LA Times: “CIA to submit a report to the congress confirming Israel shelled a Syrian Reactor”

Wednesday April 23, 2008 20:45 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Los Angeles  Times reported on Thursday that officials of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will inform the Congress that Syria and North Korea have secret relations, and that the construction which Israel shelled in Syria was slated to be used as a nuclear reactor.

The paper stated that CIA officials will tell congress members that North Korea is helping Syria in building a plutonium-based nuclear reactor.

A senior US official said that this issue would create new resistance to an American plan to ease restrictions on N. Korea.

 Also, Los Angeles Times said that the CIA officials intend to inform Congress members that they believe that this reactor will enable Syria to produce plutonium which is used for nuclear weapons.

They added that Israel shelled the reactor and destroyed it before Syria was able to produce any weapons.

The officials were apparently referring to a construction which was shelled by Israeli war-jets last year.  The shelled building was still under construction.

The report unravels a gag order by Israel on the issue as the United States complied with an Israel request not to report on the attack which was carried out nearly seven months ago.

So far, it’s not clear why the US Administration decided to reveal this information now after its rejected several request by Congress members over the last several months.

A spokesperson of the White House said that the US Administration always informs the Congress of issues related to National Security and Intelligence Affairs.

The official did not comment on the statement which is expected to be released regarding the Israeli attack.

international | israeli attacks | news report saed at imemc dot org