Small Update

Update: Two Israeli security guards were shot dead overnight Friday in a shooting attack at the Nitzanei Shalom industrial zone, near the West Bank city of Tul Karm.

Update: Die "Präsentation". Kommentar:

“Only two still photographs”

There are NO photographs in the video and the shown graphics are from different times. Second one before the pressure vessel was finished and the first one with the fuel channels. If the graphics are based on photos, Mr. Spy visited the site two or several times. But the first checks of the two graphics are not really compelling: Both graphics show a window that can be used to check the proportions of the room. And the room with the fuel channels is much bigger than the room with the vessel.

Has anybody read the famous book “The Syrian art of making rooms bigger and enlarge the diameter of a 15t orsomething steel and grafite-vessels”?

"Syrian Reactor": In Washington on Thursday, lawmakers were briefed by US officials behind closed doors on charges that North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor at a site destroyed by an Israeli raid in September. US officials also gave lawmakers a video presentation that included photographs of the Syrian nuclear facility, a top US official said on condition of anonymity. Nach ersten geleakten Äußerungen von Leuten aus dem Hinterzimmer von Bush, die das angebliche Video aus dem eine Videomontage gefertigt wurde gesehen haben wollen läßt sich sagen das wohl die Qualität des Materials derartig schlecht ist das man allerhöchstens nichts damit beweisen kann. Einer wollte allen Ernstes sogar Löcher für die Brennstäbe entdeckt haben, womit wohl dargestellt werden soll das die Anlage betreibsbereit gewesen sei. Leider, anstatt Bildmaterial einfach vorzulegen verplappert man sich lieber: The reactor was reportedly not yet complete but far enough along to demonstrate a resemblance to the reactor at Yongbyon, which supposedly is being dismantled. [Für Fans: The main structural element of a reactor, a graphite stack with fuel channels, absorber rods and surrounding metal structures, is housed in a concrete vault. The vertical graphite stack columns contain fuel channels and control rod channels. The graphite stack is carried by a welded steel structure resting on a concrete foundation. On top the graphite stack is spanned over by an upper steel structure resting on the annular water tank of the biological shield. A welded shell enclosing the graphite stack, as well as the upper and bottom steel structures form a sealed reactor space. To prevent graphite oxidation and to improve heat transfer from graphite to fuel channels, the reactor space is filled with a helium-nitrogen mixture. Provision is made to replace the fuel channels and control rod channels on the shutdown and cooled reactor. The fuel channels are tubes whose lower and upper portions are fabricated from corrosion-resistant steel, while the central part is made of Zircalloy. The split graphite rings in the channels provide thermal contact with the graphite bricks of the stack. Suspended in the fuel channel is a fuel assembly bank. The fuel assembly bank consists of two fuel assemblies. Each fuel assembly contains 18 fuel rods in the form of sealed Zircalloy tubes which are filled with uranium dioxide pellets. Light water coolant is fed into the lower end of the fuel channels. From the fuel channel the coolant is fed into the separators. To improve heat exchange, the upper fuel assembly carries special intensifying grids. Removal of irradiated fuel elements, their handling and charge of fresh elements are performed on load by means of a refueling machine mounted in the central room. The biological shield is made of carbon steel, serpentine crushed stone and gravel, concrete, sand, water.] Nach derzeitigem Stand der Dinge hat das White House Personal also die Syrer Löcher bauen sehen, weil Löcher sind natürlich für einen Reaktorbau das wichtigste überhaupt. Es gibt allerdings schon Leute die wissen mehr: The United States is convinced that North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor, the White House said on Thursday. "We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement. "We have good reason to believe that reactor, which was damaged beyond repair on September 6 of last year, was not intended for peaceful purposes," she said. Perino also said North Korean and Syrian nuclear cooperation underscored the need for "further steps" by the international community against Iran's nuclear activities. Immerhin! Ich glaube diese Geschichte hier kann heute zu den Akten gelegt werden: An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday. Schlußwort: The positive aspect of the testimony on the air strike, the analysts added, was that it would increase Israel's deterrence by showing the country's impressive operational abilities. [Jeder macht sich so lächerlich wie es eben geht.]

A U.N. agency suspended its aid operations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after an emergency shipment of fuel designated for its use was blocked by petrol-hungry Palestinian farmers. +++ Hamas on Thursday proposed a six-month truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip, with an option to extend it afterward to include Palestinians in the West Bank. Former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, speaking in Cairo after meeting Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, said the truce must include an end to the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip. +++ Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter denied on Wednesday that the U.S. State Department warned him not to meet with leaders of the Islamist group Hamas before he made a recent trip to the Middle East.

While Israel hopes to hold onto several clumps of settlements, Olmert has said Israel will have to give up most of the West Bank for a future Palestinian state. Those sections will likely be those located on the other side of the separation barrier Israel is erecting in the West Bank and that is nearly complete. More than 70,000 Jewish settlers live in these areas. As part of U.S. involvement in Mideast peace talks, American officials have expressed interest in the bill. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has raised the issue in meetings with Olmert, officials from his Kadima Party said. + U.S. President George W. Bush, trying to shore up a faltering Middle East peace process, assured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday that Palestinian statehood remained a high priority in his final 10 months in office.

A former U.S. envoy and Mideast negotiator called Thursday for peace talks in which Israel would yield the Golan Heights to Syria in return for a peace treaty and withdrawal of support for Hezbollah militants, but said Syria was not likely to negotiate with Israel without American presence. Martin Indyk, former ambassador to Israel, told the House Mideast subcommittee that Israel had enlisted Turkey to help register its interest in peace negotiations to Syria. But Indyk, who was a U.S. negotiator during former President Bill Clinton's efforts in 2000 to mediate an agreement, said, "Syria will not sit down with Israel without the United States in the room." Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday said that Israel was genuinely interested in restarting talks with Syria