Syria Rebuilds on Site Destroyed by Israeli Bombs

New York Times ^ | January 12, 2008 | WILLIAM J. BROAD

[tlb]

The puzzling site in Syria that Israeli jets bombed in September grew more curious on Friday with the release of a satellite photograph showing new construction there that resembles the site’s former main building.

After the attack, the Syrians wiped the area clean, with some analysis calling the speed of the cleanup a tacit admission of guilt. The barren site is on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, 90 miles north of the Iraqi border.

Given the international uproar that unfolded after the bombing, “we can assume it’s not a reactor,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that has analyzed the Syrian site.

The satellite photographs, he added, led experts to doubt “that the targeted construction” was in fact a nuclear reactor.

The image released Friday came from a private company, DigitalGlobe, in Longmont, Colo. It shows a tall, square building under construction that appears to closely resemble the original structure, with the exception that the roof is vaulted instead of flat. The photo was taken from space on Wednesday.

If international inspectors eventually get to the site, he added, they will have a more difficult time looking for nuclear evidence. “The new building,” he noted, “covers whatever remained of the destroyed one.”

While some analysts have suggested that the new building might slow down international inspectors, Dr. ElBaradei said in the interview that his agency had sensitive “technologies to assure that the location did not host a nuclear facility.”

[tlb]

Argues against there being nuclear material at the site when the bombs fell.

[Robe]

New site under construction

[Rudder]

Given the international uproar that unfolded after the bombing...

What uproar?

[Dog]

Something is under construction...

[Uncle Ike]

” Given the international uproar that unfolded after the bombing...
What uproar? “

Exactly...

It was a classic case of ‘the dog that didn’t bark’.....

[KarlInOhio]

Has anyone release an analysis of the air downwind and water downstream from the bombing site? I find it hard to believe that the building could have been destroyed with zero leakage, and it wouldn't take much for someone to take some samples and get them back to a lab.

[Calvin Locke]

Dr. ElBaradei said ...his agency had sensitive “technologies to assure that the location did not host a nuclear facility.”

Thank God. I feel so much better now that the corruptocrats at the UN are assuring us.

[johnny7]

IMO, it was a dirty bomb facility... never a reactor.

[LibLieSlayer]

I’ll believe Israel over any UN outfit and most of our government.

LLS

[holden]

The walls of the new construction appear to be quite tall, given by the black on the interior north and west sides! The shadow emanating onto the blue from the west helps in that assessment. The blue looks false, or at least not water. Simple paint wouldn't make sense, e.g., for a shop floor, but I'm left to imagine some other purposeful material whose color happens to be blue.

Do I see paving of broad roadways using non-indigenous material or is that just the recyling of concrete rubble from the previous demolition? I guess the latter.

That's without the loupe, of course.

HF

[LtKerst]

Blow it up anyway.

[mewzilla]

Dr. ElBaradei said in the interview that his agency had sensitive “technologies to assure that the location did not host a nuclear facility.”

I note that ElB didn't use the word ensure...

[Calvin Locke]

Same difference if it was intended to handle overly dangerous nuclear material.

Too bad Bush is withholding the info, probably to cover up that NK is still in the business of selling nuclear materials, and *his* NK policy is just as bad as his predecessors, as well as covering for the stupidity of SanFranNan's visit to Syria.

[Eye of Unk]

The new official Israeli bomb/missile test range.

[tlj18]

Not a problem. Simply bomb it again.

[holden]

No, don't blow it up before they soak several more billions into it!

As soon as they've done that, and just before they reap any significant payback, then it'll be ripe for a few million worth of explosives for proper demolition.

HF

[Chode]

if you build it... they will come!!!

[Mr. Jeeves]

Propaganda aimed at the Arab world. “Even the Zionists can’t stop our progress!” Probably just a hollow shell with no actual function.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

That was my first thought. What uproar? More like a deafening upsilence!

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Blow it up anyway.

LOL! Wouldn't that be a hoot? Israel spikes their radar again and blows the whole thing up again the same as last time?