"Is it logical?" Assad told a Qatari newspaper, insisting that Al Kibar had been a nonnuclear military site. Assad reportedly gave the interview before the administration's April 24 presentation to Congress and was responding to media reports that the site may have housed a reactor.
"A nuclear site did not have protection with surface-to-air missiles? A nuclear site within the footprint of satellites in the middle of Syria in an open area in the desert?" Assad said.
Feinstein said the administration's information raised questions about North Korea's potential proliferation activities in other parts of the world.
She suggested that North Korea may have been the target of the administration's information campaign, and that the administration may also have been "one way or another influencing an agreement with Syria and Israel."
Hoekstra and Feinstein also criticized the White House for not sharing more information with Congress in general and the intelligence committees in particular, a recurring complaint against the Bush administration.
Despite lawmakers' repeated requests for briefings, the administration has said almost nothing about the Israeli airstrike, which took place Sept. 6, 2007.
Feinstein said she learned of the North Korean link for the first time when the administration sent CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell and White House national security advisor Stephen Hadley to brief Congress last week.
Lawmakers are wary because the Bush White House has been tightfisted with information, Feinstein said. When the administration does share intelligence, such as the Syrian satellite imagery and photos, she said, "it makes us very suspicious as to why are they doing it right now."
Alluding to the administration's incorrect prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Hoekstra said the White House needs to build trust.
"The administration has a credibility problem. And if they're going to deal with this credibility problem, the way to deal with it is to be more open, especially with members of Congress," he said.
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nicole.gaouette@latimes.com
