| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says |
| 2006-01-28 |
| 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..." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #7 Exactly Anymouse, Assad can live, but in exile, only if he gives up the goods. |
| Posted by: Danking70 2006-01-28 15:57 |
| #6 Debka was all over this from the beginning. I happen to believe it...but that's irrelevant. However, if it is true...why in Heaven's name aren't we holding a hammer over Syria? We (apparently) know the 3 main locations...2 in the Syrian desert and 1 in the Bekka valley. You would think we would allow Baby Assad to trade his life for at least 1 stash. That's the sticking point with me. If we really believe it's there...why haven't we moved on it militarily, or politically? |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-01-28 14:47 |
| #5 And the Iraqis had plenty of trucks, and good roads to Syria, and willing partners on the other end. We don't need to invoke a high-tech solution to this; the low-tech solution works very well. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2006-01-28 13:01 |
| #4 Weren't commercial flights allowed into Baghdad until the war officially kicked off? Yes. If the time frame Sada says is correct, Iraq was also flying in relief supplies to Syria. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2006-01-28 11:51 |
| #3 "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong..." That is such a Clintonian statement. Much of it was wrong, but apparently not the part about Saddam having WMD's before the war. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-01-28 05:02 |
| #2 Weren't commercial flights allowed into Baghdad until the war officially kicked off? With a bit of complicity on the part of any of the Middle East's national airlines this might have been possible if unlikely. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2006-01-28 00:59 |
| #1 Heard this guy on Fox say they used a 747 to move the stuff. I seriously doubt they have a 747 and that we'd miss it when it makde a puddle jump like this. Makes me skeptical of the guy, though it's pretty clear Syria was involved in hiding the WMD. |
| Posted by: JAB 2006-01-28 00:35 |