Paper Trail Shows Syria as Iraq's Main Weapons Link

LA Times ^ | Dec. 29, 2003 | Bob Drogin and Jeffrey Fleishman

[FairOpinion]

DAMASCUS, Syria — First of two parts

A Syrian trading company with close ties to the ruling regime smuggled weapons and military hardware to Saddam Hussein between 2000 and 2003, helping Syria become the main channel for illicit arms transfers to Iraq despite a stringent U.N. embargo, documents recovered in Iraq show.

The private company, called SES International Corp., is headed by a cousin of Syria's autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, and is controlled by other members of the president's Baath Party and Alawite clan. Syria's government assisted SES in importing at least one shipment destined for Iraq's military, the Iraqi documents indicate, and Western intelligence reports allege that senior Syrian officials were involved in other illicit transfers.

Iraqi records show that SES signed more than 50 contracts to supply tens of millions of dollars' worth of arms and equipment to Iraq's military shortly before the U.S.-led invasion in March.

[kcvl]

Intelligence Briefs: Syria

September 2002


Syrian Intelligence Linked to Al-Qaida Cell in Hamburg

According to reports in the German weeklies Der Spiegel and Focus last month, German investigators have discovered multiple links between Syrian intelligence and the Al-Qaida cell in Hamburg involved in the September 11 hijackings.

The connection is centered around a textile company called Tatex Trading GmbH in Rethwisch, Germany. The director of the company, Abdel Matin Tatari, was a member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and one of its principal shareholders is Mohammed Majid Said, the former director of Syria's General Intelligence Directorate from 1987 to 1994.

Tatari's 27-year old son, Mohammed Hady Tatari, frequently visited the apartment in Hamburg used by the terrorists and personally knew the pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, Marwan al-Shehhi. Mohammed also attended the wedding of Mounir El Motassadek, a Moroccan who has been indicted in Germany with 1,316 counts of being an accomplice to the September 11 attacks.

In addition, investigators discovered that Mohammed Haydar Zammar, a Syrian-born German national who recruited Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of the September 11 attacks, worked at Tatex. Zammar left Germany shortly after September 11 and was arrested in Morocco, then extradited to Syria. Syrian officials have refused to allow either US or German investigators to directly interrogate Zammar.

The German authorities insist that Syria must have been spying on the Hamburg cell, not coordinating with it, but are at a loss to explain why Damascus will not allow access to Zammar.



http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:_dq0fYqQ1ZQJ:www.meib.org/articles/0210_sb.htm+Bashar+Assad,+syrian+trading+company&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[kcvl]

December 1, 2003

Bush administration officials have seized on the attempted purchase of the missiles, known as the Rodong, and a missile assembly line to buttress their case that Mr. Hussein was violating United Nations resolutions, which clearly prohibited missiles of the range of the Rodong.

It also establishes that Syria was a major arms-trading bazaar for the Hussein government, in this case hiding an Iraqi effort to obtain missiles, they say. Investigators say Syria had probably offered its ports and territory as the surreptitious transit route for the North Korea-Iraq missile deal, although it remains unclear what demands the government in Damascus might have made in return. Further, according to United States government officials and international investigators, the Iraqi official who brokered the deal, Munir Awad, is now in Syria, apparently living under government protection.

If it served as a middleman in this deal, as the documents suggest, Syria was acting in violation of Security Council resolutions even as it served on the Council and voted with the United States on the most important resolution before the war.

In an interview in Damascus on Sunday with The New York Times, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, was asked about the deal described in the Iraqi computer files and said, "This is the first time I have heard this story."

He said Mr. Hussein "was never able to trust Syria, and he never tried and we never tried to make any relation between him and any other country because he did not trust us in the first place." For all its complaints about arms smuggling across the Syrian-Iraq border, Mr. Assad said, the United States had never cited specific cases, adding, "I told the Americans if you have any evidence that there is smuggling of weapons into Iraq, please let us know."



http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:h2ASh96UgXsJ:www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/ldec/1_iraqis.html+Bashar+Assad,+syrian+trading+company&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[gatorbait]

In the nineteen eighties, when the US sold arms to Saddam and to Iran in order to create a "more stable" Middle-East, there was no huge public outcry or debate. Nor was there any

What arms did we sell them? Please,I am dying to know.

[JustPiper]

Can you mail me the entire article, it's the LATimes again!

