About Me

Name: Gabrielle Cusumano
Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

To: Senators Kerry and Dodd, "Syria Is Terrorist State". Syrian journalist and Saddam's No. 2, Sada says "Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria"

"Nizar Nayuf (Nayyouf-Nayyuf), a Syrian journalist who recently defected from Syria to Western Europe and is known for bravely challenging the Syrian regime, said in a letter Monday, January 5, to Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf,” that he knows the three sites where Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are kept. The storage places are: ..." (See Additional Articles Below)



"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." Georges Sada,

 
"I know Saddam's weapons are in Syria due to certain military deals that were made going as far back as the late 1980's that dealt with the event that either capitols were threatened with being overrun by an enemy nation. Not to mention I have discussed this in-depth with various contacts of mine who have confirmed what I already knew. At this point Saddam knew that the United States were eventually going to come for his weapons and the United States wasn't going to just let this go like they did in the original Gulf War. He knew that he had lied for this many years and wanted to maintain legitimacy with the pan Arab nationalists. He also has wanted since he took power to embarrass the West and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. After Saddam denied he had such weapons why would he use them or leave them readily available to be found? That would only legitimize President Bush, who he has a personal grudge against. What we are witnessing now is many who opposed the war to begin with are rallying around Saddam saying we overthrew a sovereign leader based on a lie about WMD. This is exactly what Saddam wanted and predicted. " Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti 


Kerry, Dodd meet with Syrian president

By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 7 minutes ago

Sens. John Kerry and Christopher Dodd met with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday and discussed the need for Damascus to cooperate with efforts to maintain the unity and stability of war-ravaged Iraq, state media reported.

The U.S. Embassy in Damascus said the meeting, which lasted two and a half hours, covered "a full-range of topics relating to U.S.-Syrian relations and regional issues."

"I feel quite confident in saying this was a conversation worth having and that the (Bush) administration ought to pursue it," Kerry said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press from Jerusalem where he traveled after the meeting with Assad. "I feel very strongly about that...It's worth following up on a number of avenues."

Kerry said he told Assad the new Democratic-controlled Congress has serious concerns about issues such as the flow of "money, weapons and terrorists" through Syria into Iraq and Lebanon.

Kerry has criticized the Bush administration for refusing to engage with Syria and Iran, a move that was recommended by the recently released Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel.

The Democratic senators, both prospective 2008 presidential candidates, and Assad "reviewed the situation in Iraq and stressed the importance of supporting the current political process to arrive at setting a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops," SANA said.

Talks also dealt with ways of stopping the escalating violence in the Palestinian territories, the agency said.

The Bush administration has accused Kerry, Dodd and other senators who have met with Assad of sending mixed signals and has insisted that the U.S. will not make concessions to Damascus to win its help in Iraq.

"We discourage the travel of members of Congress to Syria because we believe it undermines the cause of democracy in the region and particularly" Lebanon's government, White House spokesman Blair Jones said Wednesday night.

Syrian-U.S. relations have been strained for several years. The U.S. government has expressed reluctance to seek help from Damascus on Iraq until the Syrians curb their support to radical Palestinian groups and to the Lebanese Hezbollah and reduce their influence in Lebanon.

The two American lawmakers arrived in Damascus on Tuesday as part of a Middle East tour to investigate Syria's readiness to help bring about stability and security to neighboring Iraq.

AP writers Barry Schweid and Andrew Miga in Washington contributed to this report.

Kerry, Dodd meet with Syrian president b
y ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 7 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/syria_us_3&printer=1
__________________________________________________________________________

Syria a State of Terror

Home | Terror on Lebanese | Terror on Syrians | Terror on Americans | Terror on Europeans | Lebanon  December 21, 2006
Click here to send this page to a friend

A senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq WMD located in three Syrian sites

06 January, 2004

AFP

Nizar Nayuf (Nayyouf-Nayyuf), a Syrian journalist who recently defected from Syria to Western Europe and is known for bravely challenging the Syrian regime, said in a letter Monday, January 5, to Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf,” that he knows the three sites where Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are kept. The storage places are:

Iraq's WMD locations in Syria
click for images of Iraq's WMD location in Syria

-1- Tunnels dug under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria. These tunnels are an integral part of an underground factory, built by the North Koreans, for producing Syrian Scud missiles. Iraqi chemical weapons and long-range missiles are stored in these tunnels.

