Syria Suspected Of Concealing Nuclear Activity

It appears Iran may not be the only nuclear concern in the middle east. WTOP reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency ‘IAEA’ and Syria are walking a tightrope and appear to be headed toward a collision over two nuclear sites where undeclared uranium was recently found.

The agency found traces of uranium at the Dair Alzour nuclear site that are not included in Syria’s declared inventory, according to a just released report. The Syrians said the uranium came from the Israeli missiles used to destroy the nearby al-Kibar reactor in September 2007.

The presence of uranium particles was detected at a second site near Damascus — the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor. Syria said it came from the accumulation of samples and reference materials used in neutron activation analysis.

The IAEA is not buying either of the two explanations and is pressing Damascus for more answers and wants to know from where the uranium came. The agency has run its own tests and is certain the Syrian government is not telling the truth.

That’s where the tightrope act comes in. The IAEA won’t comment on what clearly appears to be evasive behavior by the Syrian government because of concern about its tenuous relationship with Syria.

The Syrian government, also aware of the slippery state of affairs, tells WTOP:

“We are taking up the matter with IAEA, and are in constant consultation with them. We are going through appropriate channels and Syria stands by its legal obligations to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty).”

A U.S. counter-proliferation official is not convinced.

“Syria has a record of concealing nuclear activities. The whole world saw that with the al-Kibar reactor, an undeclared facility, destroyed in 2007.

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Lebanon Unmasks 4 al-Qaeda Suspects

According to a report released by the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI), three of the suspects were charged on Monday by the Lebanese military prosecutor Judge Saker Saker with establishing a clandestine gang connected to the al-Qaeda terror group, while the fourth suspect remains at large.

The judicial officials meanwhile announced the three in custody are of Kuwaiti, Syrian and Tajik nationalities. Under the Lebanese Constitution, they will be handed death sentences should they be convicted of the charges.

The report comes as an al-Qaeda group — allegedly plotting attacks in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the Persian Gulf states like Kuwait — was exposed earlier this month.

Recent acts of violence in Lebanon and Syria have largely been pinned on extremist groups inspired by the al-Qaeda.

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Turkey Police Detain 30 Suspects In Al-Qaeda Sweep

Turkish anti-terror police Thursday detained 30 people on suspicion of belonging to al-Qaeda, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The suspects, rounded up in simultaneous operations in several districts in the western city of Eskisehir, were being questioned by police, the report said.

Police weren’t immediately available for comment.

Last month, a Turkish newspaper reported that Ankara had received U.S. intelligence that al-Qaeda militants could be plotting attacks on foreign targets in Turkey.

A Turkish cell of al-Qaeda was held responsible for truck bombs against two synagogues, the U.K. consulate, and a U.K. bank in Istanbul in 2003, which killed 63 people and left hundreds injured.

Seven men were jailed for life over the bombings in 2007, among them a Syrian national who masterminded and financed the attacks.

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Iran Has Fuel For Nuclear Bomb – IAEA

The report by the IAEA, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, surprises diplomats and arms control experts. Officials note that major obstacles remain to building a weapon.

Iran has made no such gestures and has slowed its expansion of machinery producing nuclear fuel, having increased production capacity by less than 5% over the last three months, according to a report issued Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Another IAEA report released Thursday raises suspicions about graphite and uranium particles found at an alleged nuclear site in Syria that was bombed by Israel in 2007.

The reports, the latest updates from the arms control watchdog for the United Nations, show that Iran had amassed about 2,227 pounds of low-enriched, or reactor-grade, nuclear fuel by late January. Physicists estimate that producing the 55 pounds or so of highly enriched, or weapons-grade, uranium needed for an atomic warhead requires 2,205 to 3,748 pounds of low-enriched uranium.

Iran’s increased supply of low-enriched uranium surprised diplomats and arms control experts who had assumed that Iran would need until the end of the year to acquire enough fuel for a bomb.

One expert, David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said he was “blindsided” by the report.

“We are surprised,” Albright said. “We did not expect this.”

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Syria Building Chemical Weapons Plant

Syria has been conducting extensive construction work on a chemical weapons facility in the country’s northwest, satellite images obtained by the defense analyst group Jane’s reveal.

‘Syria building chemical weapons plant’

The images of a chemical weapons facility identified as al-Safir were taken by several commercial sources from 2005 to 2008, the analyst group said.

Imagery obtained by DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-1 satellite shows that extensive construction has taken place at the facility, as well as at an adjacent missile base, the group wrote. In addition, the images showed that the site contained a number of the “defining features of a chemical weapons facility.”

Al-Safir is home to a chemical weapons production facility and a missile base that holds a significant part of Syria’s long-range Scud D ballistic missiles, according to foreign reports. The Scud D has a range of 700 kilometers and al-Safir is reported to have several dozen underground fortified bunkers where the launchers and the missiles are stored.

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Syria Strike Was Approved By Syrian Government

The Black Hawk strike conveyed U.S. troops over the border from Iraq into Syria where they killed terrorist Abu Ghadiya. He was identified by the Treasury Department as “a high value al-Qaida commander in charge of money, weapons and other terrorists for al-Qaida in Iraq.”

Officially the Damascus regime denounced the attack in which seven villagers died. But intelligence sources in London and Washington provided an intriguingly different story of the background to the raid, citing sources in the formidable al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya, Syria’s intel service.

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Syria – US Helicopter Makes Strike Near Border

DEVELOPING: U.S. military helicopters attacked an area along Syria’s border with Iraq Sunday, causing casualties, Syrian state TV and witnesses said. Syria said on Sunday unidentified helicopters attacked a Syrian border point with Iraq, causing casualties.

The official Syrian news agency SANA did not identify the helicopters but said the attack took place in the Bou Kamal border area, in eastern Syria.

Residents said the attack targeted a house in the area in which a man and his four sons and two nearby workers were killed..

The U.S. military in Baghdad had no immediate comment.

The area is near the Iraqi border city of Qaim, which had been a major crossing point for fighters, weapons and money coming into Iraq to fuel the Sunni insurgency.

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