Dropping the Dime on the Assad/Kim Nuclear Lovefest
Well, well, well…lookie who’s been getting all snuggly: Baby Assad and Kim Jong-Il. For those of you keeping score, that’s one leg of the Axis of Evil giving a serious hookup to a country that is practically a satellite state of another leg of the AoE.
WASHINGTON — 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.
I’ll be very interested in seeing what information about this makes it out to the public. Secretary Gates has said that there should be something coming “soon”. If this story is even close to accurate, it ought to be one humdinger of
a report. I have been skeptical of the work the CIA’s done for the past, oh, thirty years or so. Secretary Gates, though, seems to have the agency pointed in the right direction and watching the right people. And Baby Assad is definitely one of the right people to be watching. He’s a direct conduit to Iran, via Hezbollah, so what he gets, Iran either already has or can get with no trouble at all.
see-dubya, who’s keeping things on a rolling boil at Michelle Malkin’s place says:
Look, I’ll be the first to admit there’s probably a lot going on in the nuclear proliferation demimonde that we civilians don’t understand. There may be some good reasons for the administration to do what it’s doing. Those may include threats and intelligence that the public doesn’t need to know. I’m fine with that.
But Congress? Congress supposedly has an oversight role. They ought to be focused in on North Korean plutonium transfers to Syria and God-knows-where-else like an anal-retentive laser.
So should the press.
Yes, indeed they should.
Will they? Well, of course they won’t. Right now the two biggest concerns to the Congressional majority and the MSM are: 1) there’s a Republican in the White House this year, and 2) there could be another Republican in the White House next year.
There is a minority party, though, and it should be hammering this just as hard as it can. Right now there’s nothing else terribly important happening in Washington that should distract them from this.
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Category: No More Tyrants
I don't know if Syria's a "leg" of the axis of evil–probably more of a butt.
Seriously, though, thanks for the linkage, Jimmie. I think these nuclear proliferation stories are a lot bigger than some of the other fun-but-frivolous stuff I blog about, but they don't seem to get the same attention.
Quite welcome, See-Dubya. I think it's important to keep our eyes on the bad guys. If the MSM isn't going to do it, we sure as heck ought to.
J: "If the MSM isn’t going to do it, we sure as heck ought to."
What did you expect "the MSM" to do? Keep repeating "Israel denies bombing whatever-the-hell-it-was in the Syrian desert"? Snore. There hasn't been any more to this story until now. Of course they'll cover it. And while I wish you luck, I doubt bloggers are gonna get any significant scoops on the matter.
It wouldn't be a bad idea for the MSM to keep on the links between Iran and Syria. I doubt that many folks know what Hezbollah is, even though it's killed more than a few Americans.
And when was the last time you heard a thing about North Korea's nuclear exports? Their program hasn't evaporated after Libya and A.Q. Khan.
Why would that nutcase Kim Jong-Il want to be buddies with Bashar Al-Assad? The Syrian president isn't half as interesting. Not to mention he's about twice as tall, so Kim would be talking to his silk tie.
Hmmm….I thought the least the MSM could've done was dig up & release perhaps some classified info obtained from secret sources; maybe they could have just forge some documents to advance the story line?
It just seems so out of character for them to sit back & wait for the official government story to be released.
[...] seems that the CIA really does have the goods on the North Korean/Syrian nuclear partnership. There is apparently a videotape Congress will get to see that shows North Korean officials milling [...]