FOX News "America's Pulse" - Transcript

Interview

FOX News "America's Pulse"

MS. COLBY: So Israeli jets destroyed a nuclear plant in Syria last year. It was a site said to be within weeks, maybe just months of functioning. And today, a top secret videotape may prove that North Korea was helping the Syrians behind it. Congress was briefed on that evidence just hours ago; U.S. intel saying it clearly shows that North Korean workers were in that facility, a facility nearly identical to one that's in North Korea, used to make materials for an atomic bomb. This is serious stuff.

Senator John Cornyn was in that briefing this morning. He's a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Senator, very nice of you to join us. Thank you so much.

SEN. CORNYN: Thank you.

MS. COLBY: I understand the sensitivity of this topic. I know there are many things you can't tell us. But what can you tell us about how serious the threat would have been if this particular plant was up and operational?

SEN. CORNYN: Well, we already know what a bad actor that North Korea is when it comes to developing nuclear weapons. And that's been the subject of the six-party talks there. But if proven, I think this demonstrates their desire to proliferate nuclear weapons and nuclear- weapons-creating ability to dangerous regimes like Syria, which is a well known bad actor in the Middle East, of course, supporting Hezbollah and Islamic extremists in Lebanon and working closely with Iran as a proxy of Iran to transit weapons from Iran through Syria into Lebanon to be used against Israel. So this is a very serious matter.

MS. COLBY: Senator, just crossing the wires, a report that this particular plant could have been within weeks, maybe months of being up and operational. What you saw this morning, in terms of any video or still pictures, how compelling was it and what can you tell us about it?

SEN. CORNYN: Well, I can't tell you what I saw or what I heard, but I can tell you that based on published reports that it was quite a ways along. And I think clearly Israel saw it as a threat to them.

And literally, you now, Israel lives in that neighborhood. And it's not just a hypothetical issue, whether Iran or whether Syria or other nations in the Middle East that support international terrorism, whether they get nuclear weapons. This is an existential threat to them. So, you know, they're clearly going to act in their own national defense and if these reports prove to be true, that's what happened here.

MS. COLBY: So concerned are you about this particular issue and the threat that you plan to propose legislation, legislation that is already pretty far along where you're concerned. Tell me about it.

SEN. CORNYN: This is the Syrian Accountability and Liberation Act, which would authorize sanctions against Syria, make sure that we use every tool available to us to discourage them from engaging in this sort of activity which is dangerous not only to the region but could provoke a war on a global scale. And hopefully this will -- we can do things also to encourage democratic forces in Syria so that a peaceful democratic regime would follow on at some point. But my hope is this legislation, the Syria Accountability and Liberation Act will be acted on promptly by Congress and sent to the president for his signature.

MS. COLBY: Senator Cornyn, if I'm in Israel I certainly understand the threat, and they took action. But if I'm here in the United States, I'm sitting home today and I'm watching this broadcast, what should I get out of what happened today, this briefing of this top secret material?

SEN. CORNYN: Well, I think what you should take from this and what your listeners should take from this is this is a serious threat. And those who would simply want to pull the covers over our head here in America and pretend like it doesn't exist are denying reality.

We have to be vigilant. We have to maintain our intelligence ability so we can identify those threats before bad things happen. And we need to work with and support our allies like Israel, our best ally in the Middle East, against the kinds of weapons production that could literally not only take the lives of thousands, even millions of people in that region but also endanger the lives of Americans right here at home.

MS. COLBY: All right. Senator John Cornyn, a very busy day for you, sir, but thank you for taking time for us.

SEN. CORNYN: Thank you.

Source