Posted on 04/03/2006 7:58:31 AM PDT by Blackrain4xmas
In Search of Saddam Hussein’s WMD: Introducing Iraqi General Georges Sada Part 1 of a 5 World/Sam Pender April 3, 2006
Have you ever noticed that it’s always politicians, media types, and either washed up or disgruntled anonymous intelligence sources who claim that there never was any WMD in Iraq? On the other hand, nearly every single commander and deputy commander of CENTCOM says that Saddam did have WMD. So too do the inspectors with the closest knowledge of before and after inspections: Dr Butler, Dr Kay, Dr Duelfer, and most of the former UN inspectors (only Dr Blix and Scott Ritter differ in this opinion). Is this subject one where the word of a former governor of Vermont is better than that of highly decorated generals and weapons inspectors who have served their country all over the world for decades?
While Gov Dean’s hands were sticky with maple syrup, people like Dr. Kay and Dr. Duelfer were in 130 degree desert heat wearing plastic suits in toxic environments and being shot at. While Rep. Pelosi works to blame President Bush for things as controllable as the weather, people like General DeLong, General Franks, and so many others had their hands covered in the dirt and sands of the Middle East. Perhaps it’s wiser to believe the professionals who serve with honor and for whom lying is a disgrace rather than believing politicians for whom pandering to constituents and the party base isn’t lying. It’s just “spin.”
If one is to raise an eyebrow and for a moment believe the Generals, then the obvious question is, “What happened to Saddam’s WMD?” The former dictator declared he had them, and he declared they were destroyed, but he offered no evidence of their destruction; no wreckage, no contaminated sand, no documents, and not even witnesses. One must wonder how the most poisonous chemicals and biological agents ever made by man just disappear without leaving a trace, without anyone logging their destruction, and without anyone having done the destruction themselves. Moreover, if the WMD once did exist (as Saddam, the UN, the Clinton and Bush Administrations as well as the world at large acknowledge)….then where are they? There are basically three claims as to what happened to Saddam’s WMD: they were flown to Syria, they were driven to Syria, and they were shipped out on Russian ships.
One of Saddam’s generals, General Georges Sada, has come forward with claims that Saddam moved his “special weapons” out of Iraq, to Syria in late summer 2002. He allegedly did this under the guise of Iraqi humanitarian aid flights to Syria after a Syrian dam burst in July. The shipments were supposedly made on modified civilian planes flown by pilots Sada knows personally.
On June 17, 2002, the Times of London reported that Iraqi nuclear centrifuge parts were being smuggled out of Syria-originally stored at the port of Tartus, they had been moved to Damascus International Airport and moved to points unknown from there-effectively corroborating Sada’s story. The Time’s report even cites the dam break reported by Sada as the Iraqi cover story.
Wwe know from the Saddam tapes, from multiple mainstream media interviews with former Iraqi generals, from the newly released documents captured from Saddam’s Iraqi Intelligence Service HW, and from the ISG reports that Saddam stunned his general staff in the late summer of 2002 by announcing to them that he was letting the UN inspectors back in because there were no longer any “special weapons” in the country. The flights to Syria had ended.
Other clandestine shipments went by truck and storage payment was made to Syria through an arms smuggling front company run by Syrian Intelligence: SES International. That SES did exist, was Syrian Intel front company and was corrupt is not at all in dispute. SES Intl was one of those blatant Oil-For-Food cover companies used by Saddam to buy conventional weapons in exchange for UN oil vouchers. The Duelfer Report is ridden with information about SES International’s illegal sales-sales that Saddam was using to break his conventional arms containment. SES was cited by the Treasury Department as being a front for Syrian Intelligence, a sanction-breaking company, and was being used by Syria’s family to launder money. Assad’s family has also been caught by the UN using the collapsed bank of Al Madina as a similar front company involved in the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister.
Aside from the fact that his story is corroborated by media reports of the time, why believe General Sada? As a pilot himself and an investigator respected by even Saddam himself, Sada was the general in charge of interrogating and guarding downed Coalition pilots during Desert Storm. Retired USAF Col. David Eberly (the ranking Coalition POW pilot during Desert Storm) writes the introduction to Sada’s book and vouches for his credibility. Two British airmen vouched for his credibility in a book they co-wrote about their experience as POW’s at his hands. In fact, Sada dared to argue with Saddam’s insane son, Uday-who wanted the pilots executed, and Sada was jailed as a result.
Opponents to the war should respect his opinion as he was given multiple awards for his peaceful efforts to prevent a war by anti-war groups prior to the invasion. Ali Ibrahim, another of Saddam's former commanders, affirms Sada's story. (“Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti was a southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s and a personal friend of the dictator. Units under his command dealt with chemical and biological weapons”). So too do other former commanders of Saddam’s regime.
