King Abdullah: Al Qaeda WMDs Came From Syria

NewsMax.com ^ | 4/17/04 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Jordan's King Abdullah revealed on Saturday that vehicles reportedly containing chemical weapons and poison gas that were part of a deadly al Qaeda bomb plot came from Syria, the country named by U.S. weapons inspector David Kay last year as a likely repository for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

"It was a major, major operation. It would have decapitated the government," King Abdullah told the San Francisco Chronicle. Jordanian officials estimated that the death count could have been as high as 20,000 - seven times greater than the Sept. 11 attacks.

Abdullah said that trucks containing 17.5 tons of explosives had come from Syria, though he took pains not to implicate Syrian President Bashir Assad in the al Qaeda plot, saying, "I'm completely confident that Bashir did not know about it."

In his testimony before Congress last year, Mr. Kay said U.S. satellite surveillance showed substantial vehicular traffic going from Iraq to Syria just prior to the U.S.attack on March 19, 2003 attack.

While Kay said investigators couldn't be sure the cargo contained weapons of mass destruction, one of his top advisors described the evidence as "unquestionable."

"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," said James Clapper, in comments reported by the New York Times on Oct. 29. Clapper heads up the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.

Israeli intelligence has long believed that after the U.S. delayed invasion plans to allow U.N. weapons inspectors time to search for Iraq's WMDs, Saddam moved the banned weapons to Syria, the only other country where the Ba'ath Party ruled.

On April 1, Jordanian officials announced the arrest of several terrorist suspects, saying they were still hunting for two cars filled with explosives.

Five days later, the State Department revealed the attackers were linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-based terrorist considered to be one of al Qaeda's most dangerous. One of Zarqawi's targets was the U.S. embassy in Amman.

By Saturday morning European news services were quoting an unnamed Jordanian official who revealed that the al Qaeda plotters planned to use weapons of mass destruction in the foiled attack.

"We found primary materials to make a chemical bomb which, if it had exploded, would have made nearly 20,000 deaths ... in an area of one square kilometre," the official told Agence France Press.

Another operation planned by the network was to use "deadly gas against the US embassy and the prime minister's office in Amman," he added.

A car belonging to the al Qaeda plotters, containing a chemical bomb and poisonous gas, was intercepted just 75 miles from the Syrian border.

[Mr. Mojo]

Abdullah said that trucks containing 17.5 tons of [chemical] explosives had come from Syria

And Syria got them from ........Saddam?

[stboz]

What type of chemical? Nerve gas? What?

[Semper Paratus]

Haven't seen CNN report this. And probably never will.

[mlbford2]

"Brite-rite" oven cleaner--nasty stuff.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Oh what would the world do without this Hashemite savior? What a buddy what a pal.

[AdmSmith]

It is in BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3635381.stm
If it was 17.5 tons it was probably Ammonium Nitrate

[Diogenesis]

[chiller]

Bump this one, baby, as evidence of Saddam's missing WMD.

[cincinnati65]

"In his testimony before Congress last year, Mr. Kay said U.S. satellite surveillance showed substantial vehicular traffic going from Iraq to Syria just prior to the U.S.attack on March 19, 2003 attack."

I've never understood why no one has mentioned that of course, Saddam was getting the WMD's out of Iraq, but what was happening in the U.S. at the time? The DEMOCRATS in Congress were saying we should give the U.N. Inspectors more time. Get the U.N.'s blessing before beginning a military operation. Dragging our feet, while Saddam is off-loading inventory.

Then, these very same butt-wipes are the same ones who JUMPED to criticize the President about there being no WMD's, saying Bush mislead the public.

And all in the name of politics....

[Shermy]

Could be common chemicals. Can't find any description.

[jwalburg]

I never trust Newsmax articles. I think this one is misleading. Newsmax always raises hopes and then when you find out the real scoop, you feel cheated. This article cites the SF Chronicle interview with Abdullah. Here is that article: Chronicle article

The Chronicle has its biases and they are evident in the article, but any astute reader can catch them. Compare what Newsmax says about the Chron article with the article itself. There are some interesting things about Jordan in here too.

[shield]

When will our President telling American's about these WMD coming from Iraq?

[Thinkin' Gal]

If it was 17.5 tons it was probably Ammonium Nitrate

Or a 'gift' from Big Red.

[Future Useless Eater]

>>Syria, the country named by U.S. weapons inspector David Kay last year as a likely repository for Iraq's@@ weapons@@ of@@ mass@@ destruction.@@

>>"It was a major, major operation. It would have decapitated the government," King Abdullah told the San Francisco Chronicle. Jordanian officials estimated that the death count could have been as high as 20,000 - seven times greater than the Sept. 11 attacks.

>>Abdullah said that trucks containing 17.5 tons of explosives had come from Syria

@@@@@_interesting_@@@@@

[Future Useless Eater]

Does GORE-lick have a card of her own? SHE SHOULD!!!

[sinktheslimes]

lets allow the muslims to colonize america and shout down any american as a rascist who object...islam cannot exist with the west and the mosques are artifices to plot against us as they are used in the middle east to forment terror...there is a nasty fallout when conservative values are trumped by the liberal bullyfag financed left...its time we deported all muslims...

[KriegerGeist]

Check out what a former Palestinian terrorist-turned Christian-Israeli-ally [Walid Shoebat]says about Jordan's future. Al Qaeda may have missed this time, but perhaps not the next time...

Link to Jordan's future

[BlueAngel]

The administration should have been repeating this over and over again. Their communications people have not been very good at defending President Bush.

[Betaille]

"When will our President telling American's about these WMD coming from Iraq?"
I agree. Defense hawks like myself who were making the case for war have been left to hang by the administration so far. If Saddam moved his weapons to Syria... TELL THAT TO THE PEOPLE. Right now nobody beleives me when i say they are probably in syria because the president wont even say that in his own defense.