This is a stunning confirmation from the CIA regarding the threat to the US forces and its allies in the Middle East from a nuclear capability inside Sryia:

CIA officials will tell Congress on Thursday that North Korea had been helping Syria build a plutonium-based nuclear reactor, a U.S. official said, a disclosure that could touch off new resistance to the administration’s plan to ease sanctions on Pyongyang.

The CIA officials will tell lawmakers that they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons but was destroyed before it could do so, the U.S. official said, apparently referring to a suspicious installation in Syria that was bombed last year by Israeli warplanes.

The CIA officials also will say that though U.S. officials have had concerns for years about ties between North Korea and Syria, it was not until last year that new intelligence convinced them that the suspicious facility under construction in a remote area of Syria was a nuclear reactor, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing plans for the briefing.

This is a very disconcerting revelation. Syria has been a pathway for many Jihadist into Iraq to fight with al-Qaeda. Syria is also a looming threat to Israel. The threat from a secret nuclear facility is it could provide an untraceable source for nuclear bomb materials that could be handed to suicidal Jihadists and rampage as they see fit without the world being able to target the source of the material. Thankfully we were able to detect the activity and have action taken before it became operational. But we may not always be so lucky. Secret nuclear facilities and programs like those in Iran and Syria (and previously Iraq) are secret for a reason. Peaceful uses of nuclear power are not secret.