Posted on 09/27/2004 5:17:02 PM PDT by conservativecorner
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong (USMC) had formally been the number two man in command of the Iraq War. DeLong reported to Brig. Gen. Tommy Franks.
According to DeLong - U.S. Military Intelligence had been able to determine that WMDs were smuggled out of the country as U.S. military forces were preparing to liberate Iraq. DeLong made the remarks to New York talk radio listeners:
"I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon, and Iran."
"Two days before the war, on March 17th, we saw through multiple intelligence channels - both human intelligence and techinical (satellite,eavesdrop) intelligence - large caravans of people and things, including some of the top 55 Iraqis, going to Syria."
We also know that before then, they buried some of the weapons of mass destruction. There are also some in Lebanon and probably a small amount in Iran."
"To smuggle the weapons would not require large vehicles."
"In order to transport their biological weapons, they would take their entire experimental weapons system in one or two suitcases - pretty easy to hide."
"Saddam's deputies could have fit the chemical weapon's cache into one or two vans, which they could then bury or drive across on of the borders."
"Human intelligence also indicated that Saddam's deputies also took billions of dollars with them when they went into Syria."
"It's no surprise that the weapons buried in Iraq have yet to be uncovered. Seven eighths of the country is arid desert and the size of California. You could probably bury 100 Empire State buildings and not find them."
...but the NYT's told me Bush lied!
I hope he's right....
It's consistent w/what Yossef Bodansky says in his book "The Secret War In Iraq" and with what many of us have suspected.
Lieutenant General Delong reported to General Franks
how convenient :/
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't biological weapons have a "shelf life", since it is a spore or bacterium?
I've read articles that says Yvgeny Primakov and a group of Russians executed their pre-arranged plan prior to the start of hostilities and moved the stuff to Syria. I think we hit their convoy with bombs/missiles - it didn't destroy the convoy but it got the Russians' attention and they said something about it.
You are correct. But that "shelf life" can be very long. There are cases of anthrax spores lasting several decades -- when the carcass of an animal which died of anthrax is accidentally exhumed, the agent is still viable.
So you are correct about bacteria having an extreme shelf life. In some cases much more than decades....
TPD
It must be cool to be a Brigadier General that has Lieutenant Generals reporting to him.
"how convenient :/"
and most probably true.
Hells Bells! We all saw the convoys moving across the border to Syria as we haggled with the UN.
It's called 'Texas Hold'em.'
"In order to transport their biological weapons, they would take their entire experimental weapons system in one or two suitcases - pretty easy to hide."
Scary, if you consider the same is true for bringing them into the country.
Ping
I had missed this one.....
THX. SENT TO EMAIL LIST.
Bump.
Thanks.
Bush did not lie!
Kerry has been lying!
I've said before, and don't mind getting on record again, that I really do believe there is more to be known of the WMD situation.
Iraq has been described by some as a weapons depot surrounded by a border. There are thousands of bunkers and warehouses.
The *last* thing we would have wanted, in the aftermath of the war, would have been to have all manner of Al Queda minions running around the desert looking for Sarin artillery shells with our Marines in a desperate race to find them first. Some of the bad stuff would inevitably end up in bad guy hands.
It would be better to announce loud and clear that there was nothing there to be found.
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