Syrian Unrest...Bush Lied?...2012 Elections

Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says

By IRA STOLL, Staff Reporter of the Sun | January 26, 2006
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/iraqs-w...da-says/26514/


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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."
Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."
Democrats have made the absence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a theme in their criticism of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in 2003. And President Bush himself has conceded much of the point; in a televised prime-time address to Americans last month, he said, "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong."
Said Mr. Bush, "We did not find those weapons."
The discovery of the weapons in Syria could alter the American political debate on the Iraq war. And even the accusations that they are there could step up international pressure on the government in Damascus. That government, led by Bashar Assad, is already facing a U.N. investigation over its alleged role in the assassination of a former prime minister of Lebanon. The Bush administration has criticized Syria for its support of terrorism and its failure to cooperate with the U.N. investigation.
The State Department recently granted visas for self-proclaimed opponents of Mr. Assad to attend a "Syrian National Council" meeting in Washington scheduled for this weekend, even though the attendees include communists, Baathists, and members of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group to the exclusion of other, more mainstream groups.
Mr. Sada, 65, told the Sun that the pilots of the two airliners that transported the weapons of mass destruction to Syria from Iraq approached him in the middle of 2004, after Saddam was captured by American troops.
"I know them very well. They are very good friends of mine. We trust each other. We are friends as pilots," Mr. Sada said of the two pilots. He declined to disclose their names, saying they are concerned for their safety. But he said they are now employed by other airlines outside Iraq.
The pilots told Mr. Sada that two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, Mr. Sada said. Then Special Republican Guard brigades loaded materials onto the planes, he said, including "yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel." The pilots said there was also a ground convoy of trucks.
The flights - 56 in total, Mr. Sada said - attracted little notice because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in June of 2002.
"Saddam realized, this time, the Americans are coming," Mr. Sada said. "They handed over the weapons of mass destruction to the Syrians."
Mr. Sada said that the Iraqi official responsible for transferring the weapons was a cousin of Saddam Hussein named Ali Hussein al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali." The Syrian official responsible for receiving them was a cousin of Bashar Assad who is known variously as General Abu Ali, Abu Himma, or Zulhimawe.
Short of discovering the weapons in Syria, those seeking to validate Mr. Sada's claim independently will face difficulty. His book contains a foreword by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, David Eberly, who was a prisoner of war in Iraq during the first Gulf War and who vouches for Mr. Sada, who once held him captive, as "an honest and honorable man."
In his visit to the Sun yesterday, Mr. Sada was accompanied by Terry Law, the president of a Tulsa, Oklahoma based Christian humanitarian organization called World Compassion. Mr. Law said he has known Mr. Sada since 2002, lived in his house in Iraq and had Mr. Sada as a guest in his home in America. "Do I believe this man? Yes," Mr. Law said. "It's been solid down the line and everything checked out."
Said Mr. Law, "This is not a publicity hound. This is a man who wants peace putting his family on the line."
Mr. Sada acknowledged that the disclosures about transfers of weapons of mass destruction are "a very delicate issue." He said he was afraid for his family. "I am sure the terrorists will not like it. The Saddamists will not like it," he said.
He thanked the American troops. "They liberated the country and the nation. It is a liberation force. They did a great job," he said. "We have been freed."
He said he had not shared his story until now with any American officials. "I kept everything secret in my heart," he said. But he is scheduled to meet next week in Washington with Senators Sessions and Inhofe, Republicans of, respectively, Alabama and Oklahoma. Both are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The book also says that on the eve of the first Gulf War, Saddam was planning to use his air force to launch a chemical weapons attack on Israel.
When, during an interview with the Sun in April 2004, Vice President Cheney was asked whether he thought that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been moved to Syria, Mr. Cheney replied only that he had seen such reports.
An article in the Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on December 23, 2002, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." The allegation was denied by the Syrian government at the time as "completely untrue," and it attracted scant American press attention, coming as it did on the eve of the Christmas holiday.
The Syrian ruling party and Saddam Hussein had in common the ideology of Baathism, a mixture of Nazism and Marxism.
Syria is one of only eight countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty that obligates nations not to stockpile or use chemical weapons. Syria's chemical warfare program, apart from any weapons that may have been received from Iraq, has long been the source of concern to America, Israel, and Lebanon. In March 2004, the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying, "Damascus has an active CW development and testing program that relies on foreign suppliers for key controlled chemicals suitable for producing CW."
The CIA's Iraq Survey Group acknowledged in its September 30, 2004, "Comprehensive Report," "we cannot express a firm view on the possibility that WMD elements were relocated out of Iraq prior to the war. Reports of such actions exist, but we have not yet been able to investigate this possibility thoroughly."
Mr. Sada is an unusual figure for an Iraqi general as he is a Christian and was not a member of the Baath Party. He now directs the Iraq operations of the Christian humanitarian organization, World Compassion.




