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.

[Quilla]

I saw a post on a thread the other day that implied "username" and "password" are very common usernames and passwords. I just wish I could remember who to give credit for the suggestion.

[FreeAtlanta]

The UN is only effect against law following nations. Thus, it is only effective against free nations.

[VRWC_minion]

Report: Arms entered Iraq through Syrian firm

Files show defiance of U.N. sanctions before war, newspaper says

Updated: 4:58 a.m. ET Dec. 30, 2003

WASHINGTON - A firm from Syria, headed by a cousin of that country’s leader, Bashar Assad, signed contracts to supply millions of dollars in arms and equipment to Iraq before the United States invaded in March, The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.

In the first of a two-part series written from Damascus, The Times reported that “1,000 heavy machine guns and up to 20 million bullets for assault rifles,” supplied by SES International Corp., “helped Baghdad’s ill-equipped army grow stronger before the war began in March. Some supplies may now be aiding the insurgency against the U.S.-led occupation.”

Files cited by the Times were taken from the abandoned office of Al Bashair Trading Co., by a reporter for the German magazine Stern shortly after U.S. troops entered Baghdad.

The newspaper said it had the 800 signed contracts translated from Arabic and sought confirmation internationally during a three-month investigation.

Among the findings The Times reported:

— A Polish company shipped up to 380 surface-to-air missile engines to Baghdad through Syria.

— A South Korean firm shipped $8 million in telecommunications equipment for “air defense.”

— A Slovenian firm shipped 20 battle tank barrels to the Syrian firm early in 2002.

— Two North Korean officials went to Damascus to discuss an Iraqi payment of $10 million for components for ballistic missiles.

According to the newspaper, a confidential U.N. report identifies Al Bashair as the biggest of 13 companies used to evade the U.N. arms embargo and other sanctions. Al Bashair made deals for as much as $1 billion a year in the 1990s.

Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, the United Nations imposed a full arms embargo, a trade ban and a freeze on Iraq’s assets and international deal-making. All were violated, including the freeze on assets, when Iraq used false sugar purchases to launder money and divert it to foreign banks.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry did not respond to Times requests for explanations of SES activities. SES sent the newspaper an e-mail saying it was not involved in illicit trade but refusing to address specific cases.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written

[VRWC_minion]

Something tells me that Bush doesn't feel the time is right to deal with Syria just yet and that the liberal forces are attempting to push him into a quagmire.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Time to superimpose Bashar Assad's face on that video of Saddam coming out of the spider hole and send the video to him.

[gatorbait]

Where is Fawn nowadays? I understod she is married, had kids and is rolling right along in life. You're right though, what a knockout!

[Rebelbase]

"Password" and "password" will get you into the LA times site.

[Ben Hecks]

Bump for later.

[Quilla]

Thank you!!

[MrConfettiMan]

Given Dubya's doctrine of "With 'em, or against 'em", I guess Syria is next on the list?

[Ingtar]

It was about 4 AM Central Time. I was unable to sleep, and flipping channels. I cannot remember the station. It did not really sink in until I had started to move on to something else.

[justlurking]

While I'll avoid comment about the registration issue, I'll second another poster's recommendation about the Google Toolbar for pop-up blocking:

http://toolbar.google.com/

Be forewarned that it defaults its PageRank display to "on", which sends information (purportedly anonymously) about the webpages you view -- to be used for page ranking. However, you can turn it off.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Now is the time for the Israelis to take Arafat, lop off his ugly head and fedex it to Assad.

[FairOpinion]

IF anyone cares to register, here is part 2 of the series. Original post was part 1.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqarms30dec30,1,3374831.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Banned Arms Flowed Into Iraq Through Syrian Firm
Files found in Baghdad describe deals violating U.N. sanctions and offer a glimpse into the murky world of weapons smuggling and the ties between 'rogue states.'

It recaps a lot of what was in the earlier article.

[kever]

.....and then the paper trail leads back to the U.S. Oh my...what do we do?

[Dont Mention the War]

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.

What Coop said. You jumped down another Freeper's throat without cause because you were ignorant of one of the most basic FR rules. By doing so you set yourself up for a joke, and got one. Most newbies get much, much worse for actions such as yours.

Grow some skin, or your time on FR will be short and unpleasant.

[Chu Gary]

"Kofi Annan will set things right."

Probably by making them a standing member of the Security Council with a veto over anything.

[BykrBayb]

That answers my question. My first guess was right. You didn't understand my first post, or my second post. You probably won't understand this one either. I didn't jump down "another Freeper's throat." I merely pointed out the fact that you were unjustly rude to me. Please try to follow the thread, if you can understand the posts. It might help if you go back and read your first post to be. If you still can't understand that post after writing it yourself and rereading it, maybe you should just stick to watching Bevis & Butthead reruns.

[AmericanVictory]

Given this rule of kickbacks, why is it a big deal to forgive the debt of Iraq by all our "allies" such as France, Germany, and Russia? Wouldn't the governing council just void the contracts if the debts were attempted to be enforced as illegal contracts

[JustPiper]

Would you like me to add your name to my terror pinglist?