Report: Syria hiding Iraqi WMD

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Tuesday, January 6, 2004

[JohnHuang2]

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM
Report: Syria hiding Iraqi WMD
Sources say relative of President Assad smuggled arms to 3 places

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Posted: January 6, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

A relative of Syrian President Bashar Assad is hiding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in three locations in Syria, according to intelligence sources cited by an exiled opposition party.

The weapons were smuggled in large wooden crates and barrels by Zu Alhema al-Shaleesh, known for moving arms into Iraq in violation of U.N. resolutions and for sending recruits to fight coalition forces, said the U.S.-based Reform Party of Syria.

The party, based in Potomac, Md., regards itself as a secular body comprised of Syrians who want to see the country embrace "real democratic and economic reforms."

One weapons-cache location identified by the sources is a mountain tunnel near the village of al-Baidah in northwest Syria, the report said. The tunnel is known to house a branch of the Assad regime's national security apparatus.

Two other arms supplies are reported to be in west-central Syria. One is hidden at a factory operated by the Syrian Air Force, near the village of Tal Snan, between the cities of Hama and Salmiyeh. The third location is tunnels beneath the small town of Shinshar, which belongs to the 661 battalion of the Syrian Air Force.

The nephew of Zu Alhema al-Shaleesh, Assef al-Shaleesh, runs Al Bashair Trading Co., a front for the Assad family involved prior to the war in oil smuggling from Iraq and arms smuggling into the country. Al-Bashair has offices in Damascus, Beirut and Baghdad.

In an exclusive interview yesterday with the London Telegraph, Assad came close to admitting his country possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Assad told the London paper Syria rejects American and British demands for concessions on weapons of mass destruction, insisting Damascus is entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own chemical and biological deterrent.

He said Israel must agree to abandon its undeclared nuclear arsenal in order for Syria to consider any deal with the U.S.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported Al Bashair Trading Co. participated in the smuggling of millions of dollars worth of sophisticated arms and equipment to Saddam Hussein for three years prior to the Iraqi leader's overthrow.

Al Bashair executives met with North Korean firms before the war began, according to the Los Angeles daily. The paper's three-month investigation included the translation of 800 signed contracts found in the Al Bashair Trading Co. office shortly before U.S. troops entered Baghdad.

Just prior to the U.S.-led effort to oust Hussein, SES International Corp. signed at least 50 contracts to supply weapons and gear to Iraq, the Times said, including 1,000 heavy machine guns and up to 20 million bullets for assault rifles.

Not all the weapons were delivered, but some may still be in use by terrorists battling the U.S. occupation forces, the newspaper said.

At least one shipment of arms was completed with the help of the Syrian government in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

SES International Corp. denied any wrongdoing, while Syria's foreign ministry refused to comment to the Times.

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[JohnHuang2]

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

Quote of the Day by John Jorsett

[Support Free Republic]

If you don't make a donation to Free Republic, then that's one more thing you have in common with Patrick Leahy.

[Mr. Mojo]

Nooo, really? I thought Saddam had willingly disposed of the things to comply with UN resolutions. Shocked, I tell you.

[FairOpinion]

Debka also had a short article on it, apparently from a different source:

http://www.debka.com/

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.


Debka also talked about having evidence about it months ago.

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=482

May 4, 2003, 12:21 AM (GMT+02:00)





Syria is reported by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources as having secretly disposed of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction by moving them into eastern Lebanon for burial in the Beqaa Valley. Iraq’s biological weapons may be there too. They were interred deep under the heroin poppy and cotton fields in two of the most fertile regions of Lebanon: the valley stretching between Jabal Akroum, the town of al Qbayyat and the Syrian border, and the land lying between the towns of Al Hirmil and al Labwah between the Orontes River and the Syrian frontier.

On February 14, about a month before the start of the war in Iraq, DEBKA-Net-Weekly Issue 97 ran an article captioned “Is Iraq’s WMD cache in Lebanon available to Al Qaeda?” To subscribe to DNW click HERE

Now, our intelligence sources can disclose exclusively that the relocation of Iraq’s WMD systems took place between January 10 and March 10 and was completed just 10 days before the US-led offensive was launched against Iraq. The banned arsenal, hauled in giant tankers from Iraq to Syria and from there to the Bekaa Valley under Syrian special forces and military intelligence escort, was discharged into pits 6-8 meters across and 25-35 meters deep dug by Syrian army engineers. They were sealed and planted over with new seedlings. Nonetheless, their location is known and detectable with the right instruments. Our sources have learned that Syria was paid about $35 million to make Saddam Hussein’s forbidden weapons disappear.

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I would like us to find them and declare it publicly and rub the anti-war activists noses in it.

[GeronL]

They are such Assads!

[JohnHuang2]

Ah! Quote of the day? ;-)

[GeronL]

I saw some of the 1981 movie, Time Bandits today and I gotta say... Sean Connery and John Cleese need to buy all the copies and the rights to the film and burn them.

[Howlin]

Well, I guess this means this article didn't mean crap, eh?

