluctantly allowing UN inspectors to visit it.
The US says the site, close to the Euphrates river and the Iraqi border, was a secret nuclear reactor that was almost completed before it was attacked. Israel has never publicly acknowledged carrying out the raid but Israeli officials say privately that the attack helped restore its deterrent capability.
The mystery was compounded in August when the Syrian official charged with liaising with the IAEA, General Muhammad Suleiman, was assassinated by a sniper - a killing which remains unexplained and has fuelled speculation that he was murdered to prevent him being questioned about the nuclear issue.
This is going to make it tougher for Bambi to listen to Malley about how reasonable the Ba'athists thugs are in Damascus.
#4
This particular time??? El Baradei has headed up this feckless organization for at least a decade. That would be the same decade that the Iranians have developed a uranium enrichment capability. He is a turd.
#5
google up Amman terror bombing trucks.
The amount of stuff involved, including modified trucks and poison gas, is astonishing, as are estimates of potential casualties. There has been remarkably little followup as to where the stuff came from. I mean in public.
See, poison gas is illegal and there have never been allegations the Jordan had any.
Where did it come from?
The lack of reporting is the dog that didn't bark.
Mucho curiouso
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/12/2008 15:01 Comments ||
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#7
remoteman is right, except that Dr. El-Baradei is an Egyptian. If I recall correctly, he headed that country's program seeking a nuclear bomb before becoming a UN bureaucrat.
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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the UN nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site. 