Perhaps most importantly, the details of his story – as well as all the stories in his book – are well-corroborated by mainstream media reports. Except for the contents of the planes and trucks that went to Syria his stories are backed up by fully accepted historical events and settings. Sada says he knows what was in them those trucks and planes, but the ISG, and mainstream media don’t. For whatever reason, they’ve chosen to report on the politics of the war rather than investigate the historical facts. It’s sad and should be unforgivable that they don’t have one of Sada’s pilots doing the cable news talk show circuit.
http://www.therant.us/index.html
http://www.therant.us/daily_columns/in_serach_of_saddam_husseins_wmd.htm
link to pics from the Duelfer Report:
http://www.scottmalensek.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=248
This may be "hugh and series" but MSM has ignored General Sada. SURPRISE! It goes agaisnt their rant. GW lied and Americans died. I think in the end game the truth will be that GW went in for the right reasons. There were WMD. They had plenty of time to move them. And some are probably still there yet to be dug up.
Hi, Sam. Thanks for the thread. I've referred to your book about this matter frequently.
Eyespysomething - ping aling.
dumped? Noooo, impossible. The war was rushed so fast as to prevent such a thing:
http://www.scottmalensek.com/SAMPENDER/ISGvol3%20dumped%20chemicals%20and%20equipment%20for%20CBW%20v3.JPG
...and I don't care what anyone says, there were no chemical weapons in Iraq-certainly nothing that could kill as readily as bio weapons like anthrax:
http://www.scottmalensek.com/SAMPENDER/ISGvol3%20illegal%20chemicals.JPG
:)
Thanks-nice to be noticed!
Keep an eye on New Media Journal this week. The other 4 parts in the series are great.
What I did was searched the web-Freep included-and collected all the data I could on allegations of moving WMD out of Iraq. I panned through a library of books on the subject, and of course the UN reports, ISG report, and testimony from those who compiled them. Having done so, I then tried to put together a timeline of what allegedly happened. When 2 or more sources made the same claim, and that claim was BACKED UP BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORTING at the time, I marked the event as likely. This series is a compilation of the most well-documented and likely events. My original compilation of reports and timeline was over 400pages. I left out the details and listed only corroborated items. That brought me down to under 100 pages. Finally, I summarized that down to the 10 or 15 pages in this series. Even as a mere summary, it's remarkable. Few could realistically dispute what's in it.
I hope you'll find it informative and point it out to others.
Thanks again!
Excellent post.
I doubt that opponents of the war will accept reality: that there is now more evidence that the Remaining Unresolved Disarmament Issues (wmd) listed in the ISG report on pg56+ volIII were moved out of Iraq than there is of their destruction.
I'll be pinging the person who keeps the ping list when I see the information. Please try to remember to ping me to articles pertaining to this matter.
Also, we use the keywords "prewardocs" on articles relating to this so we can easily search out articles that we may have missed.
Freeper eyespysomething keeps the ping list.
I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of this series. What were the first set of pictures? Could you explain that a little more? Also do you have a link to the article from the Times of London?
The MSM farcically described these trucks as mobile hydrogen generators used to inflate weather balloons as if the Iraqi's weren't smart enough to use readily available and far more convenient cylinders of compressed gas for that purpose.
The first few pics of the chem gear and buried mig are from GIs. The rest are straight from the Duelfer Report. You might notice that many of the pics show things that the Iraqis could have turned in to UNMOVIC and resolved some of the disarmament issues, but they chose not to do so. By choosing not to do so, they destroyed the inspection process because-per Blix and others-the inspection process could never guarantee 100% compliance...only confidence/trust in Iraq could do that, and as long as Iraq was working against the process (as demonstrated by the pics in the report), the process would not build confidence/trust; the process could not work. Inspections could not work.
Option B to resolving the unresolved disarmament issues...invade.
Link to the Times article....
I got it from:
http://www.meforum.org/article/755
MIDDLE EAST QUARTERLY
Specific article was:
The Times (London) June 17, 2002
MSM is more than willing to accept this explanation. After all, it fits the "Bush lied" story much better. Glaring problems with this story are simply ignored, or maybe MSM "journalists" are just too dumb to pick up on them, or worse yet, collaborated to cover them up for their own slice of pie.
Iraq was in no position to give "humanitarian aid" to anyone. MSM was all too willing to help Saddam show the world just how mean the USA was to Iraqi people via it's sanctions. They were put up in the best rooms in Saddam's hotel so they could get the best images of Saddam's monthly baby parade, a monthly event staged by Saddam where the bodies of dead babies along with 'grief stricken' parents (cry or die) were paraded in front of their camera's.
We now know how the oil for rotting food and medicine program was handled by the UN's collective body of thieves, who used this program to line their's and Saddam's pockets for palaces and special projects like WMD production. We know it wasn't "humanitarian aid" Saddam was sending to Syria.
If proof cant be summed up in a 4 minute news segment on msn or cnn then they dont exist. The world has been brain washed by network television and they cant see past the 4 minute segment that is provided for them. Its alraming and sad.
But, no matter how stupid it was to make hydrogen gas for "weather balloons" this way, (especially when you can buy a commercial hydrogen generator for just that purpose for a few thousand dollars) and the fact that hydrogen is not the first choice for a weather balloon gas (it has a tendancy to explode at the slightest static spark and instantly remove the eyebrows of weather scientists) you just can't convince a lefty that, while being a stupid way to make hydrogen, it was a very handy rig for breeding unstable toxins on site to fill warheads and deliver them to the target.
