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JERUSALEM-Syria's foreign minister today claimed Israel may be behind the United Nations' discovery of uranium traces at a site in Syria bombed last year by the Jewish state.Walid Mualem said the uranium may have been in the bombs that Israel used to target the site (Are you kidding me....?)and claimed leaks last weekend by the diplomats about the traces found at the site were politically motivated and aimed at pressuring Syria."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," Moallem said."No one has ever asked himself what kind of Israeli bombs had hit the site, and what did they contain," he added.(Unbelievable....!)Israeli security sources dismissed Mualem's claims, while the Israel Defense Forces and prime minister's office had no comment. The site bombed by Israel Sept. 6, 2007, was identified by the White House in April as a secret nuclear reactor being built with aid from North Korea.Last weekend, Reuters quoted diplomats close to the U.N. investigation charging uranium was found at the bomb site. The new information is significant, because it was leaked to the media hours after another report by International Atomic Energy Agency Director Mohamed ElBaradei. The head of the U.N. agency said at an IAEA board meeting two months ago that preliminary findings from test samples taken by inspectors who visited the Syrian site in June found no evidence of atomic activity.But two diplomats tied to the U.N. investigation told Reuters the test samples showed evidence of a form of processed uranium that was engineered by humans and was not natural.The diplomats said the finding is not smoking-gun proof that Syria was building a nascent nuclear reactor, but that taken together with other information released by the White House, the uranium discovery warrants further investigation."It isn't enough to conclude or prove what the Syrians were doing, but the IAEA has concluded this requires further investigation," a diplomat told Reuters.A second diplomat said the findings would figure into a report on Syria that will be presented to the IAEA's 35-nation board next week ahead of a scheduled two-day board meeting starting Nov. 24.The Bush administration, the CIA and other intelligence officials in April briefed select congressional committees on some details of Israel's Sept. 6, 2007, air strike. White House press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement explaining the "Syrian regime was building a covert nuclear reactor in its eastern desert capable of producing plutonium."We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities," she said. "We have good reason to believe that reactor, which was damaged beyond repair on Sept. 6 of last year, was not intended for peaceful purposes."The U.S. statement accused Syria of hiding the reactor from the International Atomic Energy Agency and said after the Israeli air strike, Damascus moved quickly to bury evidence of the reactor's existence."This cover-up only served to reinforce our confidence that this reactor was not intended for peaceful activities," the White House statement read.A top U.S. official told the foreign media the Syrian reactor was similar in design to a North Korean reactor in Yongbyon that previously produced small amounts of plutonium, which could be used to construct a nuclear weapon.The White House also released photographs of the bombed Syrian site, which looked strikingly similar to the known designs of North Korean nuclear reactors.Syrian officials denied any involvement in nuclear activity and dismissed Washington's accusations as part of a campaign to discredit the Damascus government.Syria allowed U.N. investigators to visit the site in June, but according to media reports, Syrian Ambassador Mohammed Badi Khattab suggested his country would not allow further visits by U.N. inspectors under any circumstances, claiming that since his country was still technically at war with Israel, additional IAEA visits could expose some of Syria's non-nuclear military secrets.The information throws a wrench into the reported plans of President-elect Barack Obama to dialogue with Damascus. On Monday, WND quoted a Syrian diplomatic source stating his country was briefed by Obama policy aids this past summer that the Democrat supports ending Syria's isolation and that as president he would work to bring Damascus into the international community.The source said the pledges were made at a meeting in Washington, D.C., between Obama's policy aids and Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha.The source said Moustapha was asked at the time by Obama's camp not to comment on the meeting.The source said Moustapha was told that Obama favors engagement and economic cooperation with Syria as opposed to the Bush administration's policy of isolating the country and imposing economic sanctions.The source also disclosed Obama's team said the president-elect favors talks between Israel and Syria leading to an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights – strategic, mountainous territory looking down on Israeli population centers that was twice used in the past by Syria to mount ground invasions into the Jewish state.
By Aaron Klein
As in the days of Noah....
