Post-Invasion Intel Showed WMD Went To Syria

Captain's Table Blog ^ | 29 July 2006 | Morrissey

[shrinkermd]

Among the captured documents of the Iraqi Intelligence Services is a memo written in Arabic that describes pre-war intel from an Iraqi source working in Syria. Dated July 13, the memo itself was written after the invasion, but it describes the movement of trucks from Iraq into Syria just before the American invasions. Document ISGQ-2005-00022470 has notations reading "DOD" that indicate the Pentagon has already reviewed the data:

ISGQ-2005-00022470 PAGE (1) MR. HOGGER (KURDISH NAME) REGARDS, KINDLY REVIEW THOSE PAGES AND PLEASE FORWARD THEM TO MRS.MONA FOR FURTHER REVIEW AFTER TRANSLATION THANK YOU SIGNED ABO ABDULLAH JULY 13TH

ESQUIRE, THE DIRECTOR OF COORDINATION AND FOLLOW UP OFFICE

July.13th

Subject: we have information about the location of Mass Destruction Weapons

On Moharram 10th (Arabic calendar), prior to US/allied invasion to Iraq, fifty (50) Iraqi trucks entered Syria as convoys (or groups), I met some the drivers of those trucks, they got no idea about the content of their trucks.

The loads basically came from some where in Baghdad, Iraqi intelligence were escorting the loads. During their tripe, those truck drivers were stopped and asked frequently by the intelligence officers about whether or not they got any idea about the content of their loads, the divers replied “we have no idea”, then the officers would say “thank you”.

Upon their arrival to Deayr Ezoor city/ Syria, the drivers were ordered to get down, elements from Syrian intelligence got into the trucks, they took the trucks to big barracks for downloading.

After that; Iraqi drivers got their trucks back, they got $200 as a reward.

The drivers told me that it was their second time to bring such secret shipment; the first shipment was Moharram 1st.

I have a friend in Syria working in Syrian company, the man has ½ of the company, and the other ½ belongs to a Syrian businessman.

This Iraqi person, a former counselor at Iraqi embassies, has strong connections with Iraqi embassy in Syria, he knows all Iraqi intelligence men there, and he has no idea that I am working with the Iraqi opposition in Syria.

I used to visit him daily during that period to listen to the important news.

When the trucks arrived to Syria, I visited him, told him “Iraqi weapons got inside Syria”, he replied “who told you”, I said “I have my own resources”, he replied “don’t tell any one about that because actually it is inside”.

For those unfamiliar with the Muslim calendar, 10 Mohorram would equate to March 14th for 2003 -- or a little over a week before our invasion of Iraq. The opposition source told the Kurds that the trucks arrived in Dayr az Zawr, a Syrian city on the Euphrates in the expansive eastern section of Syria. A look at a map shows Dayr az Zawr in the middle of nowhere, with plenty of space to hide stockpiles from 50 trucks.

After unloading the trucks -- taking care to separate the Iraqi drivers from their vehicles while doing so -- the Syrians returned the trucks to the drivers and paid each of them $200, a rather princely sum for an Iraqi in 2003. And that was the second such convoy that IIS officers conducted into Syria; the first had been on Mohorram 1, or March 5th.

While this is not quite a smoking gun, it provides yet another piece of evidence pointing to a massive operation to hide Iraq's WMDs. Saddam Hussein must have thought that if the Coalition could not find the WMDs, they would have to withdraw and allow him to assume power once more. It would explain why he allowed so much of his army to disappear rather than fight; he expected to command them again within a few weeks. In fact, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri told Time Magazine that Saddam had made a mistake allowing the army to fight at all:

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's top lieutenant with a $10 million bounty on his head, struck a defiant tone in an intervew appearing on Time magazine's Web site in which he wrote out answers to questions sent in May through intermediaries. Time said it wasn't clear when his answers were written.

Al-Douri, the highest-ranking figure from Saddam's regime still at large and the "king of clubs" on the most wanted list, said Saddam blundered by having his army confront the U.S.-led invasion force instead of holding it in reserve to fight a guerrilla war, but he said the old army has bounced back.

This movement of the weapons also appeased Russia, which helped Saddam build them. The Russians did not want the US to discover the weapons stores and pressed Saddam to get them somewhere else, and fast. American intel has long claimed to have seen these convoys streaming across western Iraq into Syria, and this provides a more complete picture as to what they did when they arrived.

