Friday, 29 January 2010

Subject: Debka - Syrans Hid Iraqi WMDs in Lebanon
   
5/4/2003 2:00:34 AM
According to a report from Debka.com (today May 4) Bashar Assad and the Syrians hid a large portion of Iraq's WMDs in large pits in the Syrian controlled Bekaa valley in Lebanon. 
The transfer of the WMDs from Iraq through Syria into Lebanon was completed just 10 days before the war began on March 20. The Syrians were reportedly paid $ 35 million by the Iraqis to cover costs and for services rendered. 
Again, according to Debka the US government is aware of this development. Secretary of State Colin Powell 'discussed' this issue with Assad during his recent visit to Syria.

 RE:Debka - Syrans Hid Iraqi WMDs in Lebano: Bolton's testimony   9/16/2003 6:12:20 PM
U.S.: Syria supporting terror groups, developing WMD By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies Undersecretary of State John Bolton on Tuesday vehemently attacked Syria and said it was a rebellious country, like Iran, North Korea and Libya. Bolton told a congressional hearing that Syria is developing weapons of mass destruction and supporting terror organizations, and that the combination poses a serious threat to both U.S. and international security. Bolton said that the United States must keep open the option of using "every tool" - code for the remote possibility of military action - to dissuade Syria and others from pursuing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. While saying the United States had yet not found any information to substantiate media reports that Iraq might have transferred some of its suspected weapons of mass destruction to Syria, Bolton said Washington was concerned by the reports. Bolton added that Syria continues to support Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad - groups the United States considers terrorists - and that it is allowing militants to cross the border into Iraq. But Bolton asked the Congress committee members to be patient and allow Secretary of State Colin Powell time to bring about a change in Syria's behavior. Syria's foreign minister on Tuesday rejected the U.S. accusations and said his country was willing to meet "reasonable" U.S. demands within the framework of international legitimacy. Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa spoke at a press conference with European Commissioner for External Relations Christopher Patten, before the U.S. Congress opened the hearing on Syria. "This is not the first time in which the U.S. Congress makes an unjust accusation against Syria," Sharaa said. He said Syria, which opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq, was ready to cooperate with America "if the U.S. demands are within the framework of international legitimacy, for the sake of Iraq's unity and in order to find a just and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict." Blaming Israel for his country's strained relations with the United States, Sharaa said, "I hope Congress would not adopt a deformed image about Syria which it receives from others."

 RE:Debka - Syrans Hid Iraqi WMDs in Lebano: Bolton's testimony   9/16/2003 7:39:40 PM
Depka is not the only source on this story and it wasn't the first. John Loftus (late of the Justice Dept., and who still holds very high level security clearances), whose sources are in CENTCOM and the CIA spoke about this at or around the time the war began, back on March 19.

RE:Debka - Syrans Hid Iraqi WMDs in Northern Syria   12/16/2003 5:14:32 PM
link >> DEBKAfile?s military and intelligence sources reveal that Washington and Dr. David Kay, senior US and coalition WMD hunter in Iraq - far from groping in the dark for Saddam?s prohibited weapons, as conventionally believed ? have a very good idea of where they are hidden. The search has narrowed down to a section of the Syrian Desert known as Dayr Az-Zawr in Syria?s 600 sq. mile Al Jazirah province, which is wedged between the Turkish and Iraqi borders. The missing weapons systems are thought to be buried somewhere under these desert sands. This area is now probably the most keenly watched area on earth ? from its outer periphery. At its eastern edge, US special force units, Predator drones and reconnaissance airplanes and satellites make sure no one steps into this ultra-sensitive patch of desert. Turkish special forces, intelligence and air force units are guarding it from the northwest. The Syrians are nowhere to be seen, acting as though the target-area does not concern them. DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly have consistently reported that Saddam?s weapons of mass destruction were removed from the country and secretly buried in Lebanon and northern Syria with the connivance of Syrian president Bashar Assad. <<>
 
Debka - Syrans Hid Iraqi WMDs in three sites in Syria   1/6/2004 6:00:39 AM
From Debka: "A senior Syrian journalist reports Iraq?s WMD located in three Syrian sites. Nizar Najoef, 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 WMD are kept. The storage places are: 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 airforce camp. Vital parts of Iraq?s WMD are stored there. 3. The city of Sjinsjar on the Syrian border with the Lebanon, south of the city Homs. Najoef 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, DEBKAfile and DEBKA-Net-Weekly were the only media to report the movement of Iraqi WMD, the efforts to bring them from Iraq to Syria, and the personal involvement of Bashar Assad and his family in the operation. Najoef, who has won prizes for journalistic integrity, says he wrote his letter because he has terminal cancer." I really wonder...
 
