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August 16, 2004
WMD sent to Syria?
The Washington Times reports this morning on the continuing controversy over what happened to Saddams weapons of mass destruction. It has long been speculated that he was able to spirit them out of the country at the last minute, with the most likely destination being Syria. That our 4th Infantry Division was denied a northern attack route by Turkey may have kept that escape route open.
Today we learn that in fact there were suspicious activities going on at the Iraqi-Syria border:
Saddam Hussein periodically removed guards on the Syrian border and replaced them with his own intelligence agents who supervised the movement of banned materials between the two countries, U.S. investigators have discovered.
These trusted agents may have been put in place when WMD were sent across the border.
Two defense sources told The Washington Times that the ISG has interviewed Iraqis who told of Saddam's system of dispatching his trusted Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) to the border, where they would send border inspectors away. The shift was followed by the movement of trucks in and out of Syria suspected of carrying materials banned by U.N. sanctions. Once the shipments were made, the agents would leave and the regular border guards would resume their posts.
Of course, this does not prove that WMD was being sent across the border. But it is certainly possible, and it is suspicious. There was an increase in truck traffic just prior to the war.
"I think personally that those below the senior leadership saw what was coming, and I think they went to some extraordinary lengths to dispose of the evidence," said Gen. Clapper, who heads the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. "I'll call it an 'educated hunch.' " ... Of activity on the Syrian border, Gen. Clapper said, "There is no question that there was a lot of traffic, increase in traffic up to the immediate onset of combat and certainly during Iraqi Freedom. ... The obvious conclusion one draws is the sudden upturn, uptick in traffic which may have been people leaving the scene, fleeing Iraq and unquestionably, I'm sure, material as well.
Read the whole thing.
Posted by Tom at August 16, 2004 11:40 AM
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