Syria Says Wants Dialogue, Better Ties with U.S.
Reuters ^ | January 05 2004

Posted on 01/05/2004 12:41:01 PM EST by knighthawk

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara, whose country faces possible U.S. diplomatic and trade sanctions, told Washington's new envoy Monday that Damascus wanted better ties and a positive dialogue. Shara "emphasized the importance of the establishment of a positive and constructive dialogue between the two countries to create a better understanding for their respective stances," the official news agency (SANA) reported.

Shara, speaking to Margaret Scobey after she had presented her credentials, "welcomed Ambassador Scobey, wishing her... success in improving ties between Syria and the United States," SANA said.

Traditionally tense ties between Syria and the United States worsened after the start of the U.S.-led war in neighboring Iraq, which Damascus vehemently opposed.

The war of words between the two raised concern in the Arab world that Syria might be the next American target after Iraq, especially when Washington accused Syria of developing chemical weapons and helping aides of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to flee.

The United States has since accused Syria of turning a blind eye to militants crossing its borders to attack U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq -- charges Syria has denied.

Syria in turn has often accused the United States of trying to promote the interests of Israel, its main regional ally, at the expense of those of Arabs.

The White House nominated Scobey in October. A month later U.S. lawmakers voted to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Syria to punish Damascus for backing militant groups hostile to Israel, keeping troops in neighboring Lebanon and failing to secure its border with Iraq.

Syria argues that its support for Lebanese and Palestinian "freedom fighters" is political and says its presence in Lebanon is based on a bilateral arrangement with Beirut.

The bill, signed later by U.S. President George Bush, gives him the authority to waive the sanctions on Syria if he deems it in the national interest.

Scobey, who served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia, replaces Ambassador Theodore Kattouf, who left Syria in August.

[CyberAnt]

Happy New Year guy!!

By the way .. did you know DEBKA was reporting on this earlier. I really hope this is true because the dems are going to be really upset .. and I just love that!! LOL!

I'm wondering if the aerial photos which Israel says they took of big trucks going into Syria from Iraq can be traced to these locations ..??

Looks like it's going to be interesting in the next few weeks if this proves to be true.

[bjcintennessee]

Hmmm...this news requires at least a three-year debate in the world community, before we take it to the UN. Add another five or so years for the UN to debate it, three more years for them come up with a resolution.

And when the first resolution is ignored by Syria, debate it further and come up with another resolution...and by the time the fifteenth resolution threatens serious consequences, Syria hides and/or smuggles the weapons to a neighboring country.

Haven't we been down this road before?

[Grampa Dave]

If this is true, the DNC, the 9 dwarfs, the NY Slimes, LA Slimes, Washington Compost and of course ABCNNBC BS must have been notified by their buddy $oddomite, that there were no WMDs in Iraq any more.

They were shouting about no WMDS being found even before the war was over. Looking back on all of the shouting, they must have been told by $oddomite and A$$ad that there were no WMDs in Iraq.

[JohnHuang2]

Happy New Year backatya, my friend! :-)

[JohnHuang2]

G'evening Grampa -- Happy New Year!

[GeronL]

Like I said once before

(Groucho Marx voice) Their words mean as much as their piss in the sand. We demand satisfaction...

[NormsRevenge]

WMD Bump

[Grampa Dave]

Happy New Year John!

This old grampa is off to bed.

Keep driving the left wingers into a deeper insanity and depression, John!

[AmericanVictory]

On the other hand we could just get some special ops folks to bring back some pictures and plaster them all over cable TV, setting up surveillance to further photo the subsequent effots to move them to a new hiding place.

[kcvl]

Assad: Syria not to scrap WMD unless Israel does; Exiled journalist says Iraqi WMD kept in Syria

06-01-2004, 07:39


Syrian President Bashar Assad has rejected U.S. and British demands for curbs on non-conventional arms, the British Telegraph newspaper reported Tuesday.

"We are a country which is [partly] occupied and from time to time we are exposed to Israeli aggression," Assad said in an interview with the London-based paper. "It is natural for us to look for means to defend ourselves.

"It is not difficult to get most of these weapons anywhere in the world and they can be obtained at any time."

Assad said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's surprise move last month to scrap his nuclear and chemical weapons programs was a "correct step," calling on the international community to support the proposal that Syria presented to the United Nations last year for removing all WMD from the Middle East, including Israel's widely suspected nuclear stockpile.

"Unless this applies to all countries, we are wasting our time," Assad said.




http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=267316&lang=e&dir=news

[kcvl]

Nayyouf wrote that the transfer of Iraqi WMD to Syria was organized by the commanders of Saddam Hussein’s Special Republican Guard.

Nayyouf was a founding member of a human rights organization, the Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedom and Human Rights (CDF), which had been banned by the Syrian government shortly after its establishment. He was arrested and jailed in 1992 and was released during May 2001. (Albawaba.com)

[kcvl]

Syria Rejects Calls to Renounce Wmd

By Gavin Cordon, Whitehall Editor, PA News


Syrian President Bashar Assad today rejected British and American calls to renounce weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he indicated he would not abandon his country’s suspected chemical and biological programmes unless Israel gave up its undeclared nuclear arsenal.

Mr Assad did not directly confirm that Syria possessed WMD, but referred to Israel’s attacks on alleged Palestinian bases in Syria and its occupation of the Golan Heights.



http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2375800