Posted by Captain Ed at 01:59 PM | Comments (25) | TrackBa

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

For some reason the Bush administration wants to ignore this issue big time.

I wonder why?

[maine-iac7]

you say: "The administration has given up on the idea of selling the WMD point"

---

Or we'll have an "October Surprise?"
Most of us had pretty much given up on any serious investigation on the NYSlimes treasonous leaking of security data as weeks went by with nary a blip on the radar.
But now,
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1674125/posts

"WASHINGTON, July 28 — A federal grand jury has begun investigating the leak of classified information about intelligence programs to the press and has subpoenaed a former National Security Agency employee who claims to have witnessed illegal activity while working at the agency. ....

So maybe some more cards are being held close to the vest?

[infowarrior]

The remarkable thing is that none of them appear to have been furnished to Hezbollah. You have to wonder why not.

That would be because, although "The Chinless Wonder" is nowhere near the politically astute and canny wolf his father was, he isn't a total idiot, either. Give any of those little "toys" to Hezbollah, and they would in short order use them on Israel which would spell the doom of not only Bashir Assad's reign, but the entire nation of Syria as well...

the infowarrior

[maine-iac7]

Our sons and daughters are risking and sometimes paying with their lives in this war and these people treat it like some sort of game.

You ascribe this to the wrong party.

You want the republicans to screech and scream, wave their hands and point their fingers, makes jackasses of themselves? (At least the demRats have an excuse - they are, after all the party with the jackass logo)

Republicans are more wont to work quietly behind the scenes while they get their ducks lined up, rather than playing to the media for sound bites...

[maine-iac7]

We Rockyfeller gave Saddam plenty of notice we were coming

Saddam was strutting around confident in his pals from Germany, Russia and France that assured him they would block any UN resolution allowing US to attack.

Since he had them all, including the UN, in his pocket, he was sure we would not attack = also taking into consideration the 'lob a bomb and call it quits' policy of the Clinton years.

But Senator Rockyfeller went to SYRIA and other ARab countries and told them that Bush was dead serious and WAS going to attack.

That is when the rush got on to get the WMD's out of the country.

I am still waiting for Rockyfeller to be brought up on charges.

_{What's that you say? ice cubes are plentiful in Hell?}

[maine-iac7]

I swear I remember Colin Powell talking of trucks seen by satalitte before the war started moving across the border

You remember correctly. He showed a satellite video = everyone ignored it.

Powell is a great man, but he was not strongly Conservative...and backed down to easy or went against the WH too often

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

American intel has long claimed to have seen these convoys streaming across western Iraq into Syria, and this provides a more complete picture as to what they did when they arrived.

I recall this being announced within the first days of the war, then pfffffft! Not a word about it since. Big time cover-up going on.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

There is NOT a chance our liberal media will give this any serious coverage. The MSM in their support of Democrats have to some degree actually become anti-American.

It's not just the Demmocrats. Bush and the establishment Republicans don't want this out either.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[...i am for one sick of this whole affair...the Israelis and the us govt under Bush are not using the opportunity...for what ever reason...to rid ourselves of both the Syrian and Iranian islamofacists at the time when it could be done by Israel and / or us.]

"We're going to have to fight the Russians Iranians and Syrians eventually anyway. It might as well be now while we've already got the army here to do it."

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

This is all about protecting "our friends", France, Russia, Germany and China, who could have cared less about "international law and UN sanctions" given the opportunity to make billions selling Saddam whatever he wanted. Remember how hard these four tried to circumvent our going in to Iraq? And I bet you're right, Bush gave the Russians enough time to get the WMD's out, for the reasons you cited. But I would add one more: The United Nations would have been irreparably damaged by the revelation of the top nations on the Security Council flaunting Security Council directives. The Oil-for-Food corruption (also covered up, BTW) would have been the last straw. By covering up these misdeed, Bush saved the UN.

[maine-iac7]

Well that just does it.

All our problems will be quickly solved if we put Idish in charge.

IDISH FOR PRESIDENT!

Hey, you may be "sick of this whole affair" - but I can double guarantee you that the 'whole' you know is no more than the tip of the ice burg, if that. You say "Bush is a pacifist" who has "lost his nerve"

I'm sure we'd be much better off with Gore or Kerry...

