The notion that anybody in this day and age can build a nuclear plant in secret is just ludicrous. The North Koreans didn't do it, the Pakistanis didn't do it, the Iranians haven't managed to keep their nuclear facilities secret, Israel wants to believe their nuclear facilities are secret but everybody knows about them anyhow. Everybody and their brother keeps close tabs on any technology that can be used to build nuclear power plants. Even the North Koreans had to import most of the stuff for their power plants, and Syria is just as dirt-poor as North Korea and has even less industry -- poorer, maybe, because at least North Korea gets cash for their missiles and nuclear technology, while all Syria gets is bribes to let Hizballah rockets pass through their territory to Lebanon.
But, could it have happened for the first time ever? Well, thanks to Bryan at Why Now, I now can look at pictures of the purported nuclear reactor. And the answer is: Bwaahahahahah!
As Bryan points out, the chances of there really being a nuclear plant out there are pretty much non-existent because, well, the Syrians are friggin' flat broke and the North Koreans ain't a charity outfit. The pictures pretty much verify that. This setup looks more to me like a house and a generating station for the pumping station down at the river, for pumping water somewhere uphill. I bet if we look at this area real closely on Google Earth we'll see a water tower further uphill, and a town somewhere nearby that the water tower serves.
Hmm, just found it on Google Earth, and uphill from this is...
a water treatment plant. (And just for comparison, Tempe, Arizona's water treatment plant -- quite similar in many respects).
Well. Wouldn't be the first time that U.S.-built bombs smashed a water treatment plant, eh?
As for the building itself, Google Maps shows it as being 150 feet by 150 feet square (move the building over the scale to see what I mean). Or roughly 22,500 square feet. Not small, but not large enough for the purpose indicated. Crap, your typical Safeway grocery store is twice the size (the average Safeway is 44,000 square feet, and the new ones average 55,000 square feet). Unless the Syrians have mastered Dr. Who's interdimensional Tardis technology, you simply can't fit what the U.S. is saying was in there into the building that was there...
I am SOOO tired of these lying liars and their continued lies... sigh.
- Badtux the Fact-checking Penguin
You can also note that for the country's only reactor, it's woefully unsecured. There's not even a fence around the bleeding hole.
ReplyDeleteSo why was it bombed? And why do I, as an Israeli citizen, have to get my information about the whole mess from *your* government?
For why it was bombed: That's a good question. I have speculated that it was bombed primarily as a test of Syria's air defenses to see how difficult it would be to fly a mission over northern Syria to reach Iran. This would of course require aerial refueling over Kurdistan, but that is no problem. The day American jets shoot down Israeli jets is the day Tuxology becomes the state religion of the United States. In any event, Israel's F-15's certainly have the range to fly this mission, if they can get their combat craft over there without offending the Turks too badly (Israel needs the Turks because much of the IAF's training is done over Turkey). But why this particular target? That's a good question. As you note, it does not seem secured in any way. Surely if it was anything important it would be secured. And it's hooked up to the water plant up above by some sort of pipeline (and the water plant *is* secured, it has a fence around it and has been there for quite some time because trees have had time to grow, which as I'm sure you know is not easy in the desert and requires much water, another clue that it truly is a water plant). And it's a nice square easy to hit target. So (shrug). I do not know.
ReplyDeleteAs for why you have to get your information from my government, if you live in a democracy that is a question you should ask your representative in Parliament. Well, I forgot. Israel doesn't do that. Israel does proportional representation, not district-based representation. I'm sure it seemed a good idea at the time... it just does not seem to have worked out well in practice, though the district system that we here in the U.S. inherited from England hasn't always worked all that well either.
When we first got the "news" from the "news readers" on teh mainstream teevee, I honestly thought of those mobile germ warfare lab drawings that Colin Powell showed us via the UN.
ReplyDeleteI keep writing to my congresscritters and reps to impeach this lying crew, and keep hearing that it cant be done, but that aint stopping me!
btw, DIG YOUR AVATAR...
If I were an Israeli, I would certainly hope this is another totally bogus US propaganda piece, otherwise Israeli intel has just lost a Syrian network because of this exposure. There can't be that many people who could have takem the pictures that have been on display, and the Syrians would shoot them all after asking "pointed" questions.
ReplyDelete