-2- The village of Tal Snan, north of the town of Salamija, where there is a big Syrian air force camp. Vital parts of Iraq's WMD are stored there.

-3-. The city of Sjinsjar on the Syrian border with the Lebanon, south of Homs city.

Nayouf writes that the transfer of Iraqi WMD to Syria was organized by the commanders of Saddam Hussein's Special Republican Guard, including General Shalish, with the help of Assif Shoakat , Bashar Assad's cousin. Shoakat is the CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family.

In February 2003, a month before America's invasion in Iraq, very few are aware about the efforts to bring the Weapons of Mass Destruction from Iraq to Syria, and the personal involvement of Bashar Assad and his family in the operation.
Nayouf, who has won prizes for journalistic integrity, says he wrote his letter because he has terminal cancer.

Click here for Satellite Images of the Syrian-Iraq's WMD Locations

Ad: Hate your job? Take the Tickle.com Free Career Test to discover your ideal career.

First Message from the Syrian source to Nizar Nayouf
Iraq's WMD locations in Syria
First messages from a Syrian Source, WMD Location

"Dear Nizar.

We received confirmations that the Iraqi weapons, which were moved to Syria by the help of General Zoul-Himla Chalich are now hidden in three places inside Syria:

First place: a tunnel dug in the mountain close to the Al-Baïdah village, which is roughly two kilometers from Misyaf village. This place is under the 489 Safety cipher Documents' office control .

Second place: the factory of the Air Armed Forces in the village of Tal Sinan, between the town of Hama and Salamiyyah. This factory is under the Air Force control.

Third place: the location of Shinsar, 40 kilometers south of Homs, two kilometers east of the Homs - Damascus road. There are underground tunnels there, controlled by Brigade 661 of the armed air Forces. It is a Brigade of air Patrol. The tunnels are several tens of meters deep.

The weapons were transported in large wooden cases and barrels, under the supervision of the General Zoul-Himla Chalich and the son of his brother Assef, who works at Al-Bachaer company.

The company is owned by the Assad family and has offices in Beirut, Damascus and Baghdad.

This company also undertook the illegal Iraqi oil importation in Syria, and supplied weapons to Saddam. I will try to send you all the new information as i get .

Take care and be safe."


Second Message to Nizar Nayuf
Iraq's WMD locations in Syria
Second messages from a Syrian Source, WMD Location

"Dear Nizar.

I have sent you another chart of the positions which tells where the weapons which were sent from Iraq into Syria, are hidden. Because the preceding chart that I sent you earlier is not clear.

Until now, the authorities in Syria did not worry of what was being published by the Dutch television news about this subject.

New information: The weapons were evacuated by the means of ambulances. Mohammed Mansoura also took part in the operation.

There are other serious, detailed pieces of information concerning the money of Saddam being moved into Syria and into Lebanon and those who took part in moving it - Syrians and Lebanese.Also there are more details about the assassination of the General Moustapha Tajer which took place last summer.

Take care of yourself.

Damascus, January 7, 2004."


Read Also : Iraq explosives has been moved to Syria by Russians
News About the Weapons of Mass Destruction from around the world:
Western spies: Syria storing WMD in Sudan
Washington Times, DC -  Apr 8, 2004
... of mass destruction components to Sudan so they won't be detected anywhere in Syria . ... to face heavy US and international pressure to open its WMD facilities in ...

SYRIA SMUGGLES MISSILES, WMD TO SUDAN
Middle East Newsline, Middle East -  Apr 8, 2004
LONDON [MENL] -- Syria's Defense Ministry has been smuggling missile and weapons of mass ... Scud C and Scud D extended-range missiles as well as WMD components to ...

Iraq minister says Saddam's WMD carefully hidden
Reuters AlertNet -29 Jan 2004
... Iraq's foreign minister said on Thursday Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, which inspectors have failed to find, were carefully hidden but Hoshiyar Zebari said he was confident they could be discovered.

Syria Role On Iraqi Arms Is Studied(Washington Post)

Sent to Syria?(FOX NEWS)

WMD in Syria: Kay
Winnipeg Sun, Canada -
... to Syria shortly before last year's US invasion of Iraq ... officials that a lot of material
went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD ...