In the meantime, might I recommend a simple way for folk to get a smidgen of an inking what goes on in the world: read some Tom Clancy.

His novels may be ficion - the storyline and characters are made up - but the mechanics of what goes on behind the scenes world-wide, are a good World Reality 101 course.

An excerpt re Clancy:

"Clancy's military plotting and scenarios are considered so plausible that his books, fiction and nonfiction, are particularly popular in the US military and intelligence agencies. He has been invited to lecture at the Pentagon several times, and Department of Defense officials regularly offer Clancy un-classified background briefings on upcoming weapons projects."

[ADemocratNoMore]

I posted this about a month ago in a different thread on the same topic...

I wonder what the repercussions of our acknowledgment of being in control of a large stockpile of WMD would be in terms of the problems involved with their disposal. If you read the article by Ion Mihai Pacepa, a Romanian, who is the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to have defected from the former Soviet bloc, here...

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030820-081256-6822r.htm

In the article, he states "All chemical weapons were to be immediately burned or buried deep at sea... Chemical weapons, especially those produced in Third World countries,which lack sophisticated production facilities, often do not retain lethal properties after a few months on the shelf and are routinely dumped anyway. (A note here... not retaining lethal properties does not mean that the chemicals have turned benign, just that it may now take a gallon of the stuff to do what a drop would formerly do).

All well and good for the Soviets or their clients, but...

Our forces would certainly have custody of the inventory and would therefore be expected to handle its disposal. Do you really think we would get a pass on dumping at sea or old fashioned burning?. I think not. If memory serves. at the end of the first Gulf War, we blew a huge stockpile of chemical munitions in place and exposure to the low level residuals from the combustion products were being blamed for Gulf War Syndrome.

Before you know it, we'll be expected to build one of those billion dollar incinerators like we use to destroy our domestic stocks of chemical weapons. We'll have to pass EPA inspections and file environmental impact studies, then deal with N.I.M.B.Y lawsuits and in a few years the neighbors will be suing us and not Sadam over cancer clusters. Also, won't that facility be an uber terrorist magnet, not to mention the convoys hauling stuff from stockpiles from all over the country?.

Maybe thats one of the reasons we want to leave 'em where they are. Quite frankly, I trust this administration to do what it thinks is right for our Country and it's national security, and it appears that they have weighed the political benefit of exposing the existence of the WMDs vs. the present stance. I, for one, applaud an administration that is willing to take a political hit while it does what is best for our security, for whatever reasons, which I, as a civilian may never know.

Just a thought.

[ohioWfan]

Our President basically stands ALONE surrounded by cowards, back-stabbers and fifth columnists, there are exceptions of course, but I think they can be counted on one hand but history tells us that this is often the case.

I agree with your post. The Republicans in Congress have been fearful to stand firmly in support of the President, and more importantly, our sons and daughters (my son, too), who are putting their lives on the line to protect us from terrorists who want us all dead.

But I do think it needs to be said that it is the Rats who are 'playing games' above all.

And frankly, I don't think they give a rip about any of our soldiers. And some, like Murtha and Kerry, are actively working to get our guys killed, IMO.

And I don't know what kind of game makes any decent human being do that.

[shield]

NOT ALL OF IT. See this site, Federal Agent says a number of sites were never even looked into. He had intel of WMD's at these sites. http://www.davegaubatz.com/index.html

[Candor7]

ANY BETS THAT SOME OF THOSE WMD ARE IN LEBANON?

Why does Koffi want 72 hour hiatus?

So the Hezzies can get them BACK to Syria before the whole world finds out?

[Candor7]

The remarkable thing is that none of them appear to have been furnished to Hezbollah. You have to wonder why not.

I am not so sure about that!

[Grampa Dave]

Tom, you are probably correct on all of your points.

[Grampa Dave]

Maybe A$$ad has to make the same decision that Krazy Kadafi made a few years ago.

"That is to leave the dark side and come over to our side or shock awe will be heading your way. Do you want to be like your old buddy $addam or the Dead Zark pig?"

[Lexinom]

I knew this over two years ago from an article in the Dutch publication De Telegraf.

[randita]

I'm not making any comment about the veracity of the translation. I'm just poking fun at the use of the word "tripe" instead of "trip".