didn't Obama get elected president because he wasn't Bush?.....what if Syrian unrest uncovers the Iraqi WMD?...Conservatives wouldn't go to war in Libya for European oil......can the Republicans not nominate another turd?
1,256 words this time.
WTF's Avatar
  • WTF
  • 03-31-2011, 08:10 AM
1,256 words this time. Originally Posted by SR Only
I hope you have a program that counts words
Yes, it is called "Microsoft Word." I can only count to 20 without it.
I B Hankering's Avatar
Yes, it is called "Microsoft Word." I can only count to 20 without it. Originally Posted by SR Only
I can do 21 with my pants and shoes off!
I can do 21 with my pants and shoes off! Originally Posted by I B Hankering
You owe me for a new screen. it is now covered with coffee.
I can do 21 with my pants and shoes off! Originally Posted by I B Hankering
or maybe you dont count yours
I see thread hijackers are treated like illegal aliens in Connecticut.....you' re a mod, can I have a hall pass too?
Marshall, we have kiddingly alluded to your posts being somewhat voluminous. So far, like yesterday’s post, it has been nothing about the real content. Any chance you could talk about guys and girls playing behind closed doors? I *think* that's why we are here. “D&T” is for “Diamonds and Tuxedos,” not “Destroy and Torment.”
Marshall, we have kiddingly alluded to your posts being somewhat voluminous. So far, like yesterday’s post, it has been nothing about the real content. Any chance you could talk about guys and girls playing behind closed doors? I *think* that's why we are here. “D&T” is for “Diamonds and Tuxedos,” not “Destroy and Torment.” Originally Posted by SR Only
And I am kiddingly alluding to posts about thread hijacks.....I thought thread hijackers compared to illegal aliens was funny....lighten up....

most threads are not about the hobby....

I will quote your "Destroy and Torment" comment the next time someone starts something with me..........this way,we can keep track who initiates what.....
Becareful what you wish for.
Becareful what you wish for. Originally Posted by SR Only
I don't recall wishing for anything.......
Iaintliein's Avatar
As I recall there was some Sarin and mustard as well as forbidden missiles found in Iraq. Yet, the media keeps up the "Bush lied" drum beat, conveniently forgetting that Gore and both Clintons said the same thing.

If some of these weapons were relocated to Syria as Israel insisted (along with some suspicious truck traffic via satellite images as I recall), that might explain why interceding to replace a despot in Libya is okie dokie, but the despot in Syria is called, "a reformer".

As for the 2012 elections. I'm not overly excited about any of the contenders. It's hard to say which GOP wanna be can beat Hillary, even harder to say if any of them are a nickles worth better than her. I seriously doubt the Clintons will let the man child run again. But hey, a supreme court spot might be enough life insurance for him, who knows?
Rudyard K's Avatar
I see thread hijackers are treated like illegal aliens in Connecticut.....you' re a mod, can I have a hall pass too? Originally Posted by Marshall
Becareful what you wish for. Originally Posted by SR Only
I don't recall wishing for anything....... Originally Posted by Marshall
You can like Superman or you can not like him. You can agree with Superman or not agree with him. But as long as he's Superman?...tugging on his cape is just plain foolish.
I B Hankering's Avatar
Such a conclusion is politically unacceptable to too many people. Too many would rather just claim: “Bush lied.” Yet, that is the real intellectual dishonesty.

The absence of substantial intelligence indicates one of two possibilities: 1) nothing is going on, or 2) the enemy is really good at hiding what is going on. Hence, the WMD Commission and the Butler report both indicate that the intelligence community was correct in suggesting that Saddam was probably seeking to re-arm his military forces with WMD. That conclusion is, in part, based on these known facts: 1) Saddam had had WMD in the past. 2) Saddam had strong incentives to reconstitute his arsenal. 3) He had the money to refinance such a reconstitution. 4) He had trained, competent technicians who could reconstitute his stockpile of WMDs. 5) He had the necessary materiel on hand to proceed with such a reconstitution. 6) He repeatedly stalled and deceived the inspectors—which begged the question—“What is he hiding?”

Too many of the self-elected elite exist in a state of immediate gratification, and they cannot believe and accept that such gross mistakes in intelligence gathering and analysis can be made. Few of these self-elected elite have the incentive to understand either the utility or the limits of intelligence gathering and analysis. So they must claim someone lied when the system fails. In this instance, even if there had been no errors in gathering and analyzing the evidence, as per the WMD Commission and the Butler report, the analysts could only conclude that Saddam seemed to be actively pursuing all kinds of WMD and probably had some on hand. Most certainly, the assessment should have been expressed with much less certainty, the limitations on direct evidence should have been stressed (e.g., “Curveball’s” reports), and the grounds for reaching the conclusion should have been better explained. While it might be comforting to some to continue to believe that the evidence supported a conclusion different than that reached by the intelligence community—and that accepted by the Bush administration—that is simply not the case.