Posted on 01/05/2004 9:01:39 PM PST by quidnunc
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 Di Telegraaf, that he knows the three sites where Iraqs 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 Iraqs 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 Husseins Special Republican Guard, including General Shalish, with the help of Assif Shoakat , Bashar Assads cousin. Shoakat is the CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family.
In February 2003, a month before Americas invasion in Iraq, DEBKAfileand 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.
Sort of like when they said Saddam escaped to Belarus...
In this case Debka is merely reporting the fact that a Syrian journalist sent a letter to a Dutch newspaper and a summary of the information which that letter contained.
It is the Syrian journalist, not Debka, which is fingering assad as hiding Saddam's WMDs.
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