"U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebaon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on the CIA at the time." "Yeah, sure it didn't..."
Since when? You may find interesting this email I wrote to Bill O'Reilly about a month ago:
To:
oreilly@foxnews.com Date and time: 10:38 PM 7/30/03 -0400
Subject: Playing dumb, are you?
Greetings Mr. O'Reilly,
If you're not just playing dumb, and really don't know where the WMD are, may I suggest that you get Kenneth R. Timmerman (of Insight Mag.) as a guest on your show --- SOON!
This is the second night in a row I watched you parroting the Democrat mantra, demanding that Bush tell us where the WMD are.
You appear to be out of the loop. That's not good that someone in your position is so much in the dark about what's going on.
I've provided you some succinct excerpts and links to what Mr. Timmerman wrote when he accompanied Powell to Syria on May 3, 2003. This will get you up to speed. I'll look forward to seeing Mr. Timmerman on your show.
Warm regards,
[Name and Town]
Item #1:
INSIGHT mag - Sending a Serious Message to Syria
Posted May 28, 2003 By Kenneth R. Timmerman
http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/437029.html "The May 3 meeting in the presidential palace on the hilltop overlooking Damascus was short and to the point.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, flanked by State Department Arabists, told Syrian dictator Bashar Assad that the U.S. victory in Iraq had changed the way America plans to do business in the Middle East.
The days of the cozy deals and of winking and nodding at Syrian support for terrorism were ended. He then presented Assad with a list of U.S. demands that was nothing short of breathtaking.
Powell told the Syrian president that the United States requires him to help in the search for hidden Iraqi weapons.
The United States believes the weapons were taken in convoys of tanker trucks to Syria last fall, along with key production equipment, and buried in the Syrian desert shortly before U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq.
Powell demanded that Syria locate and turn over Iraqi weapons scientists and top-ranking Ba'ath Party officials who had been granted sanctuary by Syria once Gulf War II began. ... [End of excerpt. Click on link above to read the whole article]
Item #2:
Not-So-Secret Iraqi-Syrian Deals - Posted May 28, 2003
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=437030 Middle East analysts will tell you that Syria and Iraq long have been enemies, citing their leaders' rival visions of Ba'ath Party dictatorship. And they were right until Hafez Assad died in June 2000. Almost as soon as son Bashar took power, things began to change.
In November 2000, the younger Assad agreed to reopen a 500-mile oil pipeline, which soon began hauling an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 barrels per day from the Kirkuk oil fields of Iraq to Syria's Mediterranean export terminal at Banias. For Assad and Saddam Hussein, it was a gold mine. The pipeline deal gave Saddam an estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion per year on the black market, with hefty transit fees going to Assad in the bargain.
Just two months later, on Jan. 31, 2001, the two countries agreed to double their $500 million-per-year trade, and triple it by 2002.
Gary C. Gambill, writing in the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, reported that Assad had dispatched his younger brother, Maher Assad, to Baghdad on a secret two-day visit shortly before the trade agreement was inked to discuss military cooperation with Qusay Hussein.
Following that visit, agreements were drafted to hide Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in Syria should U.N. inspections resume, and later, when the coalition attack became imminent, to provide sanctuary to fleeing Iraqi leaders.
According to published reports, Syria also served as a conduit for weapons and spare parts that Iraq purchased on the black market in Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and France, in defiance with the U.N. embargo.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned in an interview with Israeli television on Dec. 24, 2002, that Iraq already had trucked the bulk of its weapons stockpiles to Syria earlier in the autumn, before the arrival of the U.N. inspectors.
After intense U.S. pressure, Bashar Assad has handed over several key Iraqi weapons scientists and intelligence officers, including Farouk Hijazi, believed to be the key link between Iraq and al-Qaeda. But hundreds of other Iraqis are reported to have escaped through Syria.
For now, Assad appears to be wedded to his lies. When asked by Lally Weymouth of Newsweek about the escaping Iraqis, Assad insisted that once the war began no one was allowed to come. "We allowed families to come to Syria, women and children," Assad said. "But we were suspicious of some of the relatives - that they had positions in the past and were responsible for killings in Syria in the eighties."
Kenneth R. Timmerman is a senior writer for Insight.
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More:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/920692/posts?page=6#6 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/921005/posts?page=39#39 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/921194/posts?page=49#49Thanks for the details. What a stash of info wealth.