Israelis Took Out a Syrian Nuclear Reactor

Back in September of last year the Israeli Air Force paid a visit to neighboring Syria and took out a nuclear reactor that was under construction. At the time it was thought the reactor was years from completion, but not so:

The Bush administration will tell Congress tomorrow that a nuclear facility in Syria built with North Korean help was nearly complete when Israel bombed it in September, and that Pyongyang has not provided any further nuclear assistance to the hard-line Arab nation, at least at that site, U.S. officials said.

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and other intelligence officials are expected to brief several congressional committees in closed-door sessions, breaking the administration’s silence on the issue.

The Syrian facility has become a key issue in six-nation negotiations to end the North’s nuclear programs.

“The fact is that the reactor was nearing completion,” said one official familiar with the content of the briefings. “It would have been able to produce plutonium.”

If the Israelis were willing and able to go all the way to Baghdad to knock out a reactor, whatever possessed the Syrians to think they could build one in their backyard?