"A senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq's WMD located in three Syrian sites" 

US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi i SYRIA: U.S. CONGRESS LEADER'S VISIT RILES MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD Damascus, 3 April (AKI) - The Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday condemned new US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Syria. Pelosi shook the hands with "the president (Syria's Basher al-Assad) of one of the worst repressive, totalitarian regimes," the dissident Brotherhood said in a statement. Syria "still carries out political arrests and torture...and is responsible for the disappearance of thousands of dissidents as well as the forced exile of many others," a Brotherhood leader, Ali Sadr al-Din al-Bayanuni, said in the statement. Another Syrian opposition group, the US-based the Reform Party of Syria, also criticised Pelosi't trip to Damascus. "We believe that dialogue with violent dictators harbouring terrorists sends the wrong signal about the US commitment to freedom; especially when dialogue has been tried on many occasions with no results to speak of," the party said in a statement posted on their Internet site. The White House has also criticised the visit by Pelosi a Democrat who was elected Speaker after her party captured the US Congress from President George W. Bush's Republicans in Congressional elections late last year. The visit was "a very bad idea," the White House said. Bush has turned down recommendations by a bi-partisan Iraq Study Group that the US engage with Syria and Iran - both described by Washington in the past as "rogue states" - to find a way of ending the violence in Iraq.

(Baw/Aki) Apr-03-07 16:02

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.401517786&par=0


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Syria WMD Programs Locations 36°02'02"N 37°21'03"E Open sources report that there are at least three Syrian facilities currently engaged in producing Chemical Weapons, located near Damascus, Hama, and Safira village (in the Aleppo area). A senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq's WMD located in three Syrian sites Check the translation of this letter from Arabic to English .Read article copy of the original letter sent out from syria   . The Following information were taken from GlobalSecurity.org Click on the small image to view a larger version
Overview of the Middle East with Syria in the center	Al Safir SCUD Base and Weapons Depot, Syria
Tactical Pilotage Chart with NIMA CIB imagery overlay showing the general location of the Al Safir SCUD base	Tactical Pilotage Chart with NIMA CIB imagery overlay showing Al Safir
Russian 1:200,00 Map of the Al Safir chemical weapons plant and storage area as of 1980	The CW plant and storage area in the western canyon are visible. The munitions storage area would not be detected until 1987. Work on the underground SCUD base would not be visible until 1995. Completion of the Tunnel complex and the SCUD support base was detected in the July 2002 Digital Globe image
Russian 1:50,000 Map of the Al Safir Scud base as of 1987	Syrian 1:50,000 Map as of 1994. The omission of the facility from the Syrian government's map is a sure indicator that the facility is of military nature
Digital Globe image taken on 30 July 2002 of the Al Safir CW plant and SCUD base. Al Safir is protected by an SA-2 SAM battery	Overview of the probable SCUD support base and underground facility. A munitions storage area lies to the right
Close-up of the munitions storage area. Additional storage bunkers have been added between 1987 and 1995	An Russian-build SA-2 surface-to-air-missile site, defending the storage area and underground facility
Close-up of the SA-2 SAM site with Guideline missiles on launchers, Fan Song Radar, and Control Vans. Cable are visible running from the command van to the launchers	Overview of the Al Safir chemical weapons plant. Expansion took place between 1987 and 1995
This high-voltage sub-station is an indicator of the presence of activity requiring a large volume of electricity. A normal warehouse complex would not require this much energy	These forced-air cooling towers also indicate the presence of an industrial process requiring the disposal of waste heat. Chemical processes for nerve agents produce highly unstable intermediates that react explosively with water. Steam-heating and water cooling must be replaced with special heat-exchange fluids and heating oils that require the use of cooling towers rather than steam vents
The co-location of munitions storage igloos within the security perimeter of the processing facility is an additional indicator of the Chemical weapons nature of this plant	The lower storage igloos were added sometime between 1995 and 2002
The munitions storage area on the right was built sometime between 1980 and 1987. The buildings on the left are probably associated with SCUD missiles deployed underground and were built after 1995.	These storage igloos are located at a separate facility, which was built between 1980 and 1987
Between 1995 and 2002 an Underground Facility (UGF) was built as well as above-ground support facilities, possibly to house SCUD-D missiles Syria reportedly acquired in 19XX.	These buildings were built after 1995 and are probably associated with SCUD missiles housed underground. The large building measures 30 x 130 meters
A probable command and control facility, located near the tunnel entrances to an underground facility where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are hidden.	The Tunnel entrances are protected by the box canyon walls, from direct attack from precision-guided munitions. Each of the three tunnel portals is more than wide enough to accommodate the Soviet-build MAZ-543 transporter for the SCUD missile

The above information were taken from GlobalSecurity.org

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_____________________________________________________________________________________Saddam general: WMDs in Syria
Another former confidant of ex-dictator makes claim, also links Iraq to al-Qaida

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Posted: February 15, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Saddam Hussein

A former general and friend of Saddam Hussein who defected but maintains close contact with Iraq claims the regime supported al-Qaida with intelligence, finances and munitions and believes weapons of mass destruction are hidden in Syria.

Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s, spoke with Ryan Mauro of WorldThreats.com.

Known as the "Butcher of Basra," al-Tikriti commanded units that dealt with chemical and biological weapons. He defected shortly before the Gulf War in 1991.

Last month, Saddam Hussein's No. 2 Air Force officer, Georges Sada, told the New York Sun Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were moved to Syria six weeks before the war started. Sada claimed two Iraqi Airways Boeing jets converted to cargo planes moved the weapons in a total of 56 flights. They attracted little attention, he said, because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in 2002.

Discussing Saddam's support of terrorism, al-Tikriti said the dictator's regime sponsored Palestinian groups with logistical and material support.

For a time, support for al-Qaida was limited, the former general said, mainly because al-Qaida's aim was to create an Islamic empire while Saddam wanted a secular Arab nationalist empire.

"They only really came to terms in the mid '90s due to the fact that both knew they shared the same short-term enemy," the general said. "Once they came to terms on this, Saddam provided al-Qaida with intelligence support and whatever money or munitions they could provide."

Al-Tikriti said Saddam "had very long-standing contacts in the black market as well as with Moscow and would provide whatever munitions he could through these contacts."

The secular Baathists and radical Islamists certainly are able to put aside their differences to cooperate against the U.S., he insisted.

"If you look in Iraq today, you are witnessing Arab nationalist terrorist organizations and Islamist terrorist organizations working together to fight the United States."

Al-Tikriti dismissed the commonly heard claim that the U.S. helped bring Saddam to power, calling it "absolutely ludicrous."

The Baathist revolution, he said, was backed by the Soviet Union because of the shared socialist ideology.

"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," he said. "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."

Al-Tikriti says he knows Saddam's weapons are in Syria because of contingency plans established as far back as the late 1980s, in the event either Damascus or Baghdad were taken over.

"Not to mention, I have discussed this in-depth with various contacts of mine who have confirmed what I already knew," he said.

Saddam, after lying for so many years, knew the U.S. eventually would come for the weapons, he said, and wanted to maintain legitimacy with pan-Arab nationalists.

Also, he had "wanted since he took power to embarrass the West, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so," al-Tikriti said.

"After Saddam denied he had such weapons, why would he use them or leave them readily available to be found?" he said. "That would only legitimize President Bush, who he has a personal grudge against."

What we are witnessing now, he said, "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."

Al-Tikriti said he turned against the Baath Party after his wife stood up to him and questioned his brutal 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," he said. "This courageous move made me think deep and hard."

Al-Tikriti said he still maintains good sources inside 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," he said. "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."

Previous stories:

New evidence on Saddam's WMDs?

Duelfer: 'A lot of material left Iraq and went to Syria'

Is this one of Saddam's mobile bio-weapons labs?

Inspector: Saddam had WMD on 'short notice'

Saddam's WMD have been found

Secret intelligence memolinks Saddam, bin Laden

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48827_____________________________________________________________________Russia Moved Iraqi WMD

Charles R. Smith
Thursday, March 3, 2005

Moscow Moved Weapons to Syria and Lebanon

According to a former top Bush administration official, Russian special forces teams moved weapons of mass destruction out of Iraq to Syria.

"I am absolutely sure that Russian Spetsnatz units moved WMD out of Iraq before the war," stated John Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary for international technology security.

Story Continues Below

 

According to Shaw, Russian units hid Saddam's arsenal inside Syria and in Lebanon's Bekka valley.

"While in Iraq I uncovered detailed information that Spetsnatz units shredded records and moved all WMD and specified advanced munitions out of Iraq to Syria and Lebanon," stated Shaw during an exclusive interview.

"I received information from several sources naming the exact Russian units, what they took and where they took both WMD materials and conventional explosives. Moscow made a 2001 agreement with Saddam Hussein to clear up all Russian involvement in WMD systems in Iraq," stated Shaw.

