Wickileaks US Cable Confirms Syria Went Nuclear

From a new Wikileaks cable, dated April 25, 2008:

- You will recall reports that the Israeli air force conducted a mission over Syria on September 6, 2007.

- I want to inform you that the purpose of that Israeli mission was to destroy a clandestine nuclear reactor that Syria was constructing in its eastern desert near a place we call al-Kibar.

- The Israeli mission was successful - the reactor was damaged beyond repair. Syria has completed efforts to clean up the site and destroy evidence of what was really there, constructing a new building on the old site.

- We have delayed sharing this information with you, because our first concern was to prevent conflict.

- We believe - based on strong evidence - that North Korea assisted Syria with the reactor at al-Kibar.
...
- Our intelligence experts are confident that the facility the Israelis targeted was in fact a nuclear reactor of the same type North Korea built indigenously at its Yongbyon nuclear facility. The U.S. intelligence community conducted an intensive, months- long effort to confirm and corroborate the information Israel provided us on the reactor and to gather more
details from our own sources and methods.

- We have good reason to believe this reactor was not intended for peaceful purposes.


- First, we assess this reactor was configured to produce plutonium: it was not configured for power production, was isolated from any civilian population, and was ill-suited for research.

- Second, Syria went to great pains to keep this secret by taking very careful steps to conceal the true nature of the site.

- Third, by maintaining secrecy and not declaring the site to the IAEA and providing design information, as Syria's NPT-mandated IAEA safeguards agreement requires, Syria undermined the very purpose of IAEA safeguards - to provide the international community with the necessary assurance/verification that the reactor was part of a peaceful program.

- Finally, Syria's concealment and lies about what happened for months now after the Israeli air strike is compelling proof that it has something to hide. In fact, after the attack on the site, Syria went to great lengths to clean up the site and destroy evidence of what was really there. If there were nothing to hide, Syria presumably would have invited IAEA inspectors, other experts, and the news media to the site to prove that.

...- The existence of this reactor was dangerous and destabilizing for the region, and we judged that it could have been only weeks away from becoming operational at the time it was destroyed by the Israeli air force.

- Specifically, we assessed that once the pumphouse and pipe system were complete in early August, the reactor could begin operation at any time. Once operations began, certainly a military option would have been much more problematic with radioactive material present.

...
- We discussed policy options with the Israelis, but in the end Israel made its own decision to destroy the reactor. This decision was made by Israel alone - they did not seek our consent. Nonetheless, we understand Israel's decision.

- <> saw this reactor, and what Syria may have intended to do with it, as an existential threat that required it to act to defend itself.

- Syria's secret construction of this nuclear reactor is the latest in a series of unacceptable actions by the Asad regime.

- Syria is a state that supports terrorism, destabilizes Lebanon, and is the largest conduit for foreign fighters and suicide bombers entering Iraq to kill Iraqis, Americans, and Coalition forces.

- The Syrian Government supports terrorist groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hizballah, and others, including by playing host to leaders of some of these groups.

- Syria is a proliferator in every sense - of terrorism, of instability to its neighbors, including Lebanon, and now as a recipient and developer of dangerous nuclear technology.

- The Syrian regime, in going down this path, has shown a disregard for the security of the region and of its own people.

- We call upon the Syrian regime to reveal the full extent of its nuclear activities, as it is required to do under the NPT and its safeguards agreement, and verify that its covert nuclear-related activities have stopped.

- For better relations with the international community, in addition to full disclosure and
cooperation regarding its covert nuclear program, Syria needs to end support for insurgents and foreign fighters in Iraq, support for Palestinian terrorists, and interference in Lebanon. If willing to do so, Syria can expect to be welcomed by the international community.

I wonder what happened between 2008 and 2009 that prompted the US to ignore all this known information about the country and reward it with a new ambassador.

Or, as David Shenker notes in TNR,

Support for the regime goes beyond the standard “devil you know” rationale. To wit, one commentator in The National Interest recently opined that “Washington knows [Syrian President] Bashar well and it knows how rational and predictable he is in foreign affairs.” No doubt, Assad hasn’t killed millions like Stalin. But he has spent his first decade in power recklessly dedicated to undermining stability—and U.S. interests—in the Middle East.

Here’s the devil we know: Since 2006 alone, Assad’s Syria has exponentially increased the capabilities of the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah, providing the organization with advanced anti-ship and highly accurate M-600 missiles, top of the line anti-tank weapons, and has allowed the organization to establish a SCUD base on Syrian soil. At the same time, Assad continues to meddle (and murder) in Lebanon, harbor and support Hamas, and subvert Iraq. Damascus remains a strategic ally of otherwise isolated Tehran. And in 2007, it was revealed that Assad’s Syria was progressing toward building a nuclear weapon. Given the pernicious effect of Assad’s policies on U.S. interests and the region, it’s difficult to imagine that a successor or replacement regime could be worse.

North Korea Bombards South

(Nov. 23) -- North Korea fired more than 100 artillery shells onto a South Korean border island today, killing two southern marines and wounding 18 others in a brazen attack that prompted the South to return fire and put its military on its highest alert. South Korea's president said he would unleash "enormous retaliation" should the North strike again.

