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Holger Awakens has an interesting post up regarding a news story from Jerusalem Post indicating that the Israeli strike into Syria last September was against a cache of WMD’s from Iraq. Information is thin at the moment, but this does glue many things back together, and explains quite a few mysteries. It’s too soon to call it certain, which is why you see the question mark above.
WMD’s would explain the lack of reaction from Syria, and the tight wraps on information about the strike since it occurred. From Holger:
Bombshell. There’s a joint report coming out from the U.S. and Israel regarding the Israeli strike in Syria last year by the IAF. That report, it has been leaked, contains proof that Saddam Hussein had transferred his WMD’s to Syria at some point
UPDATE: Little Green Footballs carrying the story
UPDATE: More at Democracy Broadcasting
From World Net Daily Feb 15, 2006: 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. (note they also have Fox News video)
image credit: Andrux at Wikimedia Commons
If this turns out to be true and I hope it does, there’s going to be
a lot of people eating crow, Hillary, Kerry, Reid, Pelosi and Kennedy. Then Bush can leave office with his little smirk….
Sooner or later the war supporters will decide whether it’s “Saddam Lied, People Died”, or this, the “Saddam, for some inexplicable reason, would have rather moved his WMD’s to Syria than use them against the invading forces hell-bent to topple his regime” angle.
It’s OK. I’ll wait.
Well it actually could be both if you are a crazed dictator who thinks he’s a good general. If the other side is bound by rule and conventions not to use WMD, and you use them then you remove the rules and conventions. Saddam was facing a country with many more WMD’s and more capability to use them than he had. While he might threaten, I don’t think he was crazy enough to use them.
I agree, it could have been both. He certainly could have lied to the FBI guy that gleaned that supposed confession from him too. But what I can’t help but notice is that you made a pretty good argument here as to why the invasion was unnecessary. I mean, any way you cut it, Saddam wasn’t much of a threat to us here domestically. On top of that, here we are, 5 years later, caught a region embroiled in a bitter sectarian conflict complete with suicide bombers and people claiming to represent al Qaeda, and those WMD’s still haven’t found their way into the arena. It’s not exactly a vindication of the doomsday scenarios that led us into this thing.
It seems that Saddam didn’t have a problem using chemical
weapons against the Iranians, Kurds and his own people in
southern Iraq. Moving his WMDs to Syria was a trick to prevent
the U.N. inspectors from finding them. When the inspectors
say they couldn’t find any WMDs, then he could bring them back
and start all over again. The 2003 invasion prevented that.
Chen, you are stretching. I said he wouldn’t use WMD’s against us in his own country and escalate the conflict to non-conventional against someone capable of reply. I did not say that he wouldn’t use them against neighbors.
The “snapshot ” bully scenario is always in play, basically the WMD owner can bully neighbors with threat of a single shot and possible subsequent conventional war. He’s shown that you can get away with low level use of WMD’s against neighbors and enemies in country already. Remember, WMD were used against the Iranians as well as against the Kurds.
ChenZhen, If my memory serves me, I remember a lot of Iraq
troops were equipped with chemical protective suits, and a lot of chemical protective suits were found in stockpiles. They were
not needed as the chemical war stock had been removed to Syria
or so it seems. Saddam was playing it safe by keeping the U.N.
from finding them during their inspections and not thinking that
Bush would order the troops in. If we had gone in sooner, I’m
convienced we would have found the WMDs or had them used
against us in a last resort scenario. It was the U.N. that delayed
the invasion and allowed Saddam to get rid of the WMDs. In your statement “Saddam wasn’t much of a threat to us here
domestically.” Just what do you really consider a threat anyway?