Saturday, December 09, 2006
Where did the Iraqi WMD material go?
According to a Kuwaiti newspaper, which apparently quotes various plausible sources, Syria has a surprisingly advanced nuclear program:
Recently, Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al Seyassah quoted European intelligence sources as saying that "Syria has an advanced nuclear program" in a secret site located in the province of Al Hassaka, close to the Turkish and Iraqi borders. British sources quoted by "Al Seyassah" believe that "it is President Assad's brother, colonel Maher Assad, and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, who supervise the program". This program is based on the Iraqi material that Saddam Hussein's two sons shipped to Syria before and during the war against Iraq. This explains, according to the daily newspaper, why international investigative teams found no proof of the program.
As K. Pablo wrote, "paging David Kay..."
Now, this could very well be nonsense. Perhaps it is bad reporting, or perhaps it is fabricated entirely out of whole cloth. There are probably people even in Kuwait's ruling elites that feel pressure to justify the war, although it is hard to believe there are many Kuwaitis who are not happy to see the end of Saddam Hussein, whatever the reason.
12 Comments:
By 
Purple Avenger, at
Sat Dec 09, 11:26:00 PM:
I have it on good authority those convoys crossing the Syrian border as we invaded were in fact making an emergency shipment of toilet paper to Damascus.
By William, at
Sun Dec 10, 01:36:00 AM:
It's rude to talk of constipation problems like that in public.
But no, I'm not buying it. There are very powerful people with immense resources and immense incentives to find those WMDs. If they are out there, they will be found. Found and announced and proven found in a big way. Until then, the facts as we know them are that they do not exist.
By Georg Felis, at
Sun Dec 10, 02:12:00 AM:
It’s somewhat of an open secret that Saddam accumulated a huge collection of nuclear info, and shipped it to Syria when things went to heck in Iraq.
But on WMDs, if the US knew exactly where they were in Syria, and knew they would remain in place as long as nobody blabbed, the US might keep the information Really Really Really secret, and not even tell the New York Times, but just watch them and see who turns up.
Flip side: If the WMDs are in Syria, and the US doesn’t know where they are, then Syria has a huge incentive to not move them, not pull any out, and not say a darned thing that might let us visit with a couple hundred JDAMS.
Third option: Big hole in Iraq with chem./bio weapons in it, and a lot of dirt shoveled on top. Iraq is a big place, if they are buried there, the people who buried them may not even know where they are. Quite a bit of stuff got buried in the last couple years of the Saddam regime, whole jet aircraft, nuclear centrifuges, people…
By Gordon Smith, at
Sun Dec 10, 09:40:00 AM:
Desperate.
The alternative is that David Kay was right, and there's nary a pro-war winger who's willing to ever admit that.
But we didn't invade Iraq for the WMD right? We went in to have a kangaroo trial of Saddam and leave the country in a multifaceted civil war while leaving the dead bodies of Americans and Iraqis all over.
George W. Bush joked about not finding the WMD, remember? He thought it was very funny that hundreds of thousands of people died for a mistake. So keep looking for those weapons, maybe your conscience will one day be eased.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Dec 10, 03:02:00 PM:
My conscience is just fine, thanks. Unlike you, my decisions and those like me, are motivated by reason, not feelings.
And I'm sure that no one remembers this, but I provided a link and commented on this topic on this blog something like a year ago.
Here ya go:
http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com/2006/02/ex-official-russia-moved-saddams-wmds.html
So yeah, it's a final desperate attempt to assuage our consciences. pfft.
By 
, at
Sun Dec 10, 06:20:00 PM:
Excellent. Can we invade Syria now?
By , at
Sun Dec 10, 06:21:00 PM:
Here is a roundup of links to WMD
here
here
here
here
here
here
There are so many more, I have to wonder on exactly what the idea that there were no WMD in Iraq was based.
I am convinced that Israeli, UK, US, French, and a few other intel agencies were fully aware of the facts. It was from Israeli sources that first knowledge was gained.