President Barack Obama was awoken around 4 a.m. with news of the clash, and is phoning South Korea's president, the BBC reported.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it "one of the gravest incidents since the end of the Korean War," a spokesman told The Associated Press. The United Nations Security Council plans to hold an emergency meeting today or Wednesday to discuss the attack, a French diplomat told Reuters.

Fires burned out of control on Yeonpyeong Island, one of South Korea's closest territories to the communist north, which houses a South Korean military base alongside the homes of about 1,700 civilians. At least three civilians and 15 South Korean troops were among those wounded, a defense official told The New York Times.

"I ran outside my house when my windows shattered from the blasts," resident Lee Jong-sik told the JoongAng Daily newspaper. She said blasts rang out across the island every five minutes. It was the first time in 50 years the island has suffered any attacks, she said.

Korea Drama Kingdom

by Hyejin Kim

Korean dramas have been popular outside Korea. There has been a term to refer to this popularity, Hallyu (Korean wave). Pretty girls and neat boys, and their pure love or triangular love relations…. They would be characters to represent Korean dramas. The popularity of Korean dramas has become one of the important businesses through exporting to other countries.

One result of hallyu is aggressive competition between channels over dramas in Korea, and the budget to make a drama is increasing tremendously. The program rating decides the length of dramas and the content of the drama story. The Internet has become a significant means to sense how the audience reacts each time. Opinions the fans leave on the drama website are more powerful than scenario writers or producers.

Leave pharmacists to do their work… Leave doctors to do their work… Leave scenarists to do their work to make stories…

Most of all… even though the scenario writers don’t want to change the stories and the audience gives the pressure on and on, the scenarists are also humans and could be confused… therefore, I’m really afraid that the conclusion of this drama will go in a different direction as well. A line in the drama says, “Audience? Their level is not that high~” It might be the answer. Of course there are people who long for more various and better stories. But they are the minority. Most of them want the story to talk about love between the main characters and to end the way they want. The trend has not changed yet compared to five or ten years ago. And they get the satisfaction through the stories indirectly. But if it is triangular relations, conflicts between fans of the two of the same sex get serious. When the story ends with one side, the fans of this other side got hurt[…]

Please stop monotonous love stories~

It seems that many people who watch this drama could be aggressive if the drama doesn’t show conventional love stories. Honestly speaking, as the person who watches this drama and finds it interesting… I want the conclusion that is not looking for love, but that shows that the major characters find their own identities with their jobs and discover camaraderie. That should be the conclusion as the producers had clarified as the original intention…

Web Tip Led Mother to Get Kidnapped Son in Korea

By CLARE TRAPASSO, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 28, 3:44 AM ET

NEW YORK - Tiffany Rubin had all but given up hope of ever seeing her abducted child again when she received an anonymous tip through her MySpace page. Someone had spotted her 7-year-old son and her ex-boyfriend in South Korea.

The Queens special education teacher caught a 15-hour flight to South Korea on Sunday. She sneaked into her son's school, found Kobe Lee in a classroom, disguised him with a wig and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy before bringing him home Wednesday.

"It's great," Rubin said. "I never thought this day would come."

Her ordeal began on Aug. 21, after her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Salko disappeared with their child after a visit.

At the time, he had joint custody of their son but was facing up to six months in jail for not paying child support. The boy lived with his mother and saw his father on alternate weekends.

Kobe's court-appointed law guardian, Joseph Fredericks, had recommended Rubin receive sole custody.

"They were constantly at war over this child," Fredericks said of the parents, who separated when Kobe was 4 months old.

After Salko disappeared with her child, Rubin was afraid her ex, born in South Korea, had taken the boy abroad.

"I was just basically panicking," said Rubin, 30. "I was hoping they were still in the United States."

Her fears were realized when she hacked into Salko's e-mail account, she said. She discovered an e-mail he had sent to a friend saying he was flying to South Korea — and wasn't coming back.

Mark Miller, founder of the American Association for Lost Children Inc., a Christian charity that recovers missing children, persuaded her to put him on the case.

"She was so distraught," Miller said. "Her whole world was taken from her."

The FBI issued a warrant for Salko's arrest, but Rubin didn't get her big break until January.

She received a message on her MySpace page from someone who had seen her son and knew where he went to school. Shortly after, she received a phone call from Kobe telling her he missed her — and Salko was listening in. Rubin said her son wasn't aware he had been kidnapped.

Shortly after, she flew to South Korea with Miller and Bazzel Baz, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Association for the Recovery of Children, to recover Kobe.

The men surveyed the school while Rubin waited in a hotel. Security appeared to be lax, Rubin said, and the next day she went to her son's classroom and called his name.

"I was like, oh my God," Kobe said. "I can't believe she's here."

Rubin explained who she was to her son's teacher and said she needed a minute to speak with him. Then mother and son walked out of the building and hailed a cab to the American embassy.

As a precaution, she made Kobe wear a wig, so anyone looking for them would think he was a girl.

The following day, mother and son returned home.

"He's doing good, watching cartoons and wanting to play video games," Rubin said. But "he's a little worried that his dad's going to take him again."

FBI spokesman Matthew Bertron said the bureau was trying to work with South Korea to secure Salko's arrest and extradition. Calls to his family Thursday went unanswered.

Almost 800,000 children are reported missing each year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. About one-quarter of them are abducted by family members.