U.S. intelligence officials on Thursday were showing members of Congress a videotape and other evidence supporting their case that Syria was building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance before it was bombed by Israeli planes last year.
Intelligence officials who have seen the evidence consider it "extremely compelling," a U.S. official said, adding that it was gleaned from a variety of sources, not just Israeli intelligence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the Bush administration would issue a public statement later in the day.
CIA Director Michael Hayden and other intelligence officials went to Capitol Hill to brief Congress on the evidence related to the bombed Syrian facility, scheduling appearances before the House and Senate armed services, intelligence and foreign affairs committees.
The Syrian reactor was similar in design to a North Korean reactor that has in the past produced small amounts of plutonium, the official said. It was not yet complete but was far enough along to demonstrate a resemblance to the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon.
The official said no uranium — the fuel for a reactor — was evident on site.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari on Wednesday denied his country has any undeclared nuclear sites and denied cooperating with North Korea on a new reactor.
"We said it many times in the past. There were no Syrian-North Korean cooperation whatsoever in Syria, and we deny these rumors," Ja'afari said.
Syria has not declared the alleged reactor to the International Atomic Energy Agency nor was it under international safeguards, possibly putting Syria in breech of an international nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
Plutonium-producing reactors are of international interest because plutonium can be used to make high-yield nuclear weapons or conventional bombs that disperse radioactive material when they explode, rendering an area potentially unsafe for humans for years.
Israeli warplanes bombed the site in Syria on Sept. 6, 2007. Private analysts said at the time it appeared to have been the site of a reactor, based on commercial satellite imagery taken after the raid. Syria later razed the site. A new, larger building has been constructed in its place.
Commercial satellite imagery from January analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington shows the new building is 60 meters by 60 meters, compared to the original 47-by-47 building that was destroyed last year. It has a vaulted roof, different from the original flat roof. It appears to be connected by a series of trenches and pipes to a possible water treatment facility. CONTINUED
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