Kuwaiti Paper Says Syria Has “Advanced” Nuclear Program, Based on Iraqi Material, Expertise
Olivier Guitta, who reads lots of newspapers in the Middle East, giving him insight that many analysts do not have, has written a good summary of the reports about Syria’s nuclear program.
Guitta creates a pretty good timeline of these reports. For example, in 2003, when Russia mentioned helping construct a nuclear power plant in Syria, and in 2004, a German magazine reported on the CIA and Switzerland’s joint efforts to learn more about nuclear activity in northern Syria, specifically Homs.
He also mentions Con Coughlin’s reporting in the Sunday Telegraph in September 2004 about how a dozen Iraqi nuclear scientists were given new identities and moved to Syria before OIF began, and then went to Iran.
Guitta also is the first (I’m aware of) to report in English what the Kuwaiti paper, Al-Seyassah had to say about Syria. The paper says sources in European intelligence confirmed Syria had an “advanced” nuclear program, largely based on nuclear material and expertise from Iraq, under the orders of Saddam’s sons, before and during the war.
The paper continued, saying that British sources in Brussels reported that a total of 60 Iraqi experts joined the Syrian program before OIF began, and today work alongside scientists from Iran and the former Soviet Union. The British intelligence was corroborated by Germany, the report said.
Source: Guitta, Olivier. “Syria’s Nukes,” Front Page Magazine, January 2, 2007.
