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.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Probably because Syria's army outnumbers their by a factor of more than three-to-one (320K to 98K). The last time these two countries fought, back in the mid-1970's when Jordan was kicking the PLO out of their country, Jordan had the backing of the Israeli Air Force and was able to win easily. Whether Israel will back them this time is up in the air.

[JerseyHighlander]

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."

I'll buy that, reports speculate Bashir still doesn't have any real power over his father's heads of security and military operations. So it wouldn't surprise anyone if some small group of government hacks followed the Pakistani ISI gameplan and diverted resources to Al Queada. It can be discounted, but not ruled out, right?

[oceanview]

Sarin was the guess last night I was hearing.

Where is the coverage of this story? Amazing.

[RandallFlagg]

AHEM!

[Allan]

Interesting news.
Of course this is what John Loftus has been saying all along.

[Future Useless Eater]

	Jamie S. Gorelick "Of ALL of the public officials in the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, the ONE who is MOST directly responsible, in my judgement, for 9/11 happening, is Jamie Gorelick." -Dick Morris

thanks again Redcloak...(same technique used here)

[sauropod]

syrian traffic ping.

[sauropod]

Yep.

Here's hoping she trades in her tony digs for an Iraqi bunker. Time for her to bunk down with those that she defends.

[Allan]

As a side issue
Loftus also says
that as soon as the new Iraqi government takes control
on July 1
it immediately will declare war on Syria
and request US assistance.

Looks as if
possibly
the schedule may have to be speeded up
a little.

[Gritty]

GASP!!

Trucks (plural)... 17.5 tons of explosives... Syria... chemical weapons... poison gas... Al Qaeda... (Syrian President) Bashir did not know... decapitation of Jordanian government... major, major operation...

Man, oh man, that's a lot of dots which can be ultimately and readily connected to (guess who?) --- pre-war Iraq!

But, don't think for a minute it will knock Dru Sjodin, John Kerry's accusations against Cheney and Rove, or pictures of a captured American soldier out of the news - even for an honorable mention.

Life goes on in Post 9/11 Slumberland, otherwise known as our major news media, where every day is a challenge to try and slander President Bush, uplift the Liberals and drive the Elections in their favor!

Oh, if that operation had gone off successfully, it would have been all Bush's fault for invading Iraq and stirring up the peaceful Middle East, where we were just getting the "Peace Process" worked out when he so rudely interupted it with his lies about WMD and Saddam which took us into a unilateral and cowboy war without United Nations help and approval and leaving all our allies behind while declaring war against children, puppies and other living things.

[FairOpinion]

The problem is Congress.

If it weren't for the Democrats policizing the War on Terror, the logical thing for Bush to do is to invade Syria AND Iran right now. (It has been proven Iran was sending fighters to Iraq, and orchestrated some of these "uprisings" against the US).

But if Bush proposed doing the logical thing, the Democrats would be screeching, that he hasn't finished the war in Iraq and is already getting us into other wars and he is doing it for political purposes.

In fact, invading Iran and Syria are very much part of our making Iraq democratic and the fight against terrorists.

The Democrats hamper and obstuct our War on Terror, and may well be jeopardizing many lives, including American lives, while doing that.

[DannyTN]

The U.S. government said just the other day that Syria was the main backer of the insurgency.

Although I think Syria and Iran are equally involved in the insurgency. Syria is coming up with the shorter straw on who to invade next.

Syria and Iran have a common defense agreement but I wonder if the Mullah's are really ready to fight for Syria? Given the continued unrest, most of their people would turn their arms on the Mullah's rather than march across the desert towards the U.S.

I think we need to take Syria down.

[FairOpinion]

Syria Shipping WMD Components to Sudan
By Jim Hauser
Talon News
April 13, 2004

http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/newswire/news2004/0401/041304-syria.htm

Syria, long suspected for hiding some of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD), is reportedly smuggling missiles and WMD components to Sudan in an effort to conceal them from western intelligence sources.



====

So, by the time we get around invading Syria, they will all be gone and everyone can start whining about never having existed in Syria either.

Saddam has a great deal of time on his hand, during which to hide and send the WMD out of the country. Now Syria is doing the same thing.

[BluH2o]

Newsmax always raises hopes and then when you find out the real scoop, you feel cheated.

Newsmax has a tendency to overstate many of the stories it runs. Bottom line, whatever the reason, the liberal media rarely, if ever, runs with anything that "breaks' on Newsmax.

[NYC GOP Chick]

I think that little Bashir needs something of an attitudinal adjustment. He's just a *leetle* too cute for his own good...

[Lady In Blue]

Did you see this?!

[AmericanVictory]

Well, well.

[EGPWS]

The Democrats hamper and obstruct our War on Terror, and may well be jeopardizing many lives, including American lives, while doing that.

Yes, and at the same time they jeopardize (gallant and serving) lives for the promotion of political agenda instead of the promotion of the American way of life which they profess in a profound manner to be their agenda.

[swarthyguy]

BUMP. Thanks. AQ getting real ambitious now.

[Vermont Lt]

I just read the Chron article and did not see ANY mention of WMD. I saw mention of 17.5 tons of "High Explosive." Could be a trailer full of fertilizer and desiel fuel. I wouldnt get my hopes too high.