http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/0...MD-s-to-Syria#
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: If you want to know where the hotbeds of hysterical Republican activity are, you need look no further than Free Republic. Their site is a 24/7 hotbed of mass hysteria, where the screaming never stops.
Daily Kos has absolutely no credibility to critical thinking readers. "Eternal Hope" does not have a leg to stand on dismissing credible sources, and credible websites, as "hysterical." In fact, it's rather critical for someone from an actual hysterical hotbed of a website to describe a website containing massive rational thought as "hysterical." Unlike the propagandists at Daily Kos, I don't dismiss real world realities as "hysteria."
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: First of all, in evaluating this claim, we have to take into account things that don't fit the facts.
I'm sorry, but "Eternal Hope" failed to identify the parameters of the specific topic that is being argued. What he identifies as "fit the facts" is, in reality, what doesn't fit his/her ego driven view of what constitutes the realities of that part of the world. This idiot is going in overdrive trying to dismiss the fact that proves his/her missive wrong. This is the assumption of WMDs "not" existing in Iraq. A critical thinker would look at this part of the statement and see what this person is actually saying. To a critical thinker, it sounds like Eternal Hope is ready to dismiss any fact or information that harms his/her argument.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: First of all, we don't even know what these WMD's supposedly were. How would we be able to fit them into a Boeing plane? If we are talking massive rockets or tubes, then it would be impossible to fit them into a commercial airliner, because the doors would simply not be wide enough for them to fit inside of a commercial airliner. Remember that Sada alleges that these were civilian aircraft.
Eternal Hope has no clue about what he is talking about here.
Eternal Hope's lack of understanding of what constitutes WMD painfully shows.
WMD consists of nuclear, biological, and chemical agents. They fall under one of those three main categories. Chemical and biological agents can be fit in containers that easily fit in a small plane. If they can fit in a small plane, they definitely could fit in a larger plane. So, his attempt to dismiss transport size WMD is idiotic. It does not matter what these WMD's were. The fact of matter is that they could have easily been transported in the aerial platforms that Sada talked about.
Notice, that Eternal Hope starts making guesses without even knowing what WMD is. It's obvious that this turd's idea of WMD is based on his confusion of what it is. How stupid is this specific comment of his/hers? It's equivalent to mistaking a magazine for a clip.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: Secondly of all, there were only two aircraft being used and 56 total flights (supposedly) between the two of them. It defies reason to suggest that merely 56 flights would be enough to get a whole country's WMD program out of Iraq into Syria without detection of any kind. Given the massive nature of the WMD program that Bush and Powell so hyped up, it would be impossible for Saddam to smuggle all of the evidence for his programs in just 56 flights in aircraft not designed for the purpose.
Wrong. First, he mentions jumbo jets being used to transport WMD. He does not specify the number of jumbo just used to do those sorties. Sada indicated that some commercial planes were converted for this purpose. CONVERTED to do military operations. So, even if tubes were involved, they would have been successfully loaded. Second, Eternal Hope already demonstrates that he's extremely clueless about WMD, to include container size. It's feasible that a good percent of WMD would've been moved out of the country in one of those 56 sorties. Again, Sada does not indicate the exact number of transports used to move the WMD out of Iraq.
According to Sada, there was plenty of direction involved with moving these out. These airplanes were flown into Syria, offloaded, and came back to Iraq. The Syrians would have to know about this operation and cooperate if the Iraqis were allowed to do additional sorties. Also, moving WMDs, under cover and concealment, whether through air or the other ground, is doable. Again, anybody that thinks that rockets and tubes are WMDs is a clueless buffoon with regards to chemical and biological agents.
Again, Colonel Stanislav Lunev detailed, in his book, how he, as part of a Russian quasi-special operations element, showed the Iraqis how to do precisely that.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: Thirdly of all, this tall tale defies the laws of physics. How could you smuggle these labs, alumunum tubes, rockets, and other such WMD's out of Iraq without weighing down the plane so much that it could not fly?
The labs themselves, the aluminum tubes, the rockets, are NOT WMD. How, pray tell, do any of these items fit under the chemical, biological, or radiological description? They don't. The WMD themselves, the chemical agents, would be in vials, casings and other types of containers. These would have easily fit in a transport. Individually, they would not weigh more than the size of an average human being. Therefore, they would not hinder an aircraft's ability to fly.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: This makes Sada's claim an extraordinary claim that requires extraordinary evidence. Let me see how his testimony stacks up against the standards required. I wrote about my standards; here is how his claims measure up:
Sorry, those so-called "standards" are based on his ignorance of what constitutes WMD. This is the same idiot that labels aluminum tubes, rockets, labs, as "WMD". In the debate world, we call this building and attacking strawmen arguments. I'm sorry, but "Eternal Hope" is not qualified to talk about the topic of moving WMD in the way Sada describes such a move.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: Physical: None. All we have is Mr. Sada's word for it, as the Sun article lamely admits.
