[rotstan]

I'm somewhat surprised that there haven't been any unfortunate accidents leading to large explosions there yet.

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
	Kenya						20.00	1

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[oceanview]

after the 2004 election, Syria will be dealt with (assuming Dean does not win of course).

[rhombus]

Well now they'll be moved.

[BlackbirdSST]

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.

Yeah right! The same movement we couldn't catch with SAT's that can read the date on a dime laying in the middle of a football field. Try a dose of reality. Blackbird.

[JohnGalt]

LOL...the WMDead Enders are reduced to tin-foil conspiracy theories from DEBKA.

Give it up, folks.

[the_Watchman]

I did a Google search on "Nizar Najoef" and didn't get ANY hits. Even "Najoef" didn't get anything.

Can anyone propose an alternate spelling?

[OXENinFLA]

Can you say Thermobaric Warhead?

http://www.dtra.mil/td/thermo/td_thermo.html

http://www.dtra.mil/td/thermo/td_thermopics.html (before & after pics)

[RightWhale]

That's kind of specific as to location. Since inspection teams aren't likely to publicly appear in the region anytime soon, DEBKA is probably safe on this one.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Very likely Primakov and the Russians had a hand in this too. There have been some very good pieces written on this. IIRC, a Russian convoy of cars was hit right around the start of the war, sort of "accidently".

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm? I don't usually pay much attention to DEBKA .. but I can confirm the existance of the tunnels in item 1.

Several years ago there was a story in the Jerusalem Post outlining the "tunnels" which were being built around Damascus. I paid attention to this info because I am interested in what is happening in Damascus.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the "tunnels" were being built to house "skud missles" which would be aimed at Israel. Soooo .. this apprears to me that at least the first item is very likely correct.

I don't have a map to check the location to see if these "tunnels" are anywhere near Damascus, but if they were building them in Damascus, the chances they are they were building them elsewhere.

I don't have any info on the other two items.

[JeeperFreeper]

Good post. IMHO, this is entirely plausible. One, Saddam had WMD. We know because he used them. Two, Saddam is a psychopath;once he got WMD, it seems very unlikely he would destroy them. And, if the WMD were destroyed there would have been videos or records to reflect that destruction for public relations, if nothing else. Three, Syria is a Baathist dictatorship with long standing political and financial ties to Saddam. Four, Saddam sent his jets to Iran in "91( Desert Storm), so transferring weapons out of country is not that out of character. Five, Saddam transferred great wealth to Syria as well. Why would he not consider doing the same with his WMD? All in hopes of surviving to rule again. The fly in the ointment is whether Syria would accept them knowing the risks.

[ravingnutter]

I'm somewhat surprised that there haven't been any unfortunate accidents leading to large explosions there yet.

Ummmm...there was an explosion...reported by Debka. And while possibly not WMD [which no one will ever know] it was reportedly due to shipments of arms to Syria from Iraq...

The powerful blast that reverberated across eastern and central Lebanon Sunday, December 29 [2002], was caused by the explosion of a big surface missile in Hizballah hands and of Iraqi origin. Reporting this, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and Lebanese sources reveal that the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group has recently taken delivery of a shipment of surface missiles, presumed to be medium-range, from the Iraqi army. The blast occurred at a Hizballah training camp near a village called Janta in the northeastern section of the Beqaa Valley close to the Syrian frontier. This camp is also used by the group as a testing ground for new weapons, short range missiles and explosive devices. The blast was heard at a distance of 20 km indicating a warhead of one ton at least.

According to our sources, the missile exploded suddenly, catching the Hizballah team handling it unawares and causing a large number of casualties, as indicated by the long line of ambulances and rescue teams reported by witnesses to be racing to the blast scene from northern and central Lebanon. Among them were Syrian military rescue vehicles. The Hizballah quickly sealed off the ravaged area, allowing no one through but the rescue teams, their own operatives and Syrian officers.

Source

Also reported by Ha‘aretz

[ravingnutter]

A couple of earlier reports:

U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have finally been located. Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq. Instead they are located in Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley, swarming with Iranian and Syrian forces, and Hizbullah and ex-Iraqi agents, Geostrategy-Direct.com will report in tomorrow's new weekly edition. U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebaon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on the CIA at the time.

Drudge via World Tribune article

The director of a top American spy agency said Tuesday that he believed that material from Iraq's illicit weapons program had been transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by the Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war.

The official, James R. Clapper Jr., a retired lieutenant general, said satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material "unquestionably" had been moved out of Iraq.

"I think people below the Saddam Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse," General Clapper, who leads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at a breakfast with reporters.

General Clapper's agency is responsible for interpreting satellite photographs and other imagery. He declined to answer a question about whether he believed that illicit Iraqi weapons material might have been smuggled into any other country.

NY Times Article

[finnman69]

Interesting..Compare to this.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/858508/posts
IRAQ TRANSPORTS WMD TO SYRIAN, TURKISH BORDERS
Middle East Newsline ^ | 3/6/2003


Posted on 03/06/2003 4:21:28 PM EST by Jakenuts


WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Iraq is said to have transported chemical and biological weapons to the borders with Syria and Turkey.

U.S. officials said an Iraqi intelligence unit was spotted transporting the nonconventional weapons about six weeks ago from facilities in Baghdad to the Syrian and Turkish borders. They said the transfer of the weapons appeared to be part of an effort to conceal them from United Nations inspectors and spare them from any expected U.S. attack.

"We know that in late January, the Iraqi Intelligence Service transported chemical and biological agents to areas far away from Baghdad, near the Syrian and Turkish borders, in order to conceal them," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday. "And they have concealed them from the prying eyes of inspectors."

In an address to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, Powell did not identify or say how many BW and CW weapons were transferred by Iraq. But Powell and other officials said Iraq is believed to have produced such agents as anthrax, VX and botulinum toxin.

[Pro-Bush]

Ping!

[Rams82]

Anyone have a subscription to "Di Telegraaf"?

[TexasCajun]

Dubya is just biding time, replenishing our inventories!

Stay tuned for later developments!

[hotpotato]

Syria Says Wants Dialogue, Better Ties with U.S.

[Kay Soze]

Will then it MUST be priority ONE to go get them...right?