Monday, August 16, 2004

Bush did not lie -- new ISG discovery!

I've said it here and here, the there-was-no-WMD-in-Saddam's-Iraq conclusions by the media and the politicians are PREMATURE. Here is another indication that Saddam had moved some of his WMD materials into Syria before the US attacked last year (emphasis added):

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.

The recent discovery by the Bush administration's Iraq Survey Group (ISG) is fueling speculation, but is not proof, that the Iraqi dictator moved prohibited weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into Syria before the March 2003 invasion by a U.S.-led coalition.

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.

* * *
. . . there is evidence of unusually heavy truck traffic into Syria in the days before the attack, and with it, speculation that some of the trucks contained the banned weapons.

"Of course, it's always suspicious," the Pentagon official said.

The source said the ISG has confirmed the practice of IIS agents going to the border. Investigators also have heard from Iraqi sources that this maneuver was done days before the war at a time of brisk cross-border movements.

That particular part of the disclosures has not been positively confirmed, the officials said, although it dovetails with Saddam's system of switching guards at a time when contraband was shipped.


Once again, it is a matter of time before we know the truth about the WMDs -- probably a goodly amount of time at that because the nerve agents and biochemical materials that Saddam allegedly had could be stored in relatively small spaces -- The Monk's garage could hold enough WMD to wipe out Iraq's population. Try searching for stuff that could be contained in a two-car garage in a country the size of Texas California.

Hat-tip: Bill in DC

Hat-tip2: Oyster for the correction to the geographical analogy.

1 comment:

oyster said...

Texans might quickly correct your assessment on Iraq's size. It's approximately the size of California, which is 100,000 square miles smaller than the gigantine Tejas.

I don't understand the logic behind shipping one's most powerful weapons to another country prior to being invaded, although I'll grant Saddam is off his rocker. As a gambler, I'd bet against the speculation in the Washington Times turning out. How long you hold out hope is up to you.