Retired General Georges Sada received information from a couple of the people that were privy to the operation. Unlike "Eternal Hope" and the other libtard article writer that I dismantled, Sada is qualified to talk about Iraq WMD.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: There are plenty of people who are unhappy with the Syrian regime there; however, none have come forward to point out the locations of WMD's in Syria.[/color]
There are plenty of people in United States that are not happy with the current administration in Washington D.C. You don't see the majority of these people coming out disclosing things that are secret, now, do you? This is a non-argument.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: Experts: According to the FR link and the Sun article, Mr. Sada served in the Iraqi Air Force and was the Number Two in command there. However, he had no direct involvement in the supposed activities, but bases his case on hearsay evidence:
As I've mentioned in previous rebuttals, his hearing from those who had direct involvement gives him far more credibility to talk about this than either "Eternal Hope" or the other article writer moron that I dismantled on this thread.
Using this moron's logic, if I were to talk about the turkeys, foxes, and other wildlife I've seen on Army posts to family members, and those family members were to turn around and disclose that information to other family members, then the secondary family members would be presenting nothing but "hearsay" evidence about that wildlife based on what the primary family members heard from me.
This is nothing but academic dishonesty. If I reported seeing something, based on my first-hand observations, and those who heard me repeat this are simply relaying first-hand information.
It's not "hearsay" when facts are being relayed from one to another, and then to another.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: Therefore, we cannot evaluate his testimony because he bases his word on the word of anonymous sources, not on his expertise.
Wrong again. These were not "anonymous sources." They were close friends of him that happen to be involved in operations to move WMD out of Iraq. What "Eternal Hope" is doing is finding an excuse as to why Sada should not be taken seriously. Why? Because Sada presents an argument the harms the phony canard that they were "no" WMD in Iraq.
Speaking of expertise, the very idiot that shows cluelessness about WMD runs with information fed to him by others that don't have a clue about WMD. Therefore, using Eternal Hope's line of reasoning, we should dismiss Eternal Hope's entire argument in his article.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: Eyewitnesses: None.
Wrong. The pilots, that Sada talked to, were eyewitness to this event. If "Eternal Hope" wants to go by the "hearsay" angle, then he should dismiss your statement of my existence as "hearsay." Then, he should try to argue that I "don't exist." After all, if he were not an "eyewitness" to my existence, then that would mean that I don't exist, right? Here's another question for you:
Eternal Hope has not witnessed my existence. Since he is not an eyewitness to my existence, does it immediately follow that I do not exist? YES [ ] NO [ ]
Copy this question and options to your reply, and put in "X" in the box that represents your response. Spare me any BS that you would want to add to the reply.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: As noted above, Mr. Sada had no direct involvement in this.
As a group, the opposition here, including you, had no direct involvement with Iraq. Are you, Andy, willing to use this guy's line of reasoning by going ahead and dismissing your argument, as well as that of those that I'm arguing here regarding the Iraq war, due to lack of first-hand experience there? YES [ ] NO [ ].
Copy that question, and the yes/no options, to your reply. Put an "X" in the box that represents your reply. Spare me the BS that you may want to add.
The fact of the matter is that Sada heard from those who were involved.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos:The Sun article notes that there were ground convoys of trucks -- but fails to say whether the trucks went to Syria or whether they loaded the WMD's on the plane.
More cluelessness from this idiot regarding military operations, who wants to make assumptions favoring his argument.
For an operation like this, ground convoys are used for long-distance operations. Based on my reading of Sada's account, this was done by a combined air and ground operation. This makes more sense from a military perspective.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: That brings up another reason to disbelieve these claims
Wrong. This is Eternal Hope's rationalization as to why he should not accept a claim that seriously harms his argument. Throughout his greed, Eternal Hope advanced one strawman argument after another.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: -- the smuggling was done in the Summer of 2002, right as the US and the UK were stepping up their bombing campaigns in advance of their invasion of Iraq in 2003. If our forces had detected convoys of trucks that large, they would have been bombed.
This guy is so clueless about military operations that he should've kept his mouth shut, about what he was trying to say in this article, instead.
The bombardment that ramped up in 2002, and the first months of 2003, were a pre-invasion bombardment intended to destroy targets that threatened air and sea assets. We're talking about antimissile, anti-air, and anti-ship weapons systems. We're talking about command-and-control systems. Remember, the United States tried to get increased support for this operation, directly attacking ground units before getting this process done would have been a no go. So no, had this convoy, more than likely disguised to blend in with the environment from the air, been detected, it would not have been attacked. This would've happened during the invasion, when Army assets would've been attacked.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: It would stand to reason that if there had been such an attempt by Saddam, there would have been scores of eyewitnesses on both sides of the border who could come forward and verify that Mr. Sada's account is true. But the fact is, there are none.
Not true. When we combat deployed to Iraq, we did not do a military convoy to the airport. We rode commercial buses in the middle of the night. We went to an airport that was hardly ever used past regular business hours. We boarded the airplane in the middle of night, when hardly anybody was around to witness it. Had you been in the area that we were in, you would not have known that we went through.
A point I'm making here is that a military operation like this would've been done under cover and concealment. Efforts would've been done to conceal the intent of these operations. Again, Eternal Hope demonstrates a colossal lack of understanding of military operations.
Eternal Hope of Daily Kos: The burden of proof is on the right-wingers to come up with the evidence, not for us to disprove it.
Wrong, the burden of proof IS on the libtards to prove this wrong. They've colossally failed to do so. They've colossally failed to prove "wrong" the existence of WMD in Iraq as argued. "Eternal Hope" tried to have it both ways, use a strawman then put the burden on the opposition. It doesn't work that way.