IRAQ: Busy Baghdad Highway to Damascus - (Saddam elite fleeing Iraq into Syria)

DEBKA ^ | April 14. 2003 | unknown

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Busy Baghdad Highway to Damascus -

US Close to Military Action against Iraqi and other Targets in Syria

Day 26 of Iraq War

Round about noon on Sunday, April 13, US commanders realized that, while they were preoccupied with the civic needs of Baghdad, they were missing the biggest spectacle of the war – the 2003 Exodus from Iraq. Members of Saddam’s regime in their thousands were pouring out of Baghdad and Saddam’s last strongholds of Tikrit, Samarra and al Ramadi and heading for the Syrian frontier and Damascus. DEBKAfile’s intelligence and military sources report that Syrian military intelligence teams waited on the other side of the border, sorting the fugitives into groups and moving them on. Most high officials and officers were directed to Damascus and the Mediterranean towns of Latakia or Tartous.

US special forces sped to the Syrian border exits to try and stem the outflow, a mission well nigh impossible, given the winding, porous 500-km frontier populated by Arab nomadic tribes who make their living by smuggling people, arms, oil and contraband back and forth. A few of the escapees were nabbed but most crossed to safety. Our sources quote witnesses who saw a long line of black armor-plated limousines with Iraqi number plates driving into Damascus’s Al Maze and other military airports in Syria. They could not tell if the limousines were collecting Iraqis coming in by plane or delivering top Saddam officials to special flights leaving Syria.

The safe and assisted passage of thousands of Saddam’s top men into Syria evoked yet another stern warning from President George W. Bush in Washington Sunday, April 13. The Syrians must stop harboring Baathists and other Iraqis to be brought to account, he said and leveled another grave charge against Damascus: “We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria,” he said.

The president’s denunciations topped the cautions issued by defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and secretary of state Colin Powell earlier in the day. Rumsfeld: “We found a lot of fighters from Syria, a lot got killed last night”. If Saddam Hussein turns out to be in Syria, he said: “Syria will have made the worst of a whole lot of bad mistakes.” Powell advised Syria to stop supporting terrorists.

It will be recalled that DEBKAfile was first to reveal that Syria had granted asylum to senior Iraqi officials and provided them with the facilities to conduct the war from outside Iraq.

The catalogue of serious Syrian offences thrown out by Bush and his team in less than one day reads ominously like a final warning to President Bashar Assad.

Even this catalogue was not comprehensive. It is worth noting that the US president did not say Syria has chemical weapons, but “We believe there are chemical weapons in Syria.” He did not say they were Syria’s weapons. According to a DEBKAfile senior in the US administration, Assad, in addition to rescuing Saddam and his minions, is working with a will to de-legitimize the American war in Iraq and make sure it can never be justified. He is trying to achieve this by placing Iraq’s entire chemical and biological weapons arsenal in a safe repository, also placing the scientists and officials employed on Iraq’s unconventional weapons programs out of reach in hidden locations. In this clandestine operation he was almost certainly assisted by Russian and French intelligence services, who share Assad’s ambition to deny the United States any proof that its war on Iraq was just.

No seasoned observer in the region would be in the least surprised to see American military action launched shortly against Iraqi and other targets in Syria or even Lebanon.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I know it is Debka, but I believe much of this report!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

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[antaresequity]

Your forgot the [DEBKA] tag on your post...

One demerit for you Ernest

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You won't holler at me for pinging you to a piece from DEBKA will you?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It is right below the IRAQ on the second line!

[MonroeDNA]

This one sounds legit.

Time to take out West Iraq.

[South40]

We could fix that.

[KingKongCobra]

I know it is Debka, but I believe much of this report!

Hmm. Those flat earth guys may interest you too, then.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I like that picture!

[South40]

It could/should be the road to Damascus.

[Light Speed]

I suspect the "Head Honcho's" fled east to Irans border...less watched..closer proximity,..then flew to Syria via Iranair... in style.

The Mullah that got bumped off this past week in Iraq...that would be Irans handi-work.
Iran is very much in play here..... do not mind the attention being deflected upon poor Bashar Assad of Syria.

Prime historic patron of terror is Iran since the days of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Hizbullah..."Party of God" eased into the vacumn of the Lebanese civil war....Al Qeada are late comers to the terror end game.
But it is a competative reality concerning Saudi Wahabbism....Persian and Arab competing for Mohammeds praises.

Assad should be warrey.....lots of "Princes" who would use his isolated kingdom.....then discard it.

[South40]

I know it is Debka, but I believe much of this report!

This might interest him also

[Quix]

i BELIEVE it too.

And, I believe Debka has been right a lot more than it's given credit for.

And further, that it had been right on some things but it's report caused those things to change.

Just my impression. Obviously, I am no expert, here.

Anyway--the thicken plots.

And the thick headed plot, too.

[Sabertooth]

Syria: the new Argentina.

[Quix]

Am reminded that long ago--at least months but I think a few years--Ken Clement or is it Kim Clement--I think Ken--anyway--predicted a President would arise who would deal with (I forget the exact phrases--but my impression was decisively, effectively)--deal with 4 nations including Iraq.

We shall see.

[cgbg]

I would love to invade Syria for a whole host of reasons, but I do not believe this Debka report because:

(1) Debka appears to be run or at least influenced by Israeli intelligence. Obviously they would love for us to remove Syria and Syria control of Lebanon from their list of problems.

(2) It appears there are very few passable roads in the western Iraqi desert. The vehicles described in this article would require paved roads. I would think that all of those roads were either cratered or had checkpoints that made such travel unlikely.

(3) It is true that if an Iraqi leader wanted to travel light and disguise themselves as a native camel-rider they could make the trip to Syria. That may have happened or may be happening now in isolated cases, but that is not the scenario Debka describes.

(4) Our camel-riders might not announce who they were to the Syrians if their journey was successful. So obviously Debka wouldn't know about it. ;-)