by Jerry Gordon

Today’s Ha’aretz newspaper in Israel, reports on a story released by the German news weekly, Der Spiegel on Saturday revealing that according to intelligence reports that the North Koreans (NK) were at the Syrian nuclear facilitating manufacture of nukes for Iran. If the Israelis had provided the intelligence on the NK nukes to the US with credibility, that may explain why the Greeks were keen to hold a joint Iran attack mission training exercise over Crete earlier this month. One former intelligence community source, I queried, reminded me that the North Koreans could have shipped the nukes. One possibility for example, could have occurred when the Iranians attended a missile test that rattled the US and Japan in July 2006.

This report looks consistent with the ‘axis of evil’ technical cabal. Given the revelations about the Swiss end of the A.Q. Kahn network, one wonders if the NK were involved with that, too.

Ex-CIA covert officer, Bruce Tefft AKA “Beowulf” had the following observations along these lines:

This would apply also to Russians and Chinese and anyone else who wanted to bust sanctions, trade with terrorists. Look at Pakistan and A. Khan. It is always easier to ship “designs” and “experts” around than fabricated weapons. But nothing stops the missiles or other weapons from going too.

There were public reports that when Libya decided to become ‘rehabilitated’ that Iran publicly threatened Libyans to the effect “Don’t talk about the secret nuke and WMD work we’ve all been working on together.”

Years ago, there were also public reports that Iran and Saudi Arabia were financing Pakistan’s nuclear research. Presumably, a quid pro quo existed.

In retrospect, given these revelations, we can now understand why Dr. Rice and the minions in Foggy bottom were jarred, when the IAF made the Syrian raid, last September, as it almost kiboshed their much vaunted but misguided NK deal.

At issue is whether the NK and the Syrians actually made enough enriched plutonium at the Euphrates facility to supply Syria and Iran with enriched uranium for making dirty bombs. That would raise the issue of whether that was transfered to Hizbullah for terrorist purposes both in the region and abroad. That possibility could lie behind the US /Canadian intelligence alerts vis a vis Jewish and Israeli targets in North America and Europe. Having posted last night about a possible terror attack on one of the finals in the Euro Soccer championship matches, I wonder if there is more than meets the eye on the ‘threat’.

Another issue is whether the Iranians had acquired the technology to machine warheads for those Shahab III missiles, also NK designed. The NK certainly may have supplied some of the technology for the Syrian bio-warfare programs, along with the ‘jewels’ provided by the late Saddam Hussein that were shipped across the border prior to the onset of Operation enduring Freedom in Iraq by the US-led coalition.

I note this in the Ha’aretz account of the Der Speigel story. Something we surfaced in the New English Review interview with Dr. Jill Dekker, bio-terrorism expert, last December:

Der Spiegel, which did not elaborate on Assad’s reported change of heart, also said Iran, Syria and North Korea had apparently been cooperating in the production of chemical weapons.

It cited an explosion near the Syrian city of Aleppo in July 2007, during which many were reported to have died when quantities of mustard gas and the nerve agent Sarin escaped.

In addition to 15 Syrian military officials, dozens of Iranian “rocket scientists” and three North Koreans were among those killed, the magazine said.

What is the expression, the plot thickens regarding possible Israel actions before the year is out. Stay tuned.