The WMD Road to Damascus
Interesting report from
Little Green Footballs
Throughout the Iraq war, there had always been an undercurrent of rumor that the WMDs had been trucked into the Beka'a Valley and buried. There were supposedly cases of Coalition forces observing truck convoys driving there before the start of the invasion but since we had not launched our efforts at that time, the only thing they could do was sit and watch.
Here is what Charles has to say:
bq. Since shortly before the Iraq War, we’ve been hearing reports that Iraq smuggled their weapons of mass destruction to Syria. Today at National Review Jim Geraghty writes about an exiled Syrian journalist who claims to have very specific knowledge about these smuggling operations:
The WMD Road to Damascus.
Quoting from Jim Geraghty's article:
bq.
One of the most troubling and intriguing theories has been the idea that Hussein smuggled them to Syria or some other nation before the war began. Now Nizar Nayyouf, an exiled Syrian journalist now living in Paris, claims to have contact with a Syrian military intelligence official who is confirming that theory.
I am quoting more from Geraghty's article:
bq. Speaking to the British television station ITN Friday, Nayyouf said that his source says he knows three sites where Iraq's WMDs are kept.
bq. "It has been confirmed that the Iraqi weapons which were smuggled into Syria through the intermediary of Colonel Zu Alhima Shalish are now located in three different places," the Syrian source reportedly wrote in Arabic to Nayyouf. "The first of these places is a tunnel on the mountain slope near the village of Baida, which is situated two kilometers from Misyaf. This place is under the jurisdiction of Department 489, which deals with coded messages and documents."
Back to Charles' site, some of the readers comments are interesting (one of the things which make this a site to check daily - the readers are generally very well informed and are free to post links of their own):
bq. John Loftus was on Fox yesterday a.m. Remember when they were finding all those tankers that tested for traces of various very bad things - but had obviously also had gasoline in them? Loftus said they think the nasty stuff was trucked to Syria, offloaded, filled with gasoline and brought back. Nice little trick.
Again, a lot of this could be what is called "The Fog of War" and we will not know anything until the WMDs are in Coalition or Iraqui hands... Still - it offers a very good and plausible explanation of what happened...
Posted by DaveH at January 12, 2004 1:58 PM