Did this make your local news?
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- Stan
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Did this make your local news?
"The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed.
The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.
"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."
The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.
"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."
Stan wrote:I've never said anything worth quoting.
- SekoETC
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Oh great, well that'll give them a reason to start another war and when a country is destroyed, "nope, no nuclear weapons here, we just loaned to the neighbour". And in the end the whole muslim world will be battered. Exept that the ones who really have the nukes might get pissed enough to use them and blast US into a smoking hole, and doom the rest of the world to die from fallout and nuclear winter.
I don't read the news.
I don't read the news.
Not-so-sad panda
- colonel
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Those claims have been reported for a long time since the beginning of the war. Even if Syria had them it would have to wait until after Iran is taken care and it is looking like that might be the next war in the next ten years.
Anyways, no it was not reported at the 5 local news stations (one of which I work for) in my area. Local stations usually report local news and weather and if time allows then national and international in that order. Usually the networks then have a special network news that airs after the local news that might have this stuff if it is relevant to current events.
Seeing as this is old news and nothing new has come of it then no it isn't relevant.
Anyways, no it was not reported at the 5 local news stations (one of which I work for) in my area. Local stations usually report local news and weather and if time allows then national and international in that order. Usually the networks then have a special network news that airs after the local news that might have this stuff if it is relevant to current events.
Seeing as this is old news and nothing new has come of it then no it isn't relevant.
- Stan
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This is not an old allegation actually. This information was just published. Where's source of the old information?
I think the relevence here is that someone in the Hussein regime has given an indication of where the missing weapons are. Maybe Mr. Blix should take a look.
I think the relevence here is that someone in the Hussein regime has given an indication of where the missing weapons are. Maybe Mr. Blix should take a look.
Stan wrote:I've never said anything worth quoting.
- Coramon
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- Stan
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- Coramon
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Stan wrote:This is not an old allegation actually. This information was just published. Where's source of the old information?
I think the relevence here is that someone in the Hussein regime has given an indication of where the missing weapons are. Maybe Mr. Blix should take a look.
It's been an allegation for awhile that Saddam moved the weapons over to Syria; here is an old article I found my googling.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ST0578.DTL
Syria denies weapons of mass destruction were moved there before Iraq war
Sunday, January 25, 2004
(01-25) 15:22 PST DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) --
Syria on Sunday denied claims that it received weapons of mass destruction from Iraq shortly before the United States and its allies invaded.
An article in London's Sunday Telegraph quoted David Kay, the outgoing leader of a U.S. weapons search team in Iraq, as saying that part of Iraq's secret weapons program had been hidden in Syria.
But in an interview aired later Sunday on National Public Radio, Kay said it is difficult to determine whether shipments to Syria included weapons, in part because Syria has refused to cooperate in this part of the weapons investigation.
In brief comments to reporters, Syrian Information Minister Ahmad Hassan called the Telegraph report "baseless and misleading."
The Syrian government has repeatedly denied that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were sent to Syria to prevent their discovery by U.N. inspectors or U.S. troops.
American forces have turned up no evidence of such weapons despite months of searching. Kay said he now believes there is nothing to find.
"I don't think they exist," Kay said in the radio interview. "The fact that we found so far the weapons do not exist -- we've got to deal with that difference and understand why."
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And.....
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=39182
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=39182
Saddam's WMDs are in Syria
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: June 29, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
There is mounting evidence that at least some of Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction are in Syria, smuggled there by the Iraqi dictator for safekeeping before the beginning of the war. Part of the stockpile the coalition forces have so far failed to find in Iraq was probably destroyed; part is likely still hidden. But a massively lethal amount of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons is stored alongside Syria's own stockpiles of WMDs.
Perhaps more worrisome, there are indications these weapons are not under the control of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Rather, in a potentially catastrophic palace intrigue, his sister, Bushra, and her husband, Gen. Assaf Shawkat, the No. 2 in Syria's military intelligence organization, the Mukhabarat, are said to have made the storage arrangements with Saddam as part of a bid for power.
