Its good that you keep reporting this. I think the Bush administration and the GOP should be more vocal about these new discoveries and take some real action to find the truth. As many liberals have shown us, if you continue to repeat things be vocal people will believe it as truth, even if it can be flat out lies or misguided opinions.

No offense Matt, but till our government officials start to jump on board with these sporadic confessions to lend credibility, I am not giving a damn dime do the #2 Air force guy under saddam.

I actually believe him, but I'm sick of getting my hopes up and then having them die a few days later. It's like these liberals everytime they think the law has been bent or broken, they get a hard on for the "I" word, they beat it like a dead horse and it fades into the background. But these are just my personal emotions on this subject.

If there were weapons in Syria the Bush Administration would be in Syria right now to prove that they were right.

Plus, that doesn't make sense at all. Think of it from Saddam's point of view: Hmmm...let's see. The U.S. Army is about to come and blow me and my army up. Should I keep the WMDs and use them against the US, or should I send them to Syria.

I agree. I've believed for a long time that the WMDs were moved to Syria... but no one seems to want to take these claims seriously.

This guys is definitely a credible source. Sarcasm....

the WMD to syria has been ignored for too long. there were pre-invasion reports of huge truck convoys, overseen by Qusey, that moved $$$, WMD, & who knows what else.

where's our israeli poster whose written of this & said the IDF was well aware?

why no USAF strikes on those convoys?

the MSM has knowingly ignored this story as they have the grain barges that slammed into, & breached the 17th st levee in New Orleans AFTER Katrina had passed. I heard evacuees interviewed who claimed to have witnessed this & pics of the dryed-out 9th ward showed grain barges in the residential area.

all the news that "fits" to print, eh?

i to believe this happened,but it's going to be hard to prove now.we gave too much advance notice before we went into Iraq.as for the nay sayers,i find it hard to believe so many nations had bad intelligence about Iraq's WMDs.

I predict that someday, somehow those weapons will come out. If it is because they are being used, then Bush will be blamed. The assertion that they do not exist just makes no sense with the likes of Saddam Huessein. He hid his aircraft in Iran to protect them during the first gulf war. Iran didn't give them back. So too, he hid WMD's in Syria before our invasion. Syria now had the the problem of what to do with them. To reveal their existence is sucidial. To keep them secret is slowly becoming impossible. The dentist of Syria has a very difficult problem.

A simple question all the moonbats. If, now pay attention I said if, this turns out to be true are you honest enough to deal with it or will it be business as usual....Chimpie planted them or some other nonsense.

This guys is definitely a credible source. Sarcasm....

Yeah, and this guy is an incredibly poor writer. Must've gone to one of those schools that didn't teach English.

why no USAF strikes on those convoys?

We had no legal reason, orrin--this occurred prior to the invasion. Relax, my friend; we're not finished with Syria--or Iran--just yet. Iraq is quite the strategic location now, isn't it?

So, do ya think Assad will let U.N. weapons inspectors in?

Correct me if my feeble memory is failing me, but wasn't there a foiled plot to use former-Iraqi WMD's in Jordan, and the plotters were found to be Syrians? (Yes, I'm too lazy to google it right now.)

Well, as I have said early, I always give things that I hear a certain level of scrutiny and am aware of any possible conflicts of interest.

I am actually very conflicted about this book. On the one hand, his is a person who would definately know about pre-war movements of WMD, being a highranking Iraqi official.

HOWEVER, you have to remember that this man is trying to sell books. He definately has a vested interest in telling us Americans what we want to hear. Also, there is always the question of why Saddam didn't use them against us when we invaded.

So, am I going to run about screaming about the left's and the MSM's insistance on a lie (lack of WMD in Iraq)??

no

Am I going to proudly pronounce that we did have good intel on WMD in Iraq?

again... no

As I said, I am conflicted about this... there are several conflicts of interest surrounding this book, and I think that I am going to see if we press for UN weapons team searches in Syria to pass judgement.

HOWEVER, you have to remember that this man is trying to sell books. He definately has a vested interest in telling us Americans what we want to hear.

