Uranium now the justification for invading Syria?
NOW IT’S SYRIA’S URANIUM??? Giza Death Star, JANUARY 17, 2013 BY JOSEPH P. FARRELL Really…it’s getting to be like a bit of theater isn’t it? It would be laughable, were it not for the loss of life and suffering involved. We’ve seen every excuse in the world trotted out, it seems, to justify an “intervention” by the West in Syria, with the usual “human rights” leading the charge. That, of course, didn’t pan out too well. So now, it seems, Syria has a lot of uranium we should all be worried about:
Now the West Is Worried About Syrian Uranium! Must Invade? This, it seems, is the latest scam….. The mention of Iraq in this article may recall, for some who remember the whole fiasco, what happened when we were all lied to about the necessity of the need to invade that country. First we were told that Saddam Hussein was sponsoring terrorism. That one quickly fell by the wayside to be replaced by the prospect of an immanent nuclear Iraq. He was building “weapons of mass destruction” (specifically atomic bombs), and had demonstrated his willingness to use such weapons by gassing the Kurds. No doubt, the man was evil, and may even have used a-bombs had he had them. Of course, Saddam was no fool either, and may not have used them, knowing that it may have called forth a similar response from the west. But in any case, he didn’t have them.
But you’ll recall there was story that was quickly circulated as the invasion was under way, and the evidence for such a program was not forthcoming: Saddam, we were informed, had dismantled his whole program and shipped it, lock, stock, and German-made centrifuge, to…
…Syria.
So in a certain sense, invading Syria would (follow the twisted logic here), be completing what we started in Iraq….. Watch this one carefully folks, because this seems to be what is happening here: a way to piggyback an Iranian project on a Syrian one. Same ole same ole. http://gizadeathstar.com/2013/01/now-its-syrias-uranium/
Syria’s uranium stockpile a cause for anxiety
Fears raised over Syria uranium stockpile, Ft.com. 8 Jan 13, By James Blitz in London Nuclear experts in the US and Middle East have raised concerns about the security of up to 50 tonnes of unenriched uranium in Syria amid fears that civil war could put the stockpile at risk.
Since the start of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad two years ago, western governments have been heavily focused on the fate of Syria’s chemical weapons and worries that those stocks might be taken over by militant group
But government officials and nuclear experts have also expressed fears to the Financial Times about what may be a significant stockpile of uranium inside Syria.
Concerns go back to the Assad regime’s attempt to build a nuclear reactor at Al-Kibar in the east of the country. yria, with assistance from North Korea, was thought to be close to completing the reactor when the facility was destroyed by Israeli jets in September 2007.
Very little is known about Syria’s nuclear programme and the country has always denied that it ever had one. Syria has also given very little information to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog, about its work……
An IAEA inspection team visited the destroyed Al-Kibar site in May 2008 and only found traces of uranium. This merely added to the mystery of where the 50 tonnes of uranium, if it exists, might be. Such a stockpile would be enough, according to experts, to provide weapons grade fuel for five atomic devices….. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a450b660-5998-11e2-88a1-00144feab49a.html#axzz2HX2YULqD
Syrian envoy responds forcefully to suggestion of Israel attacking Syria
Syrian envoy: We’ll destroy Israeli nuclear facilities with 20 missiles Jordanian media report that Syria’s ambassador in Amman, Bahjat Suleiman said that his country is capable of destroying Israel’s nuclear facilities should Damascus come under attack YNet, Roi Kais 08.23.12, Read more »
Military action in Syria could escalate into nuclear war
Russia says action on Syria, Iran may go nuclear By Gleb Bryanski MOSCOW | May 17, 2012 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned on Thursday that military action against sovereign states could lead to a regional nuclear war, starkly voicing Moscow’s opposition to Western intervention ahead of a G8 summit at which Syria and Iran will be discussed.
“Hasty military operations in foreign states usually bring radicals to power,” Medvedev, president for four years until Vladimir Putin’s inauguration on May 7, told a conference in St. Petersburg in remarks posted on the government’s website.
“At some point such actions which undermine state sovereignty may lead to a full-scale regional war, even, although I do not want to frighten anyone, with the use of nuclear weapons,” Medvedev said. “Everyone should bear this in mind.”…
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-g8-russia-idUSBRE84G18M20120517
Researchers show that Syria’s supposed nuclear site is a textile factory
That secret nuclear facility in Syria? It’s a textile factory, researchers say in new report, Washington Post By Joby Warrick 4 Nov After a four-year search for hidden atomic facilities in Syria, U.N. officials appeared this week to have finally struck gold: News reports linked a large factory in eastern Syria to a suspected clandestine effort to spin uranium gas into fuel for nuclear bombs.
But after further probing by private researchers, Syria’s mystery plant is looking far less mysterious. A new reportconcludes that the facility and its thousands of fast-spinning machines were intended to make not uranium, but cloth — a very ordinary cotton-polyester.
“It is, and always has been, a textile factory,” said one of the researchers, Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear policy expert at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and publisher of the blog Arms Control Wonk…..
UN investigators suspect nuclear weapons site in Syria
Syria nuclear weapons site revealed by UN investigators, Guardian UK 1 Nov 11, IAEA identifies uranium enrichment plant design at Hasakah and finds correspondence with Pakistan atomic expert, sources claim
UN investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions the government in Damascus worked with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan‘s atomic bomb, to acquire nuclear weapons technology. Read more »
Assassination of Syrian nuclear engineer
UN Security Council not taking action on allegations about Syria’s nukes
Security Council Agrees to Disagree About Syria Nuclear Program, IsraelNationalNews.15 July 11 The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday brought its allegations of covert atomic work by Syria before the UN Security Council, but the 15-nation body took no immediate action, Reuters reported. Last September, IAEA said that Syria had refused to allow UN inspectors to visitDair Alzour, the nuclear facility that was meant to produce plutonium and which was bombed by the Israeli Air Force while still under construction in 2007.
The IAEA’s report expressed concern that should Syria continue to stonewall the investigation, “some of the necessary information may deteriorate or be lost entirely.”In June, the IAEA’s board of governors voted to report Syria to the Security Council over its behavior.
Reuters reported that during Thursday’s closed-door briefing by Neville Whiting, head of the IAEA safeguards department dealing with Syria and Iran, it was made clear that Syria had a secretnuclear plant.But despite this, Syria’s close allies Russia and China queried whether the Council should be involved, as the Syrian complex no longer exists…..http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145741
UN reports on Syria’s nuclear program
U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Presses Case Against Syria, NYT, By DAN BILEFSKY June 9, 2011 UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations nuclear watchdog voted Thursday to report Syria to the Security Council, citing Syria’s construction of a covert nuclear reactor and its failure to cooperate with investigators, diplomats said……Citing a lack of confidence that Syria’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and pointing to a history of concealment by Damascus, the I.A.E.A. resolution says that the destroyed Dair Alzour site was “very likely a nuclear reactor and should have been declared by Syria.”
The 15-member Security Council has the power to rebuke Syria by urging it to cooperate with the I.A.E.A. and imposing sanctions against the country, as it has done in the case ofIran’s nuclear program. But Russia and China, two veto-wielding members of the Security Council, voted against the resolution, underlining international divisions over how to approach Damascus and signaling that punitive measures against the Syrian government were unlikely.
Syria has said the Dair Alzour site was a non-nuclear facility and has denied having a secret nuclear program. It has urged the I.A.E.A. to focus on Israel and allegations about its own covert nuclear activities…..http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/world/middleeast/10nations.html
Syria pledges to cooperate with UN on matters nuclear
Syria says it will cooperate on nuclear probe but US pushes for UN referral The Washington Post 29 May 11, NEW YORK — In a major turnaround, Syria is pledging full cooperation with U.N. attempts to probe strong evidence that it secretly built a reactor that could have been used to make nuclear arms, according to a confidential document shared with The Associated Press on Sunday.