Strange how these empty warheads (empty so that means no WMD'S) were also found near these trailers.
It doesn't matter how much evidence you have, the loony left will not believe it. it doesn't even matter if we do find everything we KNOW is missing. Facts just don't matter.
The opposition to the war has pretty much fallen under the umbrella of the DNC. Break the opponents up into demographics:
Pacifists-people who take a theory that was remotely viable when it was created, but is totally invalidated by weapons of mass destruction. Idea is nice that if all the world rejected violence, there'd be none, but in 6000000000 people, if 19 can attack 50000, then they're premise failed, and I'm certain that we can find 19/6bil who are similar to Jeff Dhamer, Charles Manson, etc.
Non-violence opposition. Call it the passive aggressive, Ghandi/King-like idea that Love can stop terrorism. Works ok against democratic, representative govts, but actually serves as a gift to genocidal, totatlitarian regimes. Cannot be convinced that violence is ever necessary because they cannot be convinced of a threat requiring violence.
Appeasers-a form of denial that prefers to believe if one feeds a predatory human, then it will not be hungry. Ignores that predatory humans don't eat for sustinence, but for the kill
Geopolitical procrastinators-next step from Appeasers: those who see all things in life as a question of 'do something' or 'do nothing and let it sort itself out' Ignores the fact that someone has to sort things out or suffer until nature takes its course generations later
Mislead-those who for whatever reason don't have the time to look into the details about the war and so form their opinions on the loudest voices, and the most common voices. In both cases that is the left (see also Al Franken vs Bill OReilly or the long list of MSM sources that are so rah rah rah in support of the war)
There are other minority opposition demographics to the war, but these are the ones I've seen the clearest. In all cases save the last, there can never be a smoking gun. No 10-second soundbite is gonna do it. No 4 minute news segment is gonna do it. Nothing-not even a mea culpa from the Syrup King of Vermont, Gov Dean, is gonna convince:
the Bush-haters
the pacifists
the appeasers
the non-violence/there's no such thing as a threat
the geopolitical procrastinators or
those seeking a roundish room at 1600 Pa Ave
Those who remain-those few who could be convinced, can only be convinced by results-years later as Gen Zinni put it yesterday.
Ultimately, I suggest no one hold their breath waiting to see pages filled with retractions in the NYT or for Chris Matthews to actually be a journalist and not a half pundit/half operative mutant
Most in the media are ignoring the words of Saddam himself and his aides on 12 hours of captured tapes saying that Iraq's WMD were moved to Syria. But they aren't the only ones saying it.The article has been archived and is no longer available at Investor's Business Daily but is corraborated by the link below:For example, three months before Operation Iraqi Freedom began, Israeli intelligence detected Iraq moving large amounts of military materiel into Syria, another Baathist dictatorship — materiel that could have included Saddam's WMD.
Last month, Moshe Yaalon, who was Israel's top general at the time, said Iraq transported WMD to Syria six weeks before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
On Jan. 25, 2004, Nizar Nayouf, a Syrian journalist who recently defected to France, told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that chemical and biological weapons were smuggled from Iraq into Syria when Saddam realized an American invasion was imminent.
Nayouf said he knew of at least three Syrian sites where Saddam's WMD were kept. One was in tunnels under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria, part of an underground factory built by North Korea for producing a Syrian version of the Scud missile. Others were in the village of Tal Snan, adjacent to a Syrian air base, and in Sjinsjar, on the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Nayouf's claims were in effect confirmed two months earlier in a briefing to reporters on Oct. 20, 2003, by officials of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in Washington. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, head of NIMA when the Iraq War began, said satellite imagery showed a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria just before the American invasion.
Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong, who was deputy commander of Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom, told WABC radio in September 2004: "I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon and Iran."
In an interview with the London Telegraph in January 2004, David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), said he uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"We know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD program," Kay told the Telegraph. "Precisely what went to Syria, and what happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."
Charles Duelfer, Kay's successor as ISG head, testified at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Oct. 6, 2004, that "a lot of materials left Iraq and went to Syria." "There was certainly a lot of traffic across the border points," said Duelfer. "We've got a lot of data to support that, including people discussing it. But whether in fact in any of these trucks there was WMD-related materials, I cannot say."
Jordan's King Abdullah may have an opinion on that. In April 2004, his country foiled a plot that involved five vehicles carrying a combined total of 20 tons of chemical weapons laced with conventional explosives.
The weapons would have released a cloud of poison gas sufficient to kill 80,000 people and, in Abdullah's words, "would have decapitated the government." The trucks were intercepted 75 miles inside the Jordanian border. They were coming from — you guessed it — Syria.
excellent post.
I have literally hundreds of pages of similar articles.
In Search of Saddam Hussein’s WMD: Introducing Iraqi General Georges Sada Part 1 of 5
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