Shaw's assertions match the information provided by U.S. military forces that satellite surveillance showed extensive large-vehicle traffic crossing the Syrian border prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Moscow Paranoid About WMD

Shaw's information also backs allegations by a wide variety of sources of Russia's direct involvement in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program. One U.N. bioterrorism expert announced that Russia has been Iraq's "main supplier of the materials and know-how to weaponize anthrax, botulism and smallpox."

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Robert Goldberg cited former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Spertzel, who stated that Moscow supplied Baghdad with fermentation equipment to produce biotoxins.

According to Spertzel, the Russians on the U.N. inspection team in Iraq were "paranoid" about his efforts to uncover smallpox production.

Goldberg noted that no country has "done more to rebuild" Saddam's chemical and biological weapons programs or "been more aggressive in helping hide the truth" than Russia.

It is a fact that Saddam Hussein rose to power backed by Russian weapons and Russian money. Saddam was in debt to Moscow for over $8 billion for the arms he purchased from Russia when he was captured by U.S. forces.

The primary Iraqi chemical weapons were VX nerve gas and mustard gas, a blistering agent, both obtained from Russia.

According to the book "Russian Military Power," published in 1982, "It is known that the Soviets maintain stocks of CW (chemical weapons) agents."

The two primary Russian chemical weapons in the 1982 Soviet inventory were the nerve agent "VX" and "blistering agents - developments of mustard gas used so effectively in World War I."

Russian Chemical Weapons in Iraq

Iraq did most of its WMD killing using Russian-made MiG and Sukhoi aircraft equipped with chemical sprayers. In addition, Saddam used French-made artillery and helicopters to dump gas on Iranian troops and Iraqi Kurds.

Iraq obtained Russian delivery systems and the same inventory of Russian-made chemical weapons at the same time. Iraqi SU-22 Fitter attack jets were armed with Warsaw Pact-designed bombs filled with chemical weapons. Iraq used these Russian jet fighters to drop chemical weapons on Iranian troops during the Iran-Iraq war.

Iraq tried to use these SU-22 jets during the 1991 Gulf War, but they were detected and destroyed on the ground before they could launch a deadly chemical attack.

Other Russian weapons found with chemical weapons include the FROG-7 missile, 122 mm rockets, 152 mm artillery and the M-1937 82 mm mortars. All the Iraqi artillery missiles, rockets, shells and mortar rounds filled with chemical weapons are of Russian design.

Iraqi forces were trained by Russians in the use of chemical weapons and equipped by Russia with anti-chemical suits. The Iraqi armed forces were trained, equipped and supplied with the proper logistics to perform chemical warfare by Russia.

Lebanon and Syria

The arming of Iraq with such weapons has a direct impact on events today in the Middle East. The presence of former Iraqi WMD systems in Lebanon raises serious questions surrounding the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Many blame Syria for Hariri's murder.

However, the possibility that Hariri discovered the location of the Iraqi WMD systems inside his country lends some credible backing to a Syrian assassination effort to silence him.

In addition, the sudden sale of advanced missile and other weapons to Damascus by Moscow also supports the allegation that Syria is hiding something for Russia.

Russian weapons makers have previously insisted on hard, cold cash payments for their missiles, especially after the fall of Saddam and the collapse of credit deals done with Baghdad. More importantly, the Syrian economy is in bad shape, making it difficult for Damascus to come up with the required money for advanced Russian weapons.

Instead, it now appears that Moscow has extended both very good terms and no down payment required to Syria for an extensive purchase of advanced missiles and weapons. This is in contrast to weapons sales to other "good" Russian customers such as China, which can afford to pay up front for weapon systems.

CIA Failed

There is no question that the Russian effort to remove Iraqi WMD systems was the most successful intelligence operation of the 21st century. The Russians were able to move hundreds of tons of chemical, biological and nuclear materials without being discovered by CIA satellites or NSA radio listening posts.

"There is a clear sense on how effective they were," noted Shaw.

"The fact that the CIA did not know shows just how successful the Russian operation was," he concluded

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/2/230625.shtml
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THE NEW YORK SUN

December 15, 2005 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version

Saddam's WMD Moved to Syria, An Israeli Says

BY IRA STOLL - Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 15, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/24480

Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started, Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom says.

The assertion comes as President Bush said yesterday that much of the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was incorrect.

The Israeli officer, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, asserted that Saddam spirited his chemical weapons out of the country on the eve of the war. "He transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria," General Yaalon told The New York Sun over dinner in New York on Tuesday night. "No one went to Syria to find it."

From July 2002 to June 2005, when he retired, General Yaalon was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force, the top job in the Israeli military, analogous to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the American military. He is now a military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He made similar, but more speculative, remarks in April 2004 that attracted little notice in America; at that time he was quoted as saying of the Iraqi weapons, "Perhaps they transferred them to another country, such as Syria."

