Syria's Reactor and North Korea - Again

You've read about it in the news:

• "White House: Syria reactor not for 'peaceful' purposes">"
  CNN (April 25, 2008)
• "Ambassador: Claims about Syria are 'Iraq déjà vu'"
  CNN (April 25, 2008)

Both are in CNN's Politics*com section.

That ambassador mentioned in the headline is the Syrian ambassador.

"He noted that the photos showed just one building -- which didn't have enough power or other complex facilities nearby, such as reprocessing plant for extracting plutonium from spent nuclear fuel -- in order to operate a nuclear program.

" 'I had to ask myself, is this Hollywood or Foggy Bottom?' he said, calling it 'Iraq déjà vu.' "

I'm sure that the ambassador will find many people agreeing with him, in principle, in America: 'Everybody knows' that the Bush administration lied to justify an attack on Iraq. I think the motive is supposed to have something to do with an oil company.

Returning to reality, I recommend reading:

• "Nuclear Syria aided by North Korea"
  American Interests (May 2, 2008)

There's more information there, including a video and links to a rather interesting transcript.

My last post on this topic, "Unilateral Attack Sparks International Condemnation! Syria Had No Reactor! Pay No Attention to the North Koreans!" (April 26, 2008) was cited by another blog, American Interests.

In the interests of full disclosure: I'm biased. In a situation like this, I am more inclined to believe Israel, and American intelligence agencies, than a nations whose leadership has at best a policy of active cooperation with organizations dedicated to eradicating Israel from the face of the Earth. (More at my previous blog post, cited above.)

Posts from "Another War-on-Terror Blog," on the Israeli raid and its aftermath:

• "Unilateral Attack Sparks International Condemnation! Syria Had No Reactor! Pay No Attention to the North Koreans!"
  (April 26, 2008)
• "Syrian Ambassador: Reactor? That's No Reactor"
  (April 24, 2008)
• "Return of the Radioactive Kimchi!! North Korean Nuclear Reactor in Syria Back in the News"
  ( April 23, 2008)
• "Back to Syria's Mystery Building"
  (October 29, 2007)
• "Satellite Images of Syrian Reactor / Warehouse"
  (October 25, 2007)
• "Putin, Ahmadinejad, Iran, Syria, Israel: Here We Go Again?"
  (October 18, 2007)
  (in passing>
• " 'The Jews Blew Up Our Reactor (Which Does Not Exist)' "
  (October 17, 2007)
• "In the News: Anxious Republicans, Castro and Chavez are Friends, and, oh, yes: Israel Destroyed Syrian Nuclear Reactor"
  (October 14, 2007)
• "No Radioactive Kimchi: Israel Blew Up a Syrian Reactor"
  (October 13, 2007)
• "Radioactive Kimchi, or Nuclear Bomb Material?"
  (September 23, 2007)
• "Nuclear Materials from North Korea,
  Sand, or Radioactive Kimchi?"
  ( September 18, 2007)
• "Nuclear Stockpile Bombed?"
  (September 16, 2007)

---

¹("Country Reports on Terrorism 2005" Chapter 6 -- State Sponsors of Terror Overview GlobalSecurity.org).

Forget the Olympics For Now: China's Secret Submarine Base is Serious

China and the Olympics are very much in the news:

• "Hong Kong cheers Olympic torch"
  CNN International (May 2, 2008)
• "Bush betrays humanitarian pledge by going to Beijing Olympics"
  Seattle Post-Intelligencer (May 1, 2008)

I'll grant that the Olympics is a big deal, and that threats to reporters and China's desire to shelter Olympic guests from the rigors of communicating with the outside world are important.

But this should be a major concern, too (first five paragraphs of a British news article):

1. "China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region, it can be disclosed.
2. "Satellite imagery, passed to The Daily Telegraph, shows that a substantial harbour has been built which could house a score of nuclear ballistic missile submarines and a host of aircraft carriers.
3. "In what will be a significant challenge to US Navy dominance and to countries ringing the South China Sea, one photograph shows China’s latest 094 nuclear submarine at the base just a few hundred miles from its neighbours.
4. "Other images show numerous warships moored to long jettys and a network of underground tunnels at the Sanya base on the southern tip of Hainan island.
5. "Of even greater concern to the Pentagon are massive tunnel entrances, estimated to be 60ft high, built into hillsides around the base. Sources fear they could lead to caverns capable of hiding up to 20 nuclear submarines from spy satellites."

("Chinese nuclear submarine base" Telegraph (UK) (May 2, 2008))

"Analysts for Jane's Intelligence Review, a defense magazine, said that the secret base could allow Chinese subs to "break out to launch locations closer to the U.S.," according to the Telegraph. The base has immediate access to very deep waters, which would make launched submarines very difficult to detect." ("China Builds Secret Nuclear Submarine Base in South China Sea" FoxNEWS (May 2, 2008))

Whaddaya Mean, "Secret Base"?!

"Secret submarine base" has a sort of dime novel/comic book ring to it, for me. I wondered what could be so secret about a base that had been located and identified.

It looks like much of the base is underground. It would be difficult, maybe impossible, to tell if there were no submarines inside, one sub, or 20. And that does make a difference, when it comes to security and military planning.

As I've said before, it's a mistake to focus strictly on the Middle East. The War on Terror may become - and may already be - a global conflict. And if that is the case, it will almost certainly have alliances as odd as that between "Aryan" Germany and sincerely non-"Aryan" Japan, a half-century ago.

I think that this submarine base is a clear indication that the Chinese government has a great deal more on its mind than just keeping awkward facts from leaking out during their Olympic Games.