"The pictures were crystal clear: A clandestine Syrian nuclear facility, bombed by Israeli jets, lay in ruins on the edge of the desert, 90 miles south of Damascus.
Most important, the photos showed that the core of the reactor, built with secret North Korean help, had been totally destroyed.
But at CIA headquarters, Deputy Director Stephen R. Kappes was chafing -- at what he didn’t have, according to two former intelligence officials, recounting the tale only on condition of anonymity because the incident remains sensitive.
Recently returned from a self-imposed, two-year exile, the career spy wanted somebody to eyeball that wreckage -- get in close, point a camera at it, maybe even take a radiation reading."
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