       Powell: Possible Iraq May Have Had No WMD - Miami Herald
       WMD row: Kay's resignation sparks controversy - NDTV.com
       
and more »

Conflicting statements on Iraq WMD issue
CTV, Canada -
... on weapons of mass destruction," said Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's ... who would have had direct
knowledge of any WMD ... or some of them are still sitting somewhere in Syria ...

       Frontline: Chasing Saddam's Weapons - Washington Post
       
and more »

Former US weapons search team chief says Iraq's WMD in Syria
Albawaba Middle East News, Middle East -
... Kay, who last week resigned as head of the Iraq ... before the war, including some components
of Saddam's WMD ... Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened ...

       Saddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief - Telegraph.co.uk
       Kay says some Iraq weapons in Syria: report - ABC Online
       Iraqi weapons sent to Syria: Kay - The Age
       
and more »

Iraq WMD's in Syria...
Crosswalk.com -
WORLD NET DAILY today breaking the story of the unlocked mystery
of where the WMD's had gone. Many months ago, military experts ...

Top US Senator: Iraq WMD May Have Gone to Syria
Washington Post, DC - Jan 21, 2004
... vowed to carry on searching for such arms in Iraq. ... I think that there is some concern
that shipments of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) went to Syria ...

Fears Iraq WMD may have gone to Syria
Reuters, UK - Jan 21, 2004
... I think that there is some concern that shipments of WMD (weapons of mass destruction)
went to Syria." He did not elaborate. Syria, which borders Iraq, has in ...

Fears Iraq WMD may have gone to Syria
swissinfo, Switzerland - Jan 21, 2004
... think that there is some concern that shipments of WMD (weapons of mass destruction)
went to Syria." He. ... in the international community over the Iraq war. ...

Top US Senator says Iraq WMD may have gone to Syria
Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates - Jan 21, 2004
... I think that there is some concern that shipments of WMD (weapons of mass destruction)
went to Syria.” He did not elaborate. Syria, which borders Iraq, has ...

Chaos Under Heaven, and More to Come
Inter Press Service (subscription), World - 13 hours ago
... administration ally, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, also suggested
this week that Iraq's alleged WMD stockpiles were transported to Syria ...


http://www.2la.org/syria/iraq-wmd.php



ANOTHER FORMER HIGH-RANKING IRAQI OFFICIAL CONFIRMS WMD WENT TO SYRIA

The Changed Baathist: Interview with Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti

By: Ryan Mauro
TDCAnalyst@aol.com

Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti was a southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s and a personal friend of the dictator. Units under his command dealt with chemical and biological weapons. He was known as the “Butcher of Basra” due to his campaigns and defected shortly before the Gulf War in 1991. This interview aims to gain some insight into the current situation in Iraq.

RM: Is there a single incident that you can point to that made you regret your actions and turn against the Baath Party?

IT: The single incident was my wife being willing to stand before me, not as my wife but as an Iraqi, and before one of Saddam's most brutal enforcers and question my tactics. This really made me think because no one has ever even considered to question the tactics of myself or any others and lived to tell about it. This courageous move made me think deep and hard.

RM: Do you still maintain good sources inside Iraq to draw information from?

IT: I will maintain very close sources in Iraq and outside of Iraq. Some of Saddam's key scientists are personal friends of mine as well as other key leaders in the former Iraqi military. I have helped draw information since my defecting to the United States government voluntarily and with the permission of these contacts. The only difference between many of them and I, is that I had the opportunity to defect and they didn't.

RM: Many observers say the Syrian and Iraqi Baath Parties did not trust each other and were rivals until around 2000. How serious were the disagreements between Syria and Saddam Hussein?

IT: The disagreements were not as dramatic as many would lead you to believe. Yes they were deep enough that Iraq and Syria could never move in the direction of forming one pan-Arab nationalist state but both remained the closest of allies. The ideologies of both were identical in almost every respect but the biggest problem was with the fact that Saddam and Assad were so alike they couldn't bear each other in terms of sharing power.

RM: What can you tell us about Iraqi sponsorship of terrorists, from Palestinian groups to Al-Qaeda?