[JustPiper]

Ongoing Thread (hint ;)

[JustPiper]

Your a newbie so I will tell you LA Times, Wsh Post and a few other's are not allowed by law

[kcvl]

BAGHDAD WEAPONS TRAIL LEADS TO SYRIA

December 30, 2003 -- DAMASCUS, Syria - A trading company closely linked with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad smuggled sophisticated arms to Saddam Hussein in the three years before his overthrow - all in violation of a U.N. embargo, it was reported today.

SES International Corp., headed by one of Assad's cousins, helped illicitly transfer weapons and military hardware to Iraq, the Los Angeles Times said.

And at least one of those shipments was done with help from Syria's government, the newspaper said.

SES signed at least 50 contracts to supply arms and equipment to Baghdad just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March.

Western intelligence reports allege that senior Syrian officials were involved in other illegal transfers, the newspaper reported.

The Bush administration accused Damascus in March of sending night-vision goggles and other military equipment into Iraq, but U.S. officials now say the White House was unaware of the extent of the weapons traffic.

As part of its investigation, the newspaper also studied records of Al Bashair Trading Co., a Baghdad firm that procured arms for Saddam's regime.


South Korean, Polish, Slovenian and Russian companies were among those agreeing to supply arms to Iraq before the war broke out, and North Korean officials met with Al Bashair Co. officials at SES's offices in Damascus.

Not all the weapons were delivered, but some may still be in use by terrorists battling the U.S. occupation forces, the newspaper said.

SES said any suggestion it was involved in illicit arms trading was "false," but did not respond to the newspaper's specific inquiries. Syria's foreign ministry also refused comment.

Syria was long an ideological ally of the old Iraqi regime. The White House previously has accused Syria of sheltering Iraqi fugitivesand letting Islamic militants enter Iraq to attack coalition forces.


http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/14797.htm

[Cate]

Geez.... I think every freeper after 10 seconds of thought came to this conclusion. Syria is not our ally. They should have just asked us first :)

[kcvl]

SADDAM ADMITS TO CASH STASH

December 30, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein is starting to 'fess up about the whereabouts of up to $40 billion he stole from Iraq, and has admitted that some of it is hidden in Switzerland, Japan and Germany, a top Iraqi official says.

"Saddam has confessed the names of the people he told to keep the money, and he gave names of those who have information on equipment and weapons warehouses," Iyad Allawi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in London.

www.nypost.com

[driftless]

A fine terrorist state like Syria colluding with another fine terrorist state like Iraq?.....I'm thoroughly shocked. Well that could never happen because we are assured by the leftists that terrorist states never cooperate with each other, especially Iraq or Syria. (yuk,yuk)

[driftless]

I suggest you read some reputable histories of the Cold War before you make any more statements like that one.

[JustPiper]

Lookie what Layout Guru did for me after I punched the idiot ;)

[BykrBayb]

Did you have a problem understanding my post, or are you just in the habit of being rude? There really is no call for you to insult me. Check responses from other FReepers to see what an appropriate response looks like. Because of them, I now know the reason the entire article wasn't posted. Because of you, I am reminded that not everyone practices proper etiquette.

[BykrBayb]

Thank you one and all. I'm learning.

[FreedomPoster]

>>all the darned pop-ups that they use crashed my computer the last few times that I went there.

I've found that the Google toolbar stops most pop-ups. I'm sure there are other effective tools for that as well.

http://www.google.com/options/
At the bottom, in the "Google Tools" section.

[Beck_isright]

Thus another reason why we are continuing to re-mobilize here at home.

[alloysteel]

Turn over a few rocks, and what do you find....

More conspicuous by their absence, the prints you do NOT find. There seem to be quite a few cut-outs and dummy fronts on the way to Baghdad. Some of this activity required large sums of money moved in clandestine ways.

Round up all the usual suspects.

[brooklin]

Don't forget Iran/contra. Ollie North and the gorgeous Fawn Hall. Where is Fawn nowadays?

[Coop]

Did you have a problem understanding my post, or are you just in the habit of being rude? There really is no call for you to insult me. Check responses from other FReepers to see what an appropriate response looks like. Because of them, I now know the reason the entire article wasn't posted. Because of you, I am reminded that not everyone practices proper etiquette.

I'm sorry, but I found DMTW's post humorous, not rude. Yours was a valid question that would not be known by a newcomer. It also serves as a good reminder for everyone here. DMTW was IMHO just playfully saying that the entire article would have been chopped up by the moderators in short order. Nothing against you personally.

Having said that, welcome to the best resource on the web! (shamelessly biased opinion)

[Coop]

Ya know, I'm startin' ta think dem Syrians are up to no good! :-)

I thought Southack put it nicely. The Damascus pucker factor just went up.