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30.06.04, 00:23
Saddam's WMDs are in Syria
By Michael D. Evans
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© 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