IT: Iraq had sponsored Palestinian militant organizations for the longest time with logistical and some material support. Most of the material support came around after the first Gulf War in terms of buying munitions for the various terrorist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. As far as Al-Qaeda is concerned this support was limited for a long time, mainly due to the fact that Al-Qaeda had the hopes of creating an Islamic empire while Saddam wanted a secular Arab nationalist empire. They only really came to terms in the mid-90's due to the fact that both knew they shared the same short term enemy. Once they came to terms on this Saddam provided Al-Qaeda with intelligence support and whatever money or munitions they could provide. Saddam has had very long standing contacts in the black market as well as with Moscow and would provide whatever munitions he could through these contacts.

RM: In your experience, would either side (the Iraqi Baathists or radical Islamists) be able to put aside their differences to cooperate against the United States?

IT: Yes, as I have noted above they did and will continue to strengthen ties until both are defeated. If you look in Iraq today you are witnessing Arab nationalist terrorist organizations and Islamist terrorist organizations working together to fight the United States.

RM: Is it true the United States helped bring Saddam Hussein to power, as some allege, and then arm him with WMDs?

IT: This is absolutely ludicrous. I was in the Ba'athist Revolution who received support from the Soviet Union because of the socialist ideology behind it. The Soviet Union openly supported and backed the Ba'athist revolution in Iraq at the time and I am sure you can find news articles about it in European press agencies and others at the time. I was there helping with the revolution and worked on two occasions with Soviet KGB officials to help train us, much like the United States did with the Taliban during the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan. The United States never directly gave us any WMDs but rather ingredients. They were not mixed and these 'ingredients' could have been easily used for commercial use but were rather used to build low life chemical weapons.

RM: Why do you think Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are in Syria? Why didn't he use them or simply destroy them before the war?

IT: I know Saddam's weapons are in Syria due to certain military deals that were made going as far back as the late 1980's that dealt with the event that either capitols were threatened with being overrun by an enemy nation. Not to mention I have discussed this in-depth with various contacts of mine who have confirmed what I already knew. At this point Saddam knew that the United States were eventually going to come for his weapons and the United States wasn't going to just let this go like they did in the original Gulf War. He knew that he had lied for this many years and wanted to maintain legitimacy with the pan Arab nationalists. He also has wanted since he took power to embarrass the West and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. After Saddam denied he had such weapons why would he use them or leave them readily available to be found? That would only legitimize President Bush, who he has a personal grudge against. What we are witnessing now is many who opposed the war to begin with are rallying around Saddam saying we overthrew a sovereign leader based on a lie about WMD. This is exactly what Saddam wanted and predicted.

RM: What can you tell us about Iraqi and Iranian relations? There have been reports that small amounts of Iraqi WMDs went to Iran and that Iran is currently helping the Iraqi insurgency.

IT: The reports on weapons being sent to Iran are absolutely false. They have no basis and are written by people who have no knowledge of Middle Eastern affairs or they are being written by people who are just intellectually dishonest. As far as the support for the insurgency today, there is no doubt in my mind that Tehran is backing the Islamist insurgency of the Shiites. Iran would want nothing more than a destabalized Iraq, not because they want to control Iraq as much as they want something to throw at the United States politically on the international stage.

RM: On what levels did Iraq and Libya cooperate? Some reports indicate Iraq was involved in Libya's nuclear program.

IT: Iraqi scientists were turned over to Libya along with many documents and research from Iraq on nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that Saddam was attempting to use Libya as a laboratory to further his nuclear development just like he was attempting to do by sending his weapons to Syria. Saddam knew after the Gulf War he needed to start shipping his weapons and programs outside of his borders to avoid detection which is exactly why Saddam became so emboldened and laughed at the West every time he stood in front of the camera. If you were to compare him in the 80's and 90's you would see a much more confident and defiant Saddam in the latter due to the fact he knew there was nothing to materially pin him on within the borders of Iraq.

RM: Why do you think the insurgency is still living on in Iraq? What can be done to win the guerilla war there?

IT: The insurgency is still alive and well in Iraq today due to mismanagement and failure on the part of those managing the rebuilding effort. If you want to break the back of the insurgency what is needed is, obviously, to continue the military campaign and train the Iraqi forces BUT you need to rebuild more schools, provide more jobs and increase the standard of living. You can't rely on the Army Corps of Engineers to do most of the civil rebuilding. They are a great company and have done much good but something of this magnitude requires large private companies to be engaged. If you provide the Iraqis with jobs and really show them a better way of life you will win their hearts and minds which will cripple the insurgency's efforts to find safe haven in Iraq, material support in Iraq and above all, recruits in Iraq.

