Syria Was Way Too Close to Nukes

Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 6:38:45 pm PDT

Come on, world. You can do it.

Say, “Thank you, Israel.”

Hayden: Syrian site could have produced fuel for 2 weapons.

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Michael Hayden said Monday that the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in September would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.

U.S. intelligence and administration officials publicly disclosed last week their assessment that Syria was building a covert nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance. They said it was modeled on the shuttered North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produced a small amount of plutonium. The Syrian site, they said, was within weeks or months of being operational.

“In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons,” Hayden told reporters after a speech at Georgetown University.