Syria nuclear briefing a warning to North Korea, Iran: Bush

WASHINGTON, April 29, 2008 (AFP) – President George W. Bush Tuesday said his decision to brief members of Congress on an Israeli attack on an alleged Syrian nuclear facilty was meant as a “message” to North Korea and Iran.
US national security officials briefed US members of Congress last week, presenting intelligence they said showed Syria had been building a secret nuclear reactor for military ends.
Bush said the briefing was intended to advance “certain policy objectives.”
“One would be to the North Koreans, to make it abundantly clear that we know more about them than they think,” Bush said in a White House news conference.
“Then we have an interest in sending a message to Iran and the world, for that matter, about just how destabilizing nuclear proliferation would be in the Middle East.