It was much ado about very little in Syria again today as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced that it had found trace amounts of uranium inside the nation’s Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) which were not included in the nation’s previous declarations regarding their inventory.
The IAEA report says it detected “manmade” uranium particles in the MNSR, a small research reactor located in Damascus. The reactor was obtained from the Chinese government and operates using enriched uranium.
The IAEA admitted that it was not clear whether or not there was any link between this and a handful of particles discovered during the visit to a Syrian site attacked by the Israeli military, which the US has alleged was a yet to be completed gas-graphite reactor.
Still, the paucity of information was not enough to prevent speculation that the nation was running tests at the MNSR related to the alleged facility. The IAEA has requested further clarification, but ultimately has no definitive evidence of any wrongdoing.
As always seems to be this case in these insinuations of wrongdoing in Islamic nuclear programs, the details given out in U.S. media sources are so vague as to be laughable. When I read the headline that traces of uranium were found in a Syrian reactor, my immediate exclamation was, "Well, it's a reactor! Why wouldn't there be traces of uranium?"
What it all boils down to is the U.S. government's cynical manipulation of the crass stupidity and ignorance of the U.S. populace to instill fear and thereby create "facts on the ground" to justify further U.S. military aggression. The media, which no longer has a role of critique, dutifully carries out its self-appointed task of being a megaphone for the government's propaganda. Thus does sloth and ignorance abet evil.