On Jan. 5, 2004, Nizar Nayouf, a Syrian journalist who recently defected to France, said in a letter to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that chemical and biological weapons were smuggled from Iraq into Syria before the war began, when Saddam realized he would be attacked by the U.S. Nayouf claimed to know three sites where Iraq's WMDs are kept: in tunnels under the town of al-Baida in northern Syria, part of an underground factory built by North Korea for producing a Syrian version of the Scud missile; in the village of Tal Snan, adjacent to a Syrian Air Force base; and in Sjinsjar, on the border with Lebanon.
Speaking to the British television station ITN on Jan. 9, Nayouf quoted a Syrian military intelligence official as confirming the three sites.
Nayouf's claims had in fact been substantiated by the U.S. intelligence community two months before. In a briefing to defense reporters on Oct. 30, 2003, officials of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in Washington released an assessment that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were transferred to Syria in the weeks before the war began.
The officials said the assessment was based on satellite images of convoys of Iraqi trucks that poured into Syria in February and March 2003. According to Middle East Newsline, quoted by WorldTribune.com, most of the intelligence community concluded that at least some of Iraq's WMDs, along with Iraqi scientists and technicians, was smuggled to Syria.
NIMA chief James Clapper, a retired Air Force general and a leading member of the U.S. intelligence community, told reporters he linked the disappearance of Iraqi WMDs with the large number of Iraqi trucks that crossed into Syria before and during the U.S. invasion. The assessment was that these trucks contained missiles and WMD components banned by the United Nations Security Council.
"I think personally that the [Iraqi] senior leadership saw what was coming and I think they went to some extraordinary lengths to dispose of the evidence," Clapper said. He said he is certain that components connected to Iraq's biological, chemical, and nuclear programs were sent to Syria in the weeks prior to and during the war.
David Kay, the recently resigned head of an American WMD search team in Iraq, confirmed that part of Saddam's weapons was hidden in Syria, Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported on Jan. 25, 2004. Kay said he had uncovered conclusive evidence shortly before last year's U.S. invasion.
"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons, but we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD program," Kay said.
Gal Luft, a former analyst for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, confirmed Iraqi WMDs are hidden in Syria, but not by the regime.
"Certain individuals are taking money and hiding weapons," he told UPI on Feb. 7, 2003, but this is "not government-sanctioned." Judith Yaphe, a former senior CIA Middle East analyst, agreed, suggesting the WMD smuggling operation is "palace intrigue." She said in the same UPI report that Bashar Assad's sister, Bushra, "is the brains. She's much smarter and more effective than Bashar, and she was disappointed at being passed over and not seeing her husband elevated."
Dr. Dany Shoham of Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies is a former lieutenant colonel in the IDF Intelligence Corps who specializes in weapons of mass destruction, particularly bio-chemical warfare. He says it is "likely" at least some of Saddam's WMDs were hidden in Syria before the war.
"I'd say there are three possibilities: that these weapons were destroyed by the Iraqis before the war; that they were hidden in Iraq; and that they were smuggled out," Shoham said. In all probability, some were destroyed, some are still hidden, but some lethal amount was smuggled to Syria for safekeeping.
"Syria is the No. 1 candidate," Shoham continued, "because of its long, common border with Iraq, because a number of Iraqi bio-warfare scientists fled to Syria before the war, and because Syrian President Bashar Assad had a much closer relationship with Saddam than his late father, Hafez."
"What is strange," said Shoham, "is that, since Saddam was captured – and even before – the Americans did not relate to the Syrian option. It is as if the U.S. doesn't want to reveal the fact that Iraqi WMDs are hidden there. It could be that the U.S. cannot yet confirm this – but another possibility is that the Bush administration knows the answer and has decided it is not yet time to reveal it. For whatever reason, it may still be too classified. If there is some political bias involved, the U.S. presidential election campaign might account for it."
If Syria is indeed safeguarding at least some of Saddam's WMDs, now that Saddam is history and Iraq has started along the road to democracy, what is likely to happen to these weapons?
