Today, administration officials have briefed select Congressional committees on an issue of great international concern. Until Sept. 6, 2007, the Syrian regime was building a covert nuclear reactor in its eastern desert capable of producing plutonium. We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities. We have good reason to believe that reactor, which was damaged beyond repair on Sept. 6 of last year, was not intended for peaceful purposes. Carefully hidden from view, the reactor was not configured for such purposes. In defiance of its international obligations, Syria did not inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the construction of the reactor, and, after it was destroyed, the regime moved quickly to bury evidence of its existence. This cover-up only served to reinforce our confidence that this reactor was not intended for peaceful activities.
We are briefing the IAEA on this intelligence. The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities. The Syrian regime supports terrorism, takes action that destabilizes Lebanon, allows the transit of some foreign fighters into Iraq, and represses its own people. If Syria wants better relations with the international community, it ...   more »

The United States has the combat power to strike Teheran if needed, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff warned Friday.
He alleged Iran was ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq by providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Teheran's Republican Guard.
Mullen said the military is preparing to roll out evidence, including date stamps on newly found weapons caches, to prove that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate.
He would not detail the evidence, which is expected to be revealed by military leaders in Iraq as early as next week. Another senior military official said it will include mortars, rockets, small arms, roadside bombs and armor-piercing explosives, known as explosively formed penetrators or EFPs that troops have discovered in caches in recent months.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the evidence has not yet been made public, said dates on some of the weapons were well after Teheran indicated late last year that it was scaling back aid to insurgents.
In addition, the evidence will include information gleaned from detainees who were ...   more »

By Louis René Beres and Isaac Ben-Israel
April 26, 2008
Israel's Strategic Future, a special report of the Project Daniel Group, was presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on January 16, 2003. Among other things, the report asserted that under no circumstances should Iran be allowed to “go nuclear.” This firm position stemmed from our understanding that stable deterrence could never exist with a nuclear Iran led by the current extreme regime, and that Iran's belligerent stance toward Israel had remained openly genocidal.
Iran has advanced steadily with plans to build and deploy nuclear weapons. On April 8, 2008, Iran's “National Day of Nuclear Technology,” President Ahmadinejad announced his intent to install 6,000 additional centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Now no serious observer could any longer accept the argument that Iran seeks nuclear power only for peaceful purposes. 
International law is not a suicide pact. Every state has not only the right, but also the obligation, to protect its citizens from aggression. This expectation is beyond any moral or legal question when a determined and possibly irrational enemy seeks nuclear weapons. 
Ideally, Israel could deter any Iranian WMD attack by maintaining a credible posture of nuclear deterrence. But ...   more »