May 6, 2008 (LPAC) - Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has been active in Korean affairs, blasted the release of the US intelligence report claiming North Korean aid in building a nuclear reactor in Syria as a "pre-calculated" effort to undermine the State Department's moves to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking at a forum on US/Korea relations in Washington, EIR asked Ackerman if the timing of the release didn't make him suspect that, as several times in the past, the Cheney faction in the Administration was trying to sabotage the State Department, Rep. Ackerman said: "Timing is everything! I don't just suspect that is the case, I thoroughly believe the timing was intended to disrupt the peace process." He said it was "too much like other measures by the neo-conservatives to gain political goals through questionable means." Asked if the content of the charges was being challenged, as well as the timing, Ackerman indicated this was a possibility.