MotherJones Blog: Operation Orchard

«--Previous Post | Blog Index | Next Post--»

Operation Orchard

Late last week, two senior US intelligence officials and a senior administration official provided background briefings to Congressional committees and the media on what they said was the evidence of North Korean involvement in a covert Syrian nuclear reactor. The facility was destroyed by Israeli air strikes last September, in an operation dubbed "Operation Orchard" that was subject to an Israeli news blackout.

“What we’re going to discuss is a nuclear reactor,” one senior US intelligence official told (.pdf) the media. “It was constructed by the Syrians in the eastern desert of Syria along the Euphrates River on the east side. The Syrians constructed this reactor for the production of plutonium with the assistance of the North Koreans.”

“Our evidence goes back an extended period of time,” he continued. “In the spring of last year, we were able to obtain some additional information that made it conclusive. And so, we engaged in this policy process of now that we have the evidence, what do we do about it? The evidence concluded a nuclear reactor, as I mentioned, constructed by the Syrians, started probably in 2001, completed in the summer of 2007. And it was nearing operational capability.”

(You can read the transcript of the intelligence officials' full remarks here (.pdf), and see the video the officials presented here.)

The briefing had been much anticipated. Since the Israeli air strikes last September, hawks opposed to US negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program had argued that if Israel or the US revealed what Israel had hit in Syria, North Korea would be exposed as proliferating nuclear technology abroad and in violation of the spirit of the negotiations.

Calling the State Department’s diplomatic efforts with Pyongyang "feckless, " noted hawk, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton, wrote in a Wall Street Journal oped August 31, 2007 – intriguingly precisely one week before the Israeli Air Force operation: “We know that both Iran and Syria have long cooperated with North Korea on ballistic missile programs, and the prospect of cooperation on nuclear matters is not far-fetched. Whether and to what extent Iran, Syria or others might be ‘safe havens’ for North Korea's nuclear weapons development, or may have already participated with or benefited from it, must be made clear.”

But though skeptics of US-North Korea diplomacy such as Bolton had long pushed for the information on what had been struck in Syria to be disclosed, when the briefing came late last week, some media reports suggested the timing of the briefing was intended not to scuttle the US-North Korea deal, but rather, to push Pyongyang to finally come clean on its alleged proliferation activities as a way to accelerate a peace settlement. And what's more, the briefing came as Israel and Syria had both spent weeks signaling their interest in pursuing possible engagement and their anxiety to avoid an escalation of hostilities.

“Based on my own ‘uninformed’ perspective, the big question is not whether the Syrians were building a nuclear reactor, but whether it was actually close to becoming operational (which raises questions about the timing of the strike) and the almost total absence of any evidence of what kind of plans the Syrians may have had for any plutonium that might have been produced at the plant if and when it went into operation,” said former US National Security Council official Gary Sick. “Although some will fix on the anomalies to cast doubt on the very existence of such a project, the real debate in policy circles (including the Congress) is likely to focus on whether it was really as far along as claimed and whether the same thing could have been accomplished by publicizing the photographic evidence and insisting that the IAEA be permitted to inspect the site.”

"The other big question is why the Syrians decided to do this,” Sick added. “It is easy to explain North Korean motives -- money, money, money. But did the Syrians intend to follow their covert reactor project with a covert plutonium reprocessing facility and then a covert bomb design and testing program? And they didn't expect to get caught?”

In the wake of the US briefing on the Syria strike, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak has postponed a trip to Washington, Israeli media report. "The postponement is aimed at avoiding the impression that his meetings were in any way connected to the U.S. decision to disclosure information on the Syrian facility," Ha'aretz reported, noting that Barak had been slated to meet with his counterpart Defense Secretary Robert Gates as well as Vice President Dick Cheney.

(Released US government "before" and "after" satellite photos of facility struck in Syria linked from Wikipedia).

Comments

There are any number of reasons for a nation to pursue nuclear technology. However, we Americans generally assume that nuclear weapons are the sole intent. Funny that we do not seem to care that Israel already possesses nuclear weapons, but are ready to go to war to stop any Arab nation from using nuclear technology for peaceful or other purposes. While Syria's actions appear suspicious, they might not be. By the same token, Iran could be seeking to enrich uranium to fuel power reactors, not to make weapons. Both require enriched fuel. Instead of engaging with them and seeking to find out what they are doing, we resort to threats of attack and economic sanctions to dissuade those we deem to be evil, while not questioning the actions of our so-called friends.

As for North Korea, I agree that money is probably at the heart of the issue. They need to raise money to buy food and fuel for their people, and to support the current regime. Maybe they should just sell government bonds to the Chinese, like we do.