RM: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the near-term future of Iraq?

IT:There is no doubt that the United States military has learned the mistakes of the past and are really getting on track in terms of the learning curve of the reconstruction of Iraq. My criticism was aimed at the politicians on the Hill who are beginning to run the war from Congress and taking this role from the military. I see this in the very near future. I have a lot of fears that with upcoming elections and poll numbers down for the Iraq war the politicians are sticking their fingers in the air and they are wanting to cut and run essentially and isolate themselves from the war.

I am optimistic that the Iraqis and the U.S. military can salvage whatever damage may be done due to this. There is much more progress in Iraq today than there was in Vietnam when we pulled out than. The biggest hurdle is going to be putting enough pressure on the Hill to just let the Pentagon run the war and allow our military establishment to do what we entrusted them to do. Win the war and reconstruct the country. The day the politicians take that away from the Pentagon is the day I really see a serious escalation in terrorism to continue a propaganda war from Iraq to persuade the politicians to cut and run. Zarqawi and the rest have been attempting to do this from day one and they are getting closer to their goal if you look at the sentiment within the Senate alone.

I am still quite optimistic that the Iraqis will prevail due to the amount of progress and reconstruction the United States military has made in Iraq but there is always that small amount of doubt and fear which I have. I have seen politicians try to rake the reigns of a war from the military and the war is lost almost immediately. The ball though is in the Iraqis court in terms of defending their newfound democracy and being able to energize the public enough to make this work irregardless of what happens in Washington or the number of troops left in Iraq in the near future.

That being said I think the Iraqis have a very good shot of developing a true and vibrant democracy but it really is up to them and how badly the Iraqis public really wants it and if they are up to the sacrifice, both financially and in terms of body count.

RM: Do you support the rumored partial withdrawal of American troops in spring of 2006?

IT: Now of course I would like to see a drawing down of U.S. troops as to have them return back stateside and be with their families. It would also give the Iraqi security forces the opportunity to prove what themselves to the Iraqi people. The problem though is the political climate here in Washington as I explained earlier.

If there is no sight of the political environment changing in the near future than there is no doubt that drawing down U.S. troops will be more disastrous in the long run than just leaving them there until the Administration or the political climate changes here at home. We can not take the chance of allowing another Vietnam to occur because this will be the Mujahadeens victory over the Soviet Union to the 10th power.

####
http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/17/iraqi-commander-some-iraq-wmd-moved-to-syria/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldthreats.com%2Fmiddle_east%2Ftalk_tikriti.htm&frame=true
__________________________________________________________________________

Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says

By IRA STOLL
Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 26, 2006

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 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. 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.

http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/16/iraqi-general-some-iraq-wmd-moved-to-syria-by-plane/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nysun.com%2Farticle%2F26514&frame=true

The New York Sun
105 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007
© 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC. All rights reserved.

Reference: Saddam's Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied & Survived Saddam Hussein (Hardcover
_________________________________________________________________________

Ex-Official: Russia Moved Saddam's WMD

Kenneth R. Timmerman
Sunday, Feb. 19, 2006

A top Pentagon official who was responsible for tracking Saddam Hussein's weapons programs before and after the 2003 liberation of Iraq, has provided the first-ever account of how Saddam Hussein "cleaned up" his weapons of mass destruction stockpiles to prevent the United States from discovering them.

"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw told an audience Saturday at a privately sponsored "Intelligence Summit" in Alexandria, Va. (www.intelligencesummit.org).

"They were moved by Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) units out of uniform, that were specifically sent to Iraq to move the weaponry and eradicate any evidence of its existence," he said.

Shaw has dealt with weapons-related issues and export controls as a U.S. government official for 30 years, and was serving as deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security when the events he described today occurred.

He called the evacuation of Saddam's WMD stockpiles "a well-orchestrated campaign using two neighboring client states with which the Russian leadership had a long time security relationship."

He estimated that Saddam had amassed 100 million tons of munitions - roughly 60 percent of the entire U.S. arsenal. "The origins of these weapons were Russian, Chinese and French in declining order of magnitude, with the Russians holding the lion's share and the Chinese just edging out the French for second place."

But as Shaw's office increasingly got involved in ongoing intelligence to identify Iraqi weapons programs before the war, he also got "a flow of information from British contacts on the ground at the Syrian border and from London" via non-U.S. government contacts.