The Israeli general's remarks came on the eve of Mr. Bush's speech to the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, in which the president addressed the issue of intelligence and defended the decision to go to war. "When we made the decision to go into Iraq, many intelligence agencies around the world judged that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. This judgment was shared by the intelligence agencies of governments who did not support my decision to remove Saddam. And it is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Mr. Bush said in remarks that were one of a series of speeches he has given recently on the war.

Mr. Bush's defense of the war echoed themes he has been pressing since before the war began and through his successful campaign for re-election. "Given Saddam's history and the lessons of September the 11th, my decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat - and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power."

An official at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, Entifadh Qanbar, said he believed the Israeli general's account, but that the Iraqi government is "basically operating in the dark" because it does not have its own intelligence agency. He said the issue underscored the need for the new Iraqi government to have control of its own intelligence service. "We don't have any way to find anything out about Syria because we don't have intelligence," Mr. Qanbar said. He said there is a high-rise building in Baghdad with 1,000 employees working on intelligence but that it has no budget appropriation from the Iraqi government and "doesn't report to the Iraqi government."

"Nobody knows who it belongs to, but you should understand who it belongs to," he said, in what was apparently a reference to American involvement.

An Iraqi politician, Mithal Al-Alusi, whose sons were both assassinated in Iraq last year, told The New York Sun's Eli Lake last month that his party would press the Iraqi government to renew the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Mr. Al-Alusi said he believes Saddam clearly had the weapons before the invasion. "They will find the weapons, I am sure they will," Mr. Al-Alusi said.

A spokesman at the Syrian embassy in Washington did not return a call seeking comment. But General Yaalon's comment could increase pressure on the Syrian government that is already mounting from Washington and the United Nations. Mr. Bush has been keeping the rhetorical heat on Damascus. On Monday, he said in a speech, "Iraq's neighbor to the west, Syria, is permitting terrorists to use that territory to cross into Iraq."

Also Monday, Mr. Bush issued a statement saying, "Syria must comply with United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1559, 1595, and 1636 and end its interference in Lebanon once and for all. "The resolutions call for ending Syria's occupation of Lebanon and for Syrian cooperation into the investigation of the assassination of a Lebanese politician, Rafik Hariri.

On Saturday, the White House issued a statement calling attention to Syrian prisoners of conscience such as Kamal Labwani. "The Syrian Government must cease its harassment of Syrians peacefully seeking to bring democratic reform to their country. The United States stands with the Syrian people in their desire for freedom and democracy," said the statement, issued in the name of the White House press secretary.

Yesterday, the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, described Syria as an "oppressive regime." He also pointed to a recent report by a United Nations investigator looking into the assassination of Hariri. "The Syrian Government has failed to offer its full cooperation," Mr. McCormack said, citing the U.N. investigator's report that "details allegations of document burning by the Syrians, of intimidating witnesses."

When, during an interview with the Sun in April, 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.

Syria shares a 376-mile border with Iraq. 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. And it has long been the source of concern in America and Israel and Lebanon about its chemical warfare program apart from any weapons that may have been received from Iraq. The director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in March of 2004, "Damascus has an active CW development and testing program that relies on foreign suppliers for key controlled chemicals suitable for producing CW."

December 15, 2005 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version

http://www.nysun.com/article/24480_

_____________________________________________________________________________________Italian police uncover al-Qaeda link in Syria

April 17 2003

Syria has functioned as a hub for al-Qaeda operatives who moved Islamic extremists and money from Italy to north-eastern Iraq, where the recruits fought alongside the recently defeated Ansar al Islam terrorist group, according to an Italian investigation.

The investigation, which began last year, could intensify the growing debate about Syria's alleged ties to terrorism.

Two weeks ago, Italian police arrested seven alleged al-Qaeda operatives. They were charged with sending about 40 extremists through Syria to terrorist bases operated jointly by al-Qaeda and Ansar al Islam, whose stronghold in north-eastern Iraq was recently overrun by Kurdish and US troops.

Transcripts of wiretapped conversations between the arrested suspects and others paint a detailed picture of overseers in Syria co-ordinating the movement of recruits and money between Europe and Iraq, according to court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times. An Italian judicial order dated March 31 said the conversations showed that a Kurdish spiritual leader, identified as Mullah Fuad, was the respected "gatekeeper in Syria for volunteers intent on reaching Iraq".

Mullah Fuad and others based near Damascus gave orders to the suspects in Italy, according to authorities.
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