The Syrians have taken what was left of the reactor that Israel humiliatingly bombed and made it disappear. Now WaPo reports that they'd been building that thing since 2003:

The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it. The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria while planning and executing a war in Iraq, which was later found to have no active nuclear program. A senior American intelligence official said yesterday that American analysts had looked carefully at the site from its early days, but were unsure then whether it posed a nuclear threat.

Allah's got some theories about what forced Israel's hand as well as some choice words about the emerging "it was Bush's fault" media meme. It's obviously how liberal anti-Bush folks will be spinning the news, but it also has the unfortunate benefit of being obviously true. Which is not to say that there wasn't a debate within the Administration about the development of a Syrian nuclear program - but it does mean that the de facto pro-Sryian voices of "engagement" won. And where were those voices coming from? Hmm:

"Israel tends to be very thorough about its intelligence coverage, particularly when it takes a major military step, so they would not have acted without data from several sources," said ABC military consultant Tony Cordesman. A senior U.S. official said the Israelis planned to strike during the week of July 14 and in secret high-level meetings American officials argued over how to respond to the intelligence. Some in the administration supported the Israeli action, but others, notably Sect. of State Condoleeza Rice did not. One senior official said the U.S. convinced the Israelis to "confront Syria before attacking."

The awesome thing is that Israel probably had a mole in the facility, which means that the State Department's request for Israel to "confront" would have outed an intelligence asset and given the Syrians the heads up to start preparing for an IAF attack. These people should be fired. All of them.

After the jump, pure awesomeness.