Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 4:38:13 PM
As we mark Israel’s 60th birthday today (May 14), people across the world can, once again, breathe a collective sigh of relief thanks to the Jewish State. Last September, a handful of Israeli fighter jets conducted a pre-dawn raid in which they destroyed what the Israelis claimed was a nuclear facility in the Deir ez-Zor region of Syria close to the Turkish border. Recently, CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed that the facility, termed Al Kibar, was mere weeks away from being operational and could have, in the first year of operation, “produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons."
A few months prior to the strike, the Israelis had managed to acquire aerial and ground-based photographs of the facility, a video of North Korean scientists inside, and a sample of some of the nuclear material. According to various sources, in July 2007 when the material was tested and confirmed to have come from North Korea, the Israelis took all of the evidence to their American allies. Condoleezza Rice’s State Department responded to the overwhelming proof of a NK-assisted nuclear weapons program in Syria by deliberately trying to downplay the value of the data.
U.S. officials told to the World Tribune that the CIA and State Department claimed that the nuclear facility “was years away from bring completed or even tested.” The officials also admitted that the State Department, particularly Secretary Rice herself, “sought to play down the Israeli evidence” and specifically “recruited CIA analysts who asserted the Syrian facility was not designed for a bomb.” This was all done because Rice and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill believed “that any determination of a North Korean nuclear facility in Syria would torpedo U.S.-led negotiations for Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.”
Despite all of the pressure against a strike emanating from Foggy Bottom, the Israelis decided to take action, and last week they were finally vindicated for doing so.
It has now been revealed that evidence collected after the bombing left no doubt as to what kind of facility Israel destroyed. The devastating and infallible quality of the evidence of a Syrian nuclear program is what led to the U.S. intelligence community’s very public reversal recently. It seems that they have now come to terms with the fact that “Pyongyang violated its February 2007 pledge to halt nuclear proliferation” and had been helping Syria's nuclear program since as early as 1997.
The Al Kibar strike isn’t the first time that the Israelis have spared the world from the consequences of a terrorist-sponsoring state with nuclear weapons.
Continue reading by following the link above. You read the highlighted section above correctly. When Condi Rice was shown all the evidence pointing to North Korea's involvement at the Syrian nuclear weapons facility, the first thing she did was downplay all of it to the detriment of the security of Western civilization. Fortunately, Israel still possessed enough wherewithal to take action and destroy the facility. Why would Rice not want to admit to North Korea's involvement? Because the Bush Administration promised our country he would not allow North Korea to obtain nuclear weapons! I remember the interview Bush conducted with Bill O'Reilley quite clearly. Instead of the Bush Administration, including Condi Rice, keeping their promise; the North Koreans came to not only possess nuclear weapons but also proliferate them to one of the worst countries in the world. Syria. Syria, who along with Iran supports and backs-up Hebollah and Hamas in hopes of destroying Israel. Syria, the country where Saddam's WMDs have most likely found a home. Yes, that Syria. The same home of a brutal dictator who assassinates anyone in the country, and others, who he feels threatened by.
The overwhelming evidence gathered by Israel showing North Korea's involvement at the Syrian nuclear weapons facility was a big fat finger pointing directly at the failed and failing policies of Condi Rice's State Department to do one thing right in the Middle-East. That woman does not serve to protect our country, but instead serves to protect her own phony-baloney reputation.
By the way, thank you Israel for doing what it takes to prevent Islamic fascists from acquiring nuclear weapons. Too bad I cannot say my own country lifted a finger.