SUDAN ORDERS SYRIAN WMD OUT OF COUNTRY

Middle East News Letter ^ | 4/22/04

[Valin]

SUDAN ORDERS SYRIAN WMD OUT OF COUNTRY

LONDON [MENL] -- Sudan has ordered the removal of Syrian missiles and weapons of mass destruction out of the African country.

Arab diplomatic and Sudanese government sources said the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered that Syria remove its Scud C and Scud D medium-range ballistic missiles as well as components for chemical weapons stored in warehouses in Khartoum. The sources said the Sudanese demand was issued after the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry confirmed a report published earlier this month that Syria has been secretly flying Scud-class missiles and WMD components to Khartoum.

The sources said the Bashir regime has been alarmed over the prospect that the United States would discover the Syrian arsenal and conclude that Damascus and Khartoum were cooperating in the area of missiles and WMD. They said this would have delayed or dashed U.S. plans to lift sanctions from Sudan.

A U.S. official confirmed the Syrian missile shipments to Sudan, saying they were meant for use against rebels in the south. But the official said the U.S. intelligence community has not determined that Syria sent WMD systems to Khartoum.

[John H K]

Bio weapons are their own thing, but the effectiveness of chemical weapons are WILDLY overrated in general, to the point where I feel it's sort of silly to include them with bio weapons and nukes as "weapons of mass destruction."

You'd be lucky to kill a few hundred people with one chemical warhead. Physically impossible to kill 300,000 people with one chemical warhead.

[Valin]

I was looking for something else and ran into this.
First I've heard of Syria being in Sudan(Not that I'm suprised).

[oceanview]

VX inside the Rose Bowl.

[hosepipe]

SYRIA HAS WMD's..?... BUZZZZZZZZZZZ. Sounds like the Eagle should cast a glaring eye at some new prey. Should scare the hell of the pencil neck gerbil running the place. Except its the generals in charge in Syria not some pencil necked dentist anyway..

[txhurl]

No, it'll re-surface. I think my ninth-grade English teacher called this 'foreshadowing'.

[Anti-Bubba182]

There was this below, but it doesn't have the get out of Dodge factor. The good thing is that if Sudan is ordering Syrian WMD and missle materials out, it means there is less unity amoung the radicals and that the Sudanese are nervous about recent developements.

Syria Shipping WMD Components to Sudan

[sofaman]

BBC reported it too....

[oceanview]

OK, how about VX introduced into the intake ventilation system at the Sears Tower?

[TrueBeliever9]

U.S. official confirmed the Syrian missile shipments to Sudan, saying they were meant for use against rebels in the south. But the official said the U.S. intelligence community has not determined that Syria sent WMD systems to Khartoum.

Would "rebels in the south" be Christians who are resisting the Islamic jihad from the north?

[clee1]

...the effectiveness of chemical weapons are WILDLY overrated in general...

In general, I agree.

You'd be lucky to kill a few hundred people with one chemical warhead. Physically impossible to kill 300,000 people with one chemical warhead.

Now, I have to disagree, unless we are narrowly defining "warhead". The typical artillery shell or air-to-ground/surface-to-surface missile "warhead" IS too small in capacity to kill 300K people.

There are many types/strengths/dispersal methods of chem weapons. I could easily imagine a 20 gallon tank of some form of persistant nerve agent, sprayed out of a garden sprayer from a helicopter (or from a rooftop on a windy day) across wide swaths of NYC. I'm thinking 300K is a conservative death toll - and 3 million is not out of the question.

[oceanview]

exactly correct.

[cspackler]

Doesn't this remind anyone else of the ship full of missles bound for Sudan from Syria last year that had to be released after it was boarded? (Or was that North Korea?) Why does this report surprise anyone?

[fiftymegaton]

If Syria 'decides' it has to move the scuds and chemical material out by way of ship can we seize it by the current laws of the sea? Or I guess the more accurate question is will we?

Here's a related link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1033507/posts

[Anti-Bubba182]

Found another one:

Western spies: Syria storing WMD in Sudan

[cspackler]

Wow, I'm fairly fluent in all things Python. Think I have a future in it?

[TrueBeliever9]

In that case - I would like to know who this US official is that is calling Christians "rebels"; sounds like a comment from the U.S. Third World Department of State who kowtows to the UN!

[oceanview]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1124416/posts

[fiftymegaton]

Not to mention who is limiting them to using one warhead in one attack?

[bcoffey]

UPI-Wash Times article here.

[vpintheak]

Iraqi WMD's by chance?