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Russia "Cleaned Up" Saddam's WMD

Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw, a "top Pentagon official who was responsible for tracking Saddam Hussein's weapons programs before and after the 2003 liberation of Iraq," stated in October 2004March 2005, and again in February 2006 that it was the Russians who helped Saddam Hussein to "clean up" his weapons of mass destruction stockpiles "to prevent the United States from discovering them." [1]

In late October 2004, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' "nuclear watchdog", told the UN Security Council that the Iraqi Interim Government "reported to the agency" that approximately 380 tons of "conventional explosives" were "missing" from the "vast" Al Qa Qaa complex of "1,100 buildings" [2] about 30 miles south of Baghdad "after last year's invasion." [3][4][5]

IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei "passed on the letter from Iraqi authorities informing the agency of the theft." [6] The IAEA said that "the material, sealed and monitored by its inspectors until the US-led invasion, had gone missing some time after" April 9, 2003, "during 'the theft and looting of governmental installations'." The IAEA "last inspected the munitions at al-Qaqaa in January 2003 but [had] not been allowed back into Iraq" following the invasion. [7]

The Associated Press reported October 25, 2004, that, "At the Pentagon, an official who monitors developments in Iraq said U.S.-led coalition troops had searched Al-Qaqaa in the immediate aftermath of the March 2003 invasion and confirmed that the explosives, under IAEA seal since 1991, were intact. Thereafter, the site was not secured by U.S. forces, the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity."

The Pentagon was "unclear" as to whether or not the explosives had "disappeared" after the site in Iraq "fell under US control." [8][9]

On February 18, 2006, Shaw "told an audience" at "a privately sponsored 'Intelligence Summit'" in Alexandria, Virginia, that "The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went" to Syria and the Bekka valley inLebanonKenneth R. Timmerman reported February 19, 2006, in NewsMax. "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," Shaw said.

However, the Financial Times (UK) reported October 28, 2004, that Shaw had "not provided evidence for his claims and the Pentagon [had] distanced itself from his remarks."

On December 10, 2004, Bill Gertz reported in The Washington Times that Shaw, who was a former aide to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, "was forced to leave his position ... as the result of a 'reorganization' that eliminated his job, defense officials said. ... Shaw said he had been asked to resign for 'exceeding his authority' in disclosing the information, a charge he called 'specious'."


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Sunday, 15 March 2009

 

Did Iran Spread Iraqi WMD Disinformation?


Foreign Confidential....

Israel's enemies and critics have unjustly accused it of manipulating the United States into needlessly invading Iraq, a contained, secular foe with no weapons of mass destruction and no meaningful Al Qaeda connections.

But a number of intelligence analysts believeIran deliberately fueled suspicions regarding Iraqi WMD and Islamist ties in order to trick the U.S. into a draining, costly conflict. Iran was allegedly inspired by the way Washington tricked Moscow into invading Afghanistan in order to bleed it dry.

Iran also sought to divert attention from its nuclear and missile development programs, and remove a Middle Eastern enemy that stood in the way of Iranian regional dominance. The U.S. invasion and conquest of Iraq accomplished that, turning the Sunni-ruled nation into a Shiite dominated, emerging Iranian satellite. 

Iranian disinformation, according to these analysts, was spread across the globe through agents of influence and unwitting dupes; and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who had constructed a myth around Iraqi WMD--to enhance his power and protect himself against Iran--was trapped into keeping the Big Lie alive. Tehran understood Saddam's vulnerability and effectively exploited it to the maximum possible extent.

This much is certain: just as the Vietnam war set back the legitimate anti-Communist cause and the case for truly necessary military intervention, the deeply unpopular Iraqi war has undermined the anti-Islamist struggle (the so-called War on Terror) and the need to stop Iran from acquiring atomic arms and the means of delivering them. 

Israeli and other analysts believe Iran is already capable of making a nuclear weapon. Given another 12-18 months, these experts say, the mullahocracy could be mass-producing nuclear weapons, including warheads for long-range missiles.