DRUDGE: Russia tied to Iraq´s missing arms; Pentagon: Weaponry relocated before war

Drudge Report ^

[The G Man]

Nothing further. Freaking Russians ...

[section9]

First: Checkmate.

Kerry's huge scandal has just blown up. In his face. He will look like a fool over the next couple of days. He made desperate charges, and now he will have to conduct a climbdown. This is the end.

I strongly suspect that this story, if it gets play, will lead to a loss of some morale among marginal Kerry voters.

Second: the SPETZNAZ moved in and moved the stuff to Syria. Why? BECAUSE THE STUFF HAD BEEN MADE AND SOLD TO SADDAM BY THE RUSSIANS AND UNDER RUSSIAN SUPERVISION!!!! If it's SPETZNAZ troops, or the Guards Iron Hammer Airborne troops, it's Putin's personal operation.

We KNEW this, and have known it all along. It was the intention of Bush to forgive the Russians their tresspasses because Putin never betrayed Bush personally. The Russians were in cold pursuit of their national interests. We knew that Putin was moving the stuff out. We also knew something else:

Putin took possession of Saddam's WMD stockpile, in part to give the headstrong Americans pause, in part to cover their own participation in the Moustache's arms buildup, and lastly to keep it out of the hands of Al Qaeda, and their good friends, the Chechens. Botulinum toxin or VX gas works just as well in the Moscow Subway system as it would in Penn Station. I will bet you that Bush, Rice, Powell, Rummy, the head spooks at CIA, Blair, and MI-6 knew this as well.

This story tells me the whole missing ingredient: Vladimir Putin. Only the KGB could assemble a team in a short time and get the bad stuff out. They knew where it was hidden; we did not. He must have promised Saddam asylum and a healthy retirement on the Black Sea in exchange for cooperation. I wonder how long it took for Saddam to realize that Putin had taken him to the cleaners?

Why did we let a huge KGB operation go forward? Why did we let the WMD escape? Well, two reasons:

1. The WMD and the high explosives were going into Russian hands. Russians are reasonable, sane people. They are not Arabs.

2. And the most important reason of all? Saddam would never get the chance to use combat mycotoxins or VX against our troops. It is possible that hundreds of lives were saved this way, possibly several thousand. If the choice was between Bush being embarrassed and having to put up with the likes of a blowhard like John Kerry and Bush presiding over the loss of hundreds of guys in a single day due to VX?

The choice, my friends, was an easy one for Bush to make.

Which is another reason why he gets my vote: the interest of the fighting men came first.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[maine-iac7]

Oh, and...remind me never to play poker with C. Rove

[DestroytheDemocrats]

"Will the MSM report this?"

The Washington Times is part of the MSM but because it is a conservative paper most of the media will pay no attention. Probably FOX will explore it, Greta and Brit. But Im not getting my hopes up. I just never hear the WashTimes quoted by the likes of Russert and Jennings.

[xkaydet65]

It was known, because they were seen in Baghdad, that several high level Russian officers were in Iraq advising on how best to defend against the assault. I think this was even mentioned on FR.It is not far fetched to presume that they travelled with some active Russian military units. The Times does not say Spetsnaz so I would guess Russian equivelent of Army Rangers.

What wold they be doing? Fellow Baathists make a deal. Iraq pays Russia to covertly transport these weapons to Syria. Syria to continue development of WMD. Russia gets a payday and a continued partner in the Arab world and maybe a base of ops against Chechnyan and al Queda terrorists. Saddam gets satisfaction of embarrasing US when no WMDs are found. Syria uses the explosives to arm Iraqi terrorists with weapons it,on paper, does not have. Thus deniability.

Convoluted but does it make any sense?

[Petronski]

The most effective October Surprises break on Thursday or Friday before E-Day. It's already Thursday in Baghdad and Moscow.

[usafsk]

Now let's really spin a crazy story...what about the Russians doing this under the guise of helping Saddam protect his stuff, but actually they do it to keep it out of the fight. In other words, they do us a favor, we look the other way about their assistance to Saddam in the last several years, and the Russians strong arm the Syrians into letting the stuff be buried in the desert.

Bush admin wants to keep this quiet, as it is a big embarrassment to both Russia and Syria, putting major pressure on both Putin and Assad, who might be playing ball with us more than we know. (Gotta read Miniter's book on the GWOT to really get a glimpse of what's going on, BTW) Regardless, the info gets out through El Baradei, and the administration just feeds Kerry some rope. Now the average Joe will think that if Russia spirited out 400 tons of boom-boom clay, they might have also spirited out the WMD. I know, it's far fetched, but it might just do the job in Swingland.

[Mannaggia l'America]

Now if Putin would just step forward and say: "Yes, we moved them to protect them from getting into the hands of the terrorists....

Unfortunately, though, the Syrians are the terrorists.

[skip_intro]

There is at least as much evidence for this as there was for the current story of the troops not safeguarding the "stockpiles".

Yes, but the MSM doesn't like this kind of evidence, so they ignore it. The Washingon Times isn't the Washington Post, and it's stories get picked up nowhere.

If this is real, the Bush team better start pushing it for all they're worth.

[teletech]

Would this have been classified information kerry knew about? Enabling him to make his charges knowing full well the President could not refute them until it was declassified?

Kerry never attended his classified briefings. He was windsurfing.

[mwl1]

what is Newt saying, particularly regarding the political implications?

[The South Texan]

I think GW Bush was just re-elected tonight.

[PrinceOfCups]

Maybe. But the article will change the size and content of the news cycle.

[atomicweeder]

Can you say:

[processing please hold]

Please!!!! point me to a dem spot so I can see what they are saying about this.....Please.

[e_castillo]

"Reports of the convoys and sat pics are in hand."

Didn't a convoy of Russian vehicles get attacked during the war? While it was on its way to Syria.

[handy]

The Bush judo strikes again.

[TapTheSource]

Ion Pacepa has been trying to tell us what really happened to the WMD all along...apparently no one was listening.

http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=10111

[umgud]

What a great day! JFK washed up and Arafat dying is just too much good news to handle....... almost as good as an oganism.

[usafsk]

What the heck is the NSI?