Friday, October 26, 2007

That bombed Syrian reactor: What do the photos show?

These photos (discussed by Marcy Wheeler here) come to us by way of this Washington Post story. Allegedly, these images show that alleged nuclear reactor in Syria before and after the Israeli bombing.

Call me paranoid, but image 2 does not, in my eyes, display clear-cut evidence of bomb damage. All we know is that a square-ish building was razed. Judging from the shadows, I'd say that it was about five stories tall. (Of course, mine is a purely amateur opinion, and I'd love to hear from those with better expertise.)

Perhaps we should remind ourselves of the great satellite photo imbroglio of 2005, in which the same image, released by the government to CNN, was held to depict nuke facilities in Iran and in Korea:


I did note a couple of potentially interesting oddities in the current photos, which I've tried to highlight here. The green arrows point to what looks like a road leading to an underground entrance.

When you think about it, if the Syrians had any reason to fear an Israeli aerial attack -- and obviously, they did -- they would have been smart to go underground.

Which means that whatever the Syrians were doing there, they may still be doing it.

The red arrows point to what appear to be hints of new construction. I'm uncertain as to the significance of this.

David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, told the Washington Post that the photos indicate that the Syrians were abandoning the site. Maybe so. Maybe no.

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