Posted by: Bob G on 04/28/08 at 12:44 PM Respond

does it seem to you, as it does to me?

...that no facts or public desire on Earth will prevent the US Pentagon from attacking again & again...
to acquire whatever 'resources' might impede 'the American interest' aka 'private / corporate interests'?

I'm actually losing sleep over this...

...its like watching a slow, inevitable & deadly car accident...

~~~
Spread Love...
BlueBerry Pick'n
ThisCanadian com
~~~
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"
"Do no harm"

Posted by: BlueBerry Pick'n on 04/28/08 at 1:15 PM Respond

Who can believe these lunatics! The Syrians deny any such building, it was not manned, it was not a military installation, if they were building one why would it be unmanned, another Zionist/NeoCon trick. Do not be fooled or hoodwinked again.

Posted by: SPKTRUTHTOPOWER on 04/28/08 at 1:22 PM Respond

Hats off to the CIA for briefing he public on this event.
Not that I approve of the event but would much rather be briefed by the CIA then George. Saddly the BBC had to be the ones to bring it out.

Posted by: Croydon Kemp on 04/28/08 at 3:53 PM Respond

This just shows how false the reasons provided by the US Administration were to invade Iraq in 2003. If we claimed to have solid evidence at the time that Iraq was developing WMD, we could have/should have documented (with REAL photographs/evidence) not only the progression of their development, but also the covert destruction.

Furthermore, this job in Syria was Israeli. They had intelligence, they had evidence, and they were prudent in their counter-terrorism. Look at how well this entire episode is documented. The fact that the CIA only now steps in and informs the Congress, and the nation at large, only goes to show how out of touch our intelligence agencies are, and depend on Israeli intel to pursue this "war on terror".

Posted by: Ben on 04/29/08 at 11:35 AM Respond

Originally posted Sept 10, 2007
(later excerpt republished in Esquire.com Feb, 08)
Syria's Smoking Gun
by Trish Schuh

DEIR EZ ZOR, Syria- On a bridge over the Euphrates River at sundown, neighboring mosques weave a chorus calling Muslims to prayer. This destitute, ramshackle oil town on Iraq's desert frontier seems calm, despite Israel's recent raid on a military base outside the city to destroy "Syria's nuclear program."

The Qamishli-Deir Ez Zor highway, alleged by Israel to be a weapons route for Iraqi insurgents, was also quiet, and there were no heavy construction machinery or building cranes visible in the opposite direction on the road from Deir Ez Zor to Iraq.

At the Syria-Qusayba checkpoint near the Iraq border, I was stopped by the Syrian military. Across the road on the Iraqi side, sounds of American military operations puttered as blackhawk helicopters flew overhead. "No photos," said the Syrian military captain. Cameras could draw US sniper fire.

The surrounding terrain is flat barren desert, with visibility extending for miles. It is difficult to see how smugglers, insurgents or anything that moves could penetrate here. This is also where CNN claimed Israel punched "a big hole in the desert" by attacking North Korean nuclear materials. But the big hole could be in CNN's story.

As far back as 2002, Charles Duelfer of the United Nations Iraq Survey Group called then Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton's nuclear claims against Syria "exaggerated." It was also the assessment of the CIA. In 2004, Muhammad El Baradei chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reiterated that there was no evidence Syria had a nuclear program.

After the invasion of Iraq, former US Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner identified charges against Syria as one of 50 false news stories created by Israel and the White House to justify war. "Saddam's nuclear WMDs moved to Syria" was propaganda he said.

Several days ago, after the attack on Syria's "nuclear program", I spoke to western oil company officials in Deir Ez Zor. One technician told me they routinely monitor radiation as part of the refining process. They registered no heightened levels of nuclear residue in the area as there would have been if the Israelis had hit a North Korean atomic stockpile. Operations and technical foremen put it this way: "The nuclear claims against Syria are pure bullsh*t."

The Syrian smoking gun is the complete lack of any mushroom cloud.

Posted by: nihaadi on 04/29/08 at 11:57 AM Respond

Given the agressiveness with which the US reacts in the face of governments with different ideologies or not willing to follow Washington's lead, I do not blame Iran or for that matter any other country for trying to develop nuclear power and even nuclear weapons. Why cannot Iran or Syria have their own nuclear weapons? It is an insult to anybody's intelligence to argue that those countries cannot be trusted because they'd be capable of using them (like the US?). We are to believe that those governments are so crazy that they together with their citizens are prepared to be obliterated by the ensuing response. Only the moronic brainwashed sheep can believe that.

Posted by: Jim on 04/30/08 at 12:53 PM Respond