"The intelligence included multiple sightings of truck convoys, convoys going north to the Syrian border and returning empty," he said.

Shaw worked closely with Julian Walker, a former British ambassador who had decades of experience in Iraq, and an unnamed Ukranian-American who was directly plugged in to the head of Ukraine's intelligence service.

The Ukrainians were eager to provide the United States with documents from their own archives on Soviet arms transfers to Iraq and on ongoing Russian assistance to Saddam, to thank America for its help in securing Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union, Shaw said.

In addition to the convoys heading to Syria, Shaw said his contacts "provided information about steel drums with painted warnings that had been moved to a cellar of a hospital in Beirut."

But when Shaw passed on his information to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and others within the U.S. intelligence community, he was stunned by their response.

"My report on the convoys was brushed off as ‘Israeli disinformation,'" he said.

One month later, Shaw learned that the DIA general counsel complained to his own superiors that Shaw had eaten from the DIA "rice bowl." It was a Washington euphemism that meant he had commited the unpardonable sin of violating another agency's turf.

The CIA responded in even more diabolical fashion. "They trashed one of my Brits and tried to declare him persona non grata to the intelligence community," Shaw said. "We got constant indicators that Langley was aggressively trying to discredit both my Ukranian-American and me in Kiev," in addition to his other sources.

But Shaw's information had not originated from a casual contact. His Ukranian-American aid was a personal friend of David Nicholas, a Western ambassador in Kiev, and of Igor Smesko, head of Ukrainian intelligence.

Smesko had been a military attaché in Washington in the early 1990s when Ukraine first became independent and Dick Cheney was secretary of defense. "Smesko had told Cheney that when Ukraine became free of Russia he wanted to show his friendship for the United States."

Helping out on Iraq provided him with that occasion.

"Smesko had gotten to know Gen. James Clapper, now director of the Geospacial Intelligence Agency, but then head of DIA," Shaw said.

But it was Shaw's own friendship to the head of Britain's MI6 that brought it all together during a two-day meeting in London that included Smeshko's people, the MI6 contingent, and Clapper, who had been deputized by George Tenet to help work the issue of what happened to Iraq's WMD stockpiles.

In the end, here is what Shaw learned:

  • In December 2002, former Russian intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov, a KGB general with long-standing ties to Saddam, came to Iraq and stayed until just before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

  • Primakov supervised the execution of long-standing secret agreements, signed between Iraqi intelligence and the Russian GRU (military intelligence), that provided for clean-up operations to be conducted by Russian and Iraqi military personnel to remove WMDs, production materials and technical documentation from Iraq, so the regime could announce that Iraq was "WMD free."

  • Shaw said that this type GRU operation, known as "Sarandar," or "emergency exit," has long been familiar to U.S. intelligence officials from Soviet-bloc defectors as standard GRU practice.

  • In addition to the truck convoys, which carried Iraqi WMD to Syria and Lebanon in February and March 2003 "two Russian ships set sail from the (Iraqi) port of Umm Qasr headed for the Indian Ocean," where Shaw believes they "deep-sixed" additional stockpiles of Iraqi WMD from flooded bunkers in southern Iraq that were later discovered by U.S. military intelligence personnel.

  • The Russian "clean-up" operation was entrusted to a combination of GRU and Spetsnaz troops and Russian military and civilian personnel in Iraq "under the command of two experienced ex-Soviet generals, Colonel-General Vladislav Achatov and Colonel-General Igor Maltsev, both retired and posing as civilian commercial consultants."

  • Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz reported on Oct. 30, 2004, that Achatov and Maltsev had been photographed receiving medals from Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed in a Baghdad building bombed by U.S. cruise missiles during the first U.S. air raids in early March 2003.

  • Shaw says he leaked the information about the two Russian generals and the clean-up operation to Gertz in October 2004 in an effort to "push back" against claims by Democrats that were orchestrated with CBS News to embarrass President Bush just one week before the November 2004 presidential election. The press sprang bogus claims that 377 tons of high explosives of use to Iraq's nuclear weapons program had "gone missing" after the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq, while ignoring intelligence of the Russian-orchestrated evacuation of Iraqi WMDs.

  • The two Russian generals "had visited Baghdad no fewer than 20 times in the preceding five to six years," Shaw revealed. U.S. intelligence knew "the identity and strength of the various Spetsnaz units, their dates of entry and exit in Iraq, and the fact that the effort (to clean up Iraq's WMD stockpiles) with a planning conference in Baku from which they flew to Baghdad."