If Syria fulfills its promise, the move would end three years of stonewalling by Damascus of the International Atomic Energy. Since 2008, the agency has tried in vain to follow up on strong evidence that a target bombed in 2007 by Israeli warplanes was a nearly built nuclear reactor that would have produced plutonium once active……AP Exclusive: Syria says it will cooperate on nuclear probe but US pushes for UN referral – The Washington Post
IAEA concerned about nuclear developments in Iran and Syria
AUDIO Nuclear Watchdog Details Concerns In Iran, Syria : NPR, 26 May 11, The International Atomic Energy Agency has released troubling new reports on the nuclear activities of Iran and Syria.The Iran report indicates the production of enriched uranium there is increasing and raises more questions about Iran’s possible research into the military applications of nuclear technology. Read more »
IAEA confirms that Syria did have a secret nuclear facility
“The facility that was … destroyed by Israel was a nuclear reactor under construction,”
Bombed Syrian plant ‘was nuclear facility site’ says energy agency, News Scotsman, 29 April 2011, By George Jahn and Khaled Yacoub Oweis, THE head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said for the first time that a target destroyed by Israeli warplanes in the Syrian desert in 2007 was the covert site of a future nuclear reactor, countering assertions by Syria that it had no atomic secrets. Read more »
Inspection of Syria’s nuclear sites by IAEA
Syria agrees to IAEA inspection of nuclear site, Google hosted news, (AFP) – 3 March 11, VIENNA — Syria has agreed to a vist by inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to a nuclear site for the first time since June 2008, diplomats said Wednesday.The site, at Homs in the west of the country, is known to the IAEA and is not thought to be suspect.”Syria has agreed to the principle of a visit,” said a source close to the IAEA. It is due to take place on April 1 though the details remain to be determined.The agreement follows numerous requests and growing impatience on the part of the agency with Damascus’s refusals.The visit will not take in a posible uranium enrichment facility at Al Kibar, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes in 2007, the source said….. AFP: Syria agrees to IAEA inspection of nuclear site
Syria might have had a nuclear power project in the past
Suspected Nuclear Facility Sighted in Syria, NTI: Global Security Newswire, Feb. 24, 2011 A site near the Syrian capital of Damascus has gained attention among Western intelligence services as a possible one-time host to undisclosed atomic activities in the Middle Eastern nation, Reuters reported. Read more »
Wikileaks reveals bombing of Syrian nuclear reactor by Israel
Israel bombed Syria nuclear reactor: cable – IOL, 28 Dec 10, Israel destroyed a secret Syrian nuclear reactor in September 2007, according to a US diplomatic cable cited Friday in the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth daily.The cable, which the Israeli paper said it had obtained ahead of its publication by WikiLeaks, was written on April 25, 2008, by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and stated that “on September 6 2007, Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor built by Syria secretly, apparently with North Korea’s help.”Yediot said the cable provided the first official confirmation of the attack…..Israel bombed Syria nuclear reactor: cable – World – IOL | Breaking News | South Africa News | World News | Sport | Business | Entertainment | IOL.co.za
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- AUDIO About San Onofre Nuclear plant. Nuclear Regulatory Commission – NRC: Lapdog or Watchdog? http://www.fairewinds.org/content/nrc-lapdog-or-watchdog
- and this Japan’s nuclear safety record criticised by regulator http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/connect-asia/japans-nuclear-safety-record-criticised-by-regulator/1132464
VIDEO: Japan to open nuclear plant http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3761126.ht
From Fukushima to New York: Continuing Dangers of Nuclear Power
Women and nuclear radiation – Mary Olson speaks
Mary Olson, from Nuclear Information and Resource Service, spoke at the New York symposium on Fukushima’s effects, March 2013.
Here are some highlights:
Mary Olson discussed the findings of the latest National Academy of Sciences Biological Effects of Ionising Radiation ( BEIR VII) , illustrated by this graph:
This lifespan graph shows increased cancer risk by exposure to a given amount of radiation, The pink line shows the risk for girls, the blue line for boys. Look at left hand part of the graph. It covers from zero to 5 years, and includes pre birth. We see a striking difference between the blue line and the pink line. The nuclear regulators assume that the risk shown here at age 40 – in the blue line- is the same for every individual regardless of age or gender. Yet, even at ages 40 – 60 the cancer risk from radiation is significantly more for women, than for men.
The cancer danger from ionising radiation depends on the type of radiation, the amount, and the duration of the exposure. But it also depends on who is exposed. Radiation exposure endangers some individuals more than others. In order, the most vulnerable are:
Primary germ cells/ Embryo
Foetus
Children
Elders
Some genotypes
Females – both juvenile and adult
All of the world’s scientific authorities agree that there is no safe dose of radiation. That includes the WHO, EPA, NRC, and national Academy of Science.
The standards for permissable levels of ionising radiation were originally written to cover doctors using radiation, then were intended for the purpose of sending military into radiological areas. Yet these standads, based on a 30 year old man, are applied to everyone.
Over 100 years, man’s activities have increased the background radiation by 25%
The ratio of cancer risks from radiation for males and females is 3 to 2. That is for every 2 males who get cancer from ionising radiation, there are 3 females. In reports from BEIR and the Lifespan study of Hiroshima survivors only external radiation is considered, not internal radiation. The risk for females is being underestimated in reports and in regulations about radiation
The World Health Organisation is the first big agency to acknowledge this difference in radiation risk between males and females, in its latest report. WHO is also saying that there is 70% higher risk of thyroid cancer for little girls exposed to radiation.
Studies are continuing, and animal studies, too, are showing this gender difference. We must move towards prevention and precaution as the basis of policy. Sadly, it is too late for a lot of prevention. We need to cahnge the priorities – to protect first, study second
And we need to get a whole lot more women motivated to get involved.
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