WASHINGTON — A senior Republican congressman assailed the Bush administration Sunday for the timing and nature of its charges that North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear weapons facility.
Administration officials went before the Senate and House intelligence panels last week carrying satellite imagery and photos that they said linked North Korea with the desert structure that Israel destroyed in an airstrike last year.
"The administration has handled this very badly" and "has a credibility problem," Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "Late Edition."
The allegations come as negotiations continue between the United States and other countries and North Korea over the dismantling of the Pyongyang government's nuclear program.
In exchange for North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons program, the Bush administration has offered to ease sanctions on the isolated country and remove it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism -- steps that conservative lawmakers see as unacceptable concessions.
Hoekstra said he believed that the administration's revelations were an attempt to gain leverage in the talks, but that the strategy might backfire with Congress, particularly among those conservatives.
"I think the administration believes it will help them get to a deal with North Korea," he said.
"The timing of it, what information they released, what information they did not release and who they released it to, is going to make it more difficult for them to reach an agreement that will be supported by Congress and supported by the American people," Hoekstra said.
Both Hoekstra and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said on the CNN program that based on the administration's presentation, they had little doubt the Syrian facility was related to nuclear production.
Some photos appeared to show rods that control heat in a nuclear reactor and buildings that bear strong structural and engineering similarities to North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor.
"This is compelling information," Hoekstra said.
In remarks published Sunday, Syrian President Bashar Assad dismissed the allegations that the site known as Al Kibar was involved in nuclear activities.