"It is not likely that Syria will share them with Hezbollah in Lebanon," said Shoham. "It is in Syria's interest to maintain the current relative quiet" along Lebanon's border with Israel, he said, noting the tension in Syria's relationship with the U.S., which is about to impose sanctions on Damascus due to its support of terrorism.
"The Syria-Iran interface is very strong and active," he noted. "On the other hand, it is well to keep in mind that Syria has its own large arsenal of WMDs."
Assuming the U.S. did detect the smuggling, why didn't it stop it? The Bush administration certainly received advance warning. In December 2002, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced on television that Saddam had hidden chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction in Syria.
"We believe, and I say it has not been completely verified, that weapons he [Saddam] wants to hide – chemical and biological weapons – have been smuggled into Syria," Sharon said on Israel's Channel 2.
A senior Israeli intelligence official said afterward the Iraqi WMDs included mobile biological facilities mounted in trailer trucks, as well as chemical munitions. He said the U.S. had examined evidence provided by Israel. "We have solid evidence," the official said. "This is not a hunch or speculation."
Israel's warning was repeated some three months later. On March 31, 2003, a senior Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer, Intelligence Research Department head Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Iraqi chemical and biological weapons are probably hidden in Syria, Israel Radio reported.
According to the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Syria has the largest and most advanced chemical warfare capability in the Middle East, including chemical warheads for Scud ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, chemical gravity bombs for delivery by aircraft, and chemical warheads for artillery shells. It has an estimated CW stockpile in the hundreds of tons, including Sarin, VX and mustard gas.
It appears Syria is not about to transfer WMDs to Hezbollah in Lebanon, since it is not in its interest to invite massive Israeli retaliation for a WMD attack. According to Dr. Boaz Ganor, head of Israel's International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism, Syria cultivates other terrorist groups that are committed to Israel's destruction, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"But in the present constellation, when world focus is on Syria, it would not be rational for Damascus to transfer WMDs to these groups and invite a massive U.S. response," he said.
The White House has maintained it lacks hard evidence to back Nayouf's reports of Iraqi WMDs smuggled to Syria.
"I want to be very clear: We don't, at this point, have any indications that I would consider credible and firm that that has taken place. But we will tie down every lead," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington on Jan. 10, 2004.
Another former Israeli Intelligence official said Washington's unwillingness to believe the Israeli reports is basically political, having to do with the president's re-election campaign: "The Bush administration does not want to confront the Syrians, even though they are bad news and working all along with Saddam," he said.
Perhaps the Bush administration feels constrained during a re-election campaign about taking on another despot possessing WMDs, while it still has forces on the ground in Iraq. But the same justification that powered regime change in Iraq still exists – it has just moved to the dictatorship next door.
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And....
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... =printable
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... =printable
Rice warns Syria on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
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Wednesday, May 7, 2003
(05-07) 16:11 PDT MADRID, Spain (AP) --
The United States would be forced to act if it discovered that Damascus allowed Iraq to hide weapons of mass destruction in Syria during the war, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in an interview published Wednesday.
Rice said she was sure Iraqi weapons of mass destruction -- the main reason cited by the United States for invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein -- would turn up eventually.
But she said it was possible some had been removed from Iraq before the fighting concluded last month.
"We have assurances from the Syrians that nothing crossed their borders. Time will tell," Rice said in the interviews given Tuesday in Washington to El Pais and three other Spanish dailies.
But if that assurance turned out to be false, it would create a very serious situation and the international community would be forced to act, Rice said, according to El Pais.
Pressed about whether she meant another war, Rice simply repeated that the international community would be forced to act.
During the war in Iraq the United States accused Syria of granting haven to fleeing officials of Saddam's regime and developing its own weapons of mass destruction. The allegations triggered fears of another U.S.-led conflict even before the smoke cleared in Iraq.
The Syrian ambassador to Spain, Mohsen Bilal, denied the Syria had provided a haven to Iraqi officials or possessed weapons of mass destruction.
"We have no fear and no secrets," Bilal told journalists Wednesday.
Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Damascus Saturday with Syrian President Bashar Assad to discuss weapons of mass destruction and U.S. plans for the Middle East in the aftermath of the war in Iraq.
During the meeting, Powell said he discussed the offices radical Palestinian groups - labeled terrorist organizations by the United States -- run in the Syrian capital.
In Damascus, the leader of a radical Palestinian group confirmed Wednesday he is ready to shut offices in there to ease U.S. pressure on Syria but said Syrian officials had made no such demand.
Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, however, hinted that the Syrians might be ready to make a request soon.
The group "is ready to meet the Syrian demands if such demands are useful for Syrian policy," Jibril told reporters in Damascus.
Powell said on Sunday that the Bush administration and Congress are monitoring Syria's moves.
"There are no illusions in his (Assad's) mind as to what we are looking for from Syria," Powell told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"There was, as we put it in diplomatic terms, a candid exchange of views, but it is not promises that we are interested in, or assurances, but it is action. We will see what happens in the days, weeks, months ahead."
A key question involving Iraq, Powell said, is whether Syria will keep its eastern border closed, and track down and surrender any Iraqi suspects who might cross it to escape prosecution.
Bilal, the Syrian envoy, said the "road map" to Middle East peace should go beyond the dispute between the Palestinians and Israel. The plan was put forward by the United Nations, the United States, European Union and Russia.
Lasting peace depends on a "total retreat" by Israel from the territories it seized in the 1967 war, Bilal said, noting that Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in that war.
Bilal said Assad told Powell that for Syria to support the road map, the return of the Golan Heights would have to be added to the plan.
Powell is expected to travel to Israel and several other Middle East countries next weekend in an attempt to sell the "road map," which aims to establish a Palestinian state by 2005.
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And.....In fact this one is even before the Iraq War began......During the build up....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/814290/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/814290/posts
Israel: Syria stashing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
World Tribune ^ | 12/26/02
Posted on 12/30/2002 11:12:38 AM PST by truthandlife
Israel has accused Syria of harboring Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Israeli officials said Syria has agreed to store Iraqi biological and chemical weapons over the last few months. They said the regime of President Bashar Assad responded to an Iraqi request that sought to hide the WMD assets from United Nations inspectors.
The Iraqi assets were said to have included mobile biological facilities as well as chemical munitions. Officials said some of the assets are located along the Iraqi-Syrian frontier, Middle East Newsline reported.
"What we believe, and I say that we have not yet confirmed it conclusively, is that weapons he wants to hide — chemical and biological weapons — have indeed been sent to Syria," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said. "Saddam Hussein wanted to hide his weapons, and I think that the Americans know that."
Later, a senior Israeli intelligence official said Sharon had played down evidence of Syrian complicity in Iraq's WMD deployment. The official said the United States has already examined evidence provided by Israel. "We have solid evidence," the official said. "This is not a hunch or speculation."
In a television interview, Sharon said Iraqi scientists are helping develop a nuclear weapons infrastructure in Libya. He did not elaborate.
"Iraqi experts and scientists are working in the nuclear industry in Libya," Sharon said.
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I'm afraid it's all a load of propaganda bullshit created to stop your country falling appart, the only thing which is keeping it together is the sense of patriotism and unity. Knowing that your country made a huge f*** up would threaten that. Unfortuneatly some d***head named Tony had to get my country involved aswell.
- Dee
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I don't read the news either, but I've been sensing a war on Syria since a very long time... and I know that it is going to happen, sooner or later.
And the reason the U.S. will go to war with Syria? Of course, because they think they have weapons of mass destruction, which I guess they don't.
But can they go to a war with Iran? No. Why? Because they actually KNOW that they DO have weapons of mass destruction, and they're afraid that if they go to war with them, they will actually use those weapons on the U.S.
And the reason the U.S. will go to war with Syria? Of course, because they think they have weapons of mass destruction, which I guess they don't.
But can they go to a war with Iran? No. Why? Because they actually KNOW that they DO have weapons of mass destruction, and they're afraid that if they go to war with them, they will actually use those weapons on the U.S.
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