  • The Baku conference, chaired by Russian Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu, "laid out the plans for the Sarandar clean-up effort so that Shoigu could leave after the keynote speech for Baghdad to orchestrate the planning for the disposal of the WMD."

  • Subsequent intelligence reports showed that Russian Spetsnaz operatives "were now changing to civilian clothes from military/GRU garb," Shaw said. "The Russian denial of my revelations in late October 2004 included the statement that "only Russian civilians remained in Baghdad." That was the "only true statement" the Russians made, Shaw ironized.

    The evacuation of Saddam's WMD to Syria and Lebanon "was an entirely controlled Russian GRU operation," Shaw said. "It was the brainchild of General Yevgenuy Primakov."

    The goal of the clean-up was "to erase all trace of Russian involvement" in Saddam's WMD programs, and "was a masterpiece of military camouflage and deception."

    Just as astonishing as the Russian clean-up operation were efforts by Bush administration appointees, including Defense Department spokesman Laurence DiRita, to smear Shaw and to cover up the intelligence information he brought to light.

    "Larry DiRita made sure that this story would never grow legs," Shaw said. "He whispered sotto voce [quietly] to journalists that there was no substance to my information and that it was the product of an unbalanced mind."

    Shaw suggested that the answer of why the Bush administration had systematically "ignored Russia's involvement" in evacuating Saddam's WMD stockpiles "could be much bigger than anyone has thought," but declined to speculate what exactly was involved.

    Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney was less reticent. He thought the reason was Iran.

    "With Iran moving faster than anyone thought in its nuclear programs," he told NewsMax, "the administration needed the Russians, the Chinese and the French, and was not interested in information that would make them look bad."

    McInerney agreed that there was "clear evidence" that Saddam had WMD. "Jack Shaw showed when it left Iraq, and how."

    Former Undersecretary of Defense Richard Perle, a strong supporter of the war against Saddam, blasted the CIA for orchestrating a smear campaign against the Bush White House and the war in Iraq.

    "The CIA has been at war with the Bush administration almost from the beginning," he said in a keynote speech at the Intelligence Summit on Saturday.

    He singled out recent comments by Paul Pillar, a former top CIA Middle East analyst, alleging that the Bush White House "cherry-picked" intelligence to make the case for war in Iraq.

    "Mr. Pillar was in a very senior position and was able to make his views known, if that is indeed what he believed," Perle said.

    "He (Pillar) briefed senior policy officials before the start of the Iraq war in 2003. If he had had reservations about the war, he could have voiced them at that time." But according to officials briefed by Pillar, Perle said, he never did.

    Even more inexplicable, Perle said, were the millions of documents "that remain untranslated" among those seized from Saddam Hussein's intelligence services.

    "I think the intelligence community does not want them to be exploited," he said.

    Among those documents, presented Saturday at the conference by former FBI translator Bill Tierney, were transcripts of Saddam's palace conversations with top aides in which he discussed ongoing nuclear weapons plans in 2000, well after the U.N. arms inspectors believed he had ceased all nuclear weapons work.

    "What was most disturbing in those tapes," Tierney said, "was the fact that the individuals briefing Saddam were totally unknown to the U.N. Special Commission."

    In addition, Tierney said, the plasma uranium programs Saddam discussed with his aids as ongoing operations in 2000 had been dismissed as "old programs" disbanded years earlier, according to the final CIA report on Iraq's weapons programs, presented in 2004 by the Iraq Survey Group.

    "When I first heard those tapes" about the uranium plasma program, "it completely floored me," Tierney said.

  • http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/16/russia-moved-some-iraq-wmd-to-syria-and-lebanon/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsmax.com%2Farchives%2Farticles%2F2006%2F2%2F18%2F233023.shtml%3Fs%3Dlh&frame=true

  • China: Some Iraqi WMD Moved To Syria

    News – A meeting in Beijing was held between the Prime minister of China and the German Chancellor Schroeder. Schroeder was asked about the information that was obtained by the Chinese intelligence and it says that Iraq has moved his mass of destruction weapon to Syria.

  • http://news.netscape.com/story/2006/10/16/china-some-iraqi-wmd-moved-to-syria

  • Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (0) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive