Did Saddam’s WMD Go to Syria? Part I

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Have you ever noticed that it’s always politicians, media types, and either washed up or disgruntled, anonymous intelligence sources who claim there never was any WMD in Iraq? On the other hand, every single commander and deputy commander of CENTCOM says that Saddam did have WMD. So too do the inspectors with the closest knowledge of before and after inspections: Dr Butler, Dr Kay, Dr Duelfer, and most of the former UN inspectors. Is this subject one where the word of a former governor of Vermont is better than that of highly decorated generals and weapons inspectors who have served their country all over the world for decades? While Gov. Dean’s hands were sticky with maple syrup, people like General Zinni, General DeLong, General Franks, and so many others had their hands covered in the sands of the Middle East. While Rep. Pelosi works to blame President Bush for things as random and controllable as the weather, people like Dr. Kay and Dr. Duelfer were in 130 degree desert heat wearing plastic suits in toxic environments and being shot at. Perhaps it’s wiser to believe the professionals who serve with honor and for whom lying is a disgrace rather than a politician for whom pandering to constituents and the party base isn’t lying. It’s “spin.”

If one is to raise an eyebrow and for a moment believe the Generals, then the obvious question is, “What happened to Saddam’s WMD?” The former dictator declared them, and declared them destroyed but offered no evidence of their destruction; no wreckage, no contaminated sand, no documents, and not even witnesses. One must wonder how the most poisonous chemicals and biological agents ever made by man just disappear without leaving a trace, without anyone logging their destruction, and without anyone having done the destruction themselves. Moreover, if the WMD once did exist (as Saddam, the UN, and the Clinton and Bush Administrations as well as the world all acknowledge)….then where are they?

There are basically three claims as to what happened to Saddam’s WMD: they were flown to Syria, they were driven to Syria, and they were shipped out on Russian ships.

One of Saddam’s generals, General Georges Sada, has come forward with claims that Saddam moved his “special weapons” out of Iraq, to Syria in late summer 2002. He allegedly did this under the guise of humanitarian aid flights to Syria after there was a dam burst in July, and the shipments were made on modified civilian planes, by pilots Sada knows personally. On June 17, 2002, the Times of London reported that Iraqi nuclear centrifuge parts were being smuggled out of Syria-originally stored at the port of Tartus, they had been moved to Damascus International Airport and moved to points unknown from there-effectively corroborating Sada’s story. The Time’s report even cites the Dam break as a cover story, and that cover story is part of Georges Sada’s claims as well. In late summer 2002, we know from the Saddam tapes,  from multiple mainstream media interviews with former Iraqi generals, and from the ISG reports that Saddam stunned his general staff by announcing to them that he was letting the UN inspectors back in because there were no longer any “special weapons” in the country.

Other shipments went by truck and storage payment was made to Syria through an arms smuggling front company run by Syrian Intelligence: SES International. That it did exist, was A Syrian Intel front company and was corrupt is not at all in dispute. SES Intl was one of those blatant Oil-For-Food cover companies used by Saddam to buy conventional weapons in exchange for UN oil vouchers. The Duelfer Report is ridden with information about SES International’s illegal sales-sales that Saddam was using to break his conventional arms containment. SES was cited by the Treasury Department as being a front for Syrian Intelligence, a sanction-breaking company, and was being used by Syria’s family to launder money. Assad’s family has also been caught by the UN using the collapsed bank of Al Madina as a similar front company involved in the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister.

Why believe General Sada? As a pilot himself and an investigator respected by Saddam himself, Sada was the general in charge of interrogating and guarding downed Coalition pilots during Desert Storm. Retired USAF Col. David Eberly (the ranking Coalition POW pilot) writes the introduction to Sada’s book and vouches for his credibility. Two British airmen vouched for his credibility in a book they co-wrote about their experience as POW’s at his hands. In fact, Sada dared to argue with Saddam’s insane son, Uday-who wanted the pilots executed, and Sada was jailed as a result. Opponents to the war should respect his opinion as he was given multiple awards for his peaceful efforts to prevent a war by anti-war groups prior to the invasion. Ali Ibrahim, another of Saddam’s former commanders, affirms Sada’s story. (“Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti was a southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s and a personal friend of the dictator. Units under his command dealt with chemical and biological weapons”). Perhaps most importantly, the details of his story-as well as all the stories in his book-are well-corroborated by mainstream media reports. Few details are not-except the contents of the planes and trucks that went to Syria. Sada says he knows what was in them, but the ISG, and mainstream media don’t. It’s sad they don’t have one of Sada’s pilots doing the cable news talkshow circuit.

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WATCH OUT HE’S GOT A KNIFE!

Telling the truth about WMD will have the same effect as beating your head on a brick wall. No one give a S anymore. The left wing brainwashing was super successful on that. Funny thing is Syria is now in the hands of terrorists and terrorist have been launched around the world (todays news). I suspect a lot of dis-believers on WMD are soon to die from non-existant WMD, right here in the good ole USA. It won’t be much of a loss, most are already brain dead.

Didn’t some president or other tell us there were no WMD’s? Just asking.

Guess the Teapot needs a reading comprehension class or something.

President Bush has said that the US didn’t find the stockpiles of WMD we expected. No one-not President Bush, the ISG, UNMOVIC, etc has resolved all the WMD issues listed by Dr Blix in his 3/6/03 Unresolved Disarmament Issues report. Aside from that, many WMD’s and WMD issues listed in that report WERE found in Iraq. For example, almost all of the missile claims were true. The threat of a rapid restart bio weapon program was found to be true (desribed as a “breakout capability” in the Duelfer Report), and those 550 missing chemical rounds were found (as well as more).

Most of all, the question of WMD comes down to inspections: would more time for inspections have ruled the country clean? Dr Blix says perhaps, yes, and he says no. It depends on what Blix comments your reading. His book clearly says no. His ass-covering press comments say yes, and his pre-war stone-walling says perhaps. Scott Ritter described it best in his 1999 book, Endgame as well as his pamphlet on “what the Bush Admin doesn’t want you to know” In both he explains that inspections were never going to certify every inch of Iraq as WMD free. Inspections were designed to build diplomatic “confidence” and not be weapons hunters. This idea of confidence is echoed by Sir Richard Butler fmr head of UNSCOM, Dr Blix, Dr kay, Dr Deulfer, and any/every other inspector. They also agree that only Iraq could build that confidence.

The post war Duelfer report shows that rather than build confidence, Saddam deliberately worked against inspections and undermined the effort to build confidence. The pics alone prove that beyond a doubt:
http://www.scottmalensek.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=248

Put simply, inspections would NEVER have worked since Saddam wanted to work against inspections (ie, against building confidence), and thus by 2003 there was no way to resolve the issue through inspections.

Didn’t operation Desert Fox take care of all the WMD’s??? when was that December 1998??? Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Desert_Fox

From the link:

“Degrading”, not eliminating

Clinton administration officials said the aim of the mission was to “degrade” Iraq’s ability to manufacture and use weapons of mass destruction, not to eliminate it. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked about the distinction while the operation was going on:[1]

“I don’t think we’re pretending that we can get everything, so this is – I think – we are being very honest about what our ability is. We are lessening, degrading his ability to use this. The weapons of mass destruction are the threat of the future. I think the president explained very clearly to the American people that this is the threat of the 21st century. [. . .] [W]hat it means is that we know we can’t get everything, but degrading is the right word.”

PLUS
Clinton himself had no idea how much wmd was destroyed in that campaign. He told Larry King on July 27, 2003: “When I left office, there was a substantial amount of biological and chemical material unaccounted for. That is, at the end of the first Gulf War, we knew what he had. We knew what was destroyed in all the inspection processes and that was a lot. And then we bombed with the British for four days in 1998. We might have gotten it all; we might have gotten half of it; we might have gotten none of it. But we didn’t know.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2006/08/containment_and_desert_fox.asp

All Desert Fox did was compell Bin Laden to authorize the 911 plot to go from campfire idea to an attack in motion.
http://www.aim.org/aim_report/4425_0_4_0_C/
“…we openly and loudly declare that we will retaliate for what is happening to the sons of our nations in Iraq, since the crimes committed by the United States against our Islamic nation will not go unpunished.”

Ted,

I’m afraid we didn’t get all the WMD after Desert Fox. We had no UN inspectors after the 96 hour air campaign because Saddam claimed they were all CIA spies.

No inspections…no assessment of damage.
No proof what was destroyed.

Remember Saddam did have labyrinth of tunnels to move his illict ware around. I think History Channel had a special on that a while back about Saddam’s underground fortress.

And UN Inspector Richard Butler said Saddam was rebuilding his CBW factories all over again.

“The risk of leaving Iraq unchecked”

July 26, 2000
Jerusalem Post
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

“Regarding chemical and biological weapons, Butler says there have been reports that Iraq is rebuilding the factories wrecked by US and British bombings in Operation Desert Fox.”

http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2000nn/0007nn/000726nn.htm

Teapot,

I think what Duelfer is saying “we can not confirm or deny” we found WMD. The report is incomplete.

Remember many Iraqi scientist were assassinated by the al Queda/Baa’thist insurgents after our invasion. Many scientist don’t want to talk.

So we have a incomplete report.

And Duelfer couldn’t continue his survey because he was nearly assassinated too.

“Zarqawi attack on inspector cut short the hunt for WMD”
The Independent
Apr 28, 2005

by Anne Penketh

The American who led the hunt for Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction has revealed that the investigation was cut short after he was targeted by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the militant leader in an attack that left two people dead. The head of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, has reported that his investigation into the possible transfer of WMD to Syria had been wound up because of the ‘declining security situation’.

But, in an interview with The Independent, Mr Duelfer said that Zarqawi had claimed responsibility for the car-bomb attack on his convoy on 6 November 2004. ‘A car-bomb tried to get me and my follow car,’ Mr Duelfer said. ‘Two of my guards were killed and one was badly wounded. My hearing’s not been right since.’

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050428/ai_n14603529