US intelligence official: Syrian reactor was a proliferation threat

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A top member of the US House of Representatives' intelligence committee says an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help and destroyed last year by Israeli jets threatened to spread nuclear weapons technology. After receiving a classified briefing for Congress members, Republican Pete Hoekstra on Thursday called it "is a serious proliferation issue, both for the Middle East and the countries that may be involved in Asia." The committee was briefed on intelligence showing that the destroyed reactor was designed to produce a small amount of plutonium, a highly radioactive substance that can be used to build a powerful nuclear weapon or a radiological bomb.