Syria to allow UN probe of alleged nuclear site

VIENNA, Austria – Syria will allow in U.N. inspectors to probe allegations that a remote building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike was a nuclear reactor built secretly with North Korean help, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday.

Thus writes the Associated Press.

But that may well be wrong but anyone who just skims the first graph will never learn so. This is very typical manuplative AP reporting from Vienna.

A few paragraphs later the facts come out:

IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei did not say whether inspectors would be granted access to the site during the planned June 22-24 visit, but a senior diplomat with knowledge of the planned inquiry said they would be able to visit the facility.

…

Diplomats told The Associated Press that during the visit, agency officials will also ask for information on the alleged existence of at least two and possible three undeclared such facilities. The diplomats, who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of their information, indicated they had their knowledge either from the U.S. or from IAEA officials.

One of them said the IAEA was following up on a U.S. intelligence-based tip of alleged unreported facilities to process any nuclear material. The diplomat emphasized the IAEA had not seen the intelligence itself.

This is typical for AP. The headline claims that Syria committed itself to something. But Syria may not have committed to anything at all. It might turn out that Syria will just give a nice talk to the IAEA folks when they visit Damascus. Then of course AP will ‘report’ that in such a fashion that readers will assume Syria broke a committment it never agreed to.

IAEA folks are not "Diplomats".  So we have the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA and maybe also the UK ambassador talking to the Associated Press in the interests of their respective governments.

It is so far unclear if the inspectors will visit any site at all. And there opinions if Assad should allow such vary.

Pat Lang says the Syrian president Assad should let the IAEA see anything and everything anywhere in his country:

Syria!  Watch out!  You should INSIST that the IAEA inspectors go IMMEDIATELY anywhere and everywhere in Syria to look at whatever they want.  You do not have anything that will in any way change your vulnerability to massive destruction inflicted in your country by Israel and the US.  You will never have anything that will change that vulnerability.  Yes, I know all about asymmetric warfare.   No amount of indirect pressure exerted on your present adversaries will prevent them from destroying your infrastructure if they choose to do so.

I disagree. That would be an endless process with new "intelligence" coming up from Israel and the U.S. every time the IAEA is ready to give Syria a clean health bill.

Every and any place would be dug up. All information would be fed back to Israel via CIA moles at the IAEA. The press would be filled with endless rumours before and after each visit. A completely unfounded story about ‘nuclear Syria’ would be created and gain more and more ‘truthiness’ with every report.

The people behind this want to ‘create a reality’. A few years from now, that story then would be the justification for an attack.

There are more things at issues here than the Colonel brings up. National pride is as big an issue in the Middle East just as much as in our own countries. How will the people react? If Assad would allow full inspections, would his people see him as coward? How will the economy and investors react when the IAEA starts to shuffle through private business records in Syria?

What would inspections change for Syria in a positive sense? They only make the false story bigger and harm Syria.

My advice to Assad is to not allow the IAEA anything beyond what Syria is legally obliged to allow.

Please let me know your thoughts. What should Syria do and not do?