Syria Scrubs Attack Site

Pictures can say a thousand words, and the New York Times has a couple of interesting ones from high over Syria.

New commercial satellite photos show that a Syrian site believed to have been attacked by Israel last month no longer bears any obvious traces of what some analysts said appeared to have been a partly built nuclear reactor.

Two photos, taken Wednesday from space by rival companies, show the site near the Euphrates River to have been wiped clean since August, when imagery showed a tall square building there measuring about 150 feet on a side.

I loved this line from deep in the article:

Later in the interview, he said, “ We understand that if Syria even contemplated nuclear technology, then the gates of hell would open on us.”

Did they understand that before or after Israel's attack? I'm guessing it was after a window of hell opened on their nuclear site.

Pending North Korea deal?

Possibly. Maybe. It sure sounds like a nice pay off.

There is new hope that North Korea may be nearing a nuclear disarmament agreement. A compromise was reached that would give North Korea one million tons of fuel oil and electricity, ABC News' Martha Raddatz has learned.

The major sticking point in the six-party-talks in Beijing had been North Korea's demand for an energy package. The country had requested two million tons of fuel oil and two million kilowatts of power before it would agree to begin shutting down its nuclear program.

While the deal gives North Korea half of what it initially demanded, it's twice as much fuel oil as was offered to Kim Jong Il during the Clinton adminstration's 1994 U.S.-North Korea disarmament agreement. That deal would have sent 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year to North Korea, but it was squashed five years ago when North Korea was accused of conducting a secret uranium enrichment program.

You'll have to pardon me for not dancing in the street. I have no doubt that this deal will be broken eventually, too. It's North Korea's M.O. It isn't a matter of if, it is a matter of when. The nuclear program will go silent for a while. Then, a little way into this fuel aid, the North Koreans will feign offense at something and quietly start it right back up again. But hey, if this deal gets done, it let's us pretend that there isn't a problem on the Korean peninsula for a little while, and that's what the world is about today, isn't it? Pretending problems don't really exist?