If it is true that the US/UK gov’ts refrained from publicly acknowledging Syrian duplicity, and Iraqi WMD, apart from a bout of saber rattling early in 2003, because of the need for Russia/Chinese/French help with Iranian nuclear ambitions, then that help has not been forthcoming. Is it too late to expose these nations, since they still stall the UN on Iran? They obviously perceive the US/UK as being weak, given their knowledge of the media use of the supposed inability to find the WMD, the US/UK public response to this fact, and the refusal of the US/UK gov'ts to expose the facts of the WMD removals.
US/UK weakness on this issue has resulted in further massive global proliferation of WMD by many states, chief among them being Russia..
The classic instance of a race to acquire nuclear capabilities by at least 8 ME states in response to Iranian influence is profoundly disturbing.
I would have to say that in-fighting between US intel agencies, supposedly eliminated several years ago, persists to this day to the detriment of the west. Heads should role. Severely.
I do recall mention of a site in the Bekaa valley as being used to bury Iraqi WMD, very near to a hezbullah command and control center, but I can’t link to it.
The entire situation in the ME results from prior weaknesses. We are rapidly depleting our chances of showing strength, and each missed chance makes the next chance more difficult/expensive.
By , at
Sun Dec 10, 06:49:00 PM:
By , at
Sun Dec 10, 06:59:00 PM:
you have to wonder:-
If the israeli possession of nuclear weapons is so troublesome to the ME Arabs, why have they all waited for Iranian nuclear moves before responding, and then to the Iranian moves, not the existing Israeli nuclear arms.
The US should use that fact with far more cunning.
By William, at
Sun Dec 10, 08:31:00 PM:
You know, if you look hard enough, you can also find many very convincing arguments for Intelligent Design.
The fact that most Americans believe there were no Iraqi WMDs has cost some very powerful people a lot of prestige, namely our President. If there were actually WMDs, in Iraq or in Syria or wherever, we would hear about it. Bush and his party would trumpet it from every mountain top. Instead talk of WMDs has vanished entirely. The only reason that they would not be taking any of your numerous theories and widely advertising it is because they don't believe them. And if our President, the man who has the strongest incentives to rectify his record by proving the existence of Iraqi WMDs, doesn't believe these theories, I see no reason why I should look upon them as anything more than desperate conspiracy theories.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Dec 10, 09:48:00 PM:
That's because you don't understand international politics.
I've already used this example somewhere else before, but I guess you missed it.
In the Korean War, the US military knew, for a fact, that Soviet pilots were flying Soviet jets against the US and killing our airmen at Stalin's personal orders. This could have potentially been used by the Truman administration as political ammunition to squelch domestic opposition to the tune of, 'well yeah we oppose Communism, but Korea doesn't have anything to do with the USSR, really.' (wow, that sounds familiar all of a sudden)
But then, that would have demonstrated the USSR's participation and persecution of acts of war against the US and might have triggered a series of events leading to a hot, nuclear war with the USSR. So they kept it under wraps.
Let's pretend that we could produce hard evidence that the Russians evacuated WMDs to Syria and Lebanon. What would that do?
It would be a diplomatic meltdown. Congress and the US public might call for the severance of relations with Russia and/or Syria altogether. Trade sanctions perhaps, and almost certainly an intelligence offensive.
Israel, who presumably knows about this already, would feel compelled to do something about it thanks to sudden domestic pressure from a populace terrified of being chemically bombarded by Hezb Allah.
And then there's the fact that Russia purposefully preserved Iraqi weapons and worked against the fulfillment of a suddenly genuine and legitimate international effort to disarm a rogue power. Other powers which hate and/or fear Russia already, like Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Finland, et al, might agitate for some sort of international action which, at the very least, would precipitate further bi-lateral diplomatic crises.
Lastly, there's a concern about who else Russia has supplied with WMDs. North Korea? India? Pakistan? Iran? Al Qaeda? Anyone else notice that Al Qaeda activity has been suspiciously low in Russia, considering its periodic violence against Muslims? Just where did AQ get the sarin and other weapons they had in Afghanistan?
So you see, there's more than just the president's ego involved here. Intelligence classifications and national secrets usually exist for very good reasons.
By , at
Sun Dec 10, 09:52:00 PM:
Excellent. Can we invade Russia now?