Just remember, the same standard applies to Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson and ______________ (fill-in name of anti-Bush author here.)

georgia..you brought up an interesting point... as did TL...

thus I did a little search...

on the Syrian Dam busting... in June 2002

then I came up with this...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,739103,00.html

which contained the following:

A news item in the Times today fits the same mould. It begins: "Iraq is smuggling nuclear-related equipment banned by the United Nations on board aircraft that have been flying relief aid to Syria, intelligence agencies believe."

It weaves an intriguing tale around the bursting of a Syrian dam on June 4, which left more than 20 people dead and thousands homeless. In response to the disaster (and, presumably, as a propaganda ploy), Iraq dispatched a couple of dozen planes carrying humanitarian aid to Syria.

According to the report, the Iraqi planes did not return home empty: Iraq allegedly "took advantage of the disaster" to smuggle banned equipment for its nuclear weapons programme.

One plane, it says, citing "some" intelligence reports, was "filled" with spare parts for flow-forming machines, "which are used to produce components for uranium-enrichment systems".

The story may be true, but there is no way the average reader can judge its credibility. We are merely told that intelligence agencies, whose nationalities are not stated, believe it to be the case. There are, however, several reasons to be cautious.

A quick search of the internet reveals several companies supplying new and second-hand flow-forming machines, which appear to be widely used in steel and aluminium processing. They may well be able to churn out metal parts for uranium-enrichment systems, but they have plenty of other uses besides.

Also, an unnamed intelligence source is quoted as saying that the smuggling operation "was organised at the last minute, exploiting the window of opportunity that opened up as a result of the humanitarian relief operation".

This implies that smuggling opportunities rarely come along, when the reality is that large quantities of illicit goods enter Iraq every day. It is therefore unclear why, if Iraq wanted to import these spare parts, it would have to wait for a Syrian dam to burst in order to do it.

********

Note I included the caveat..yet nonetheless..what the General is saying is not new but rather a story reported on at the time of the dam bursting..

****

Then you read the original Times Story..
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_18-6-2002_pg4_1

*********

In conclusion... finding the above lends a tad more credibility to the story...

Now to really solidify it's credibility...find some of the pilots and crews that loaded/offloaded things..

"The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war..."

This is stunning news: Iraq had an air force!

I am conflicted by Frawg-arse's conflict of interest conflict. It's a conflicting bit of conflict that conflicts us all...

Feb 18th apparently a major release of audio tapes of Tariq Aziz and Hussein from 1988 to 2002 admitting to WMD, where they are hidden, etc, etc.

It was announced on ABC Radio last night. Claims it will be the biggest story of the year.

Here is the link

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1565184/posts

Keefer, do you think before you type?

Matt,

John Loftus also mentioned on last nights John Bachelor show, that he has in his possession a CD. The CD is of saddam hussein and other high ranking iraqis, talking freely about how they fooled the UN weapons inspectors and what countries have helped them hide the WMD. John Loftus described it as the "most sensational historical find of the Iraqi era". He was skeptical at first because it so overwhelmingly helped the Bush administration. However, he said US intelligence has authenticated the CD. He said US intelligence mouths dropped when they heard it. He said he is going to disclose the CD in full at his international conference which he holds every year on Feb. 18-20.

*Shrugs*

I wouldn't be surprised that the weapons were moved to Syria. What I would be surprised by is if they are STILL in Syria. If I was a Syrian official I'd get those things out of there ASAP. Probably to Iran, or to Palestine, maybe one of the former Soviet States. Anywhere but right there.

I am conflicted by Frawg-arse's conflict of interest conflict. It's a conflicting bit of conflict that conflicts us all...

Posted by: keefer at January 26, 2006 04:25 PM

LOL!! Keefer you're killin me!

Here is a little history for Byron. during the first Gulf War, Saddam sent his air force to his sworn enemy Iran rather than have it destroyed. They repaid him by stealing the aircraft ad slapping Iranian flags on them. So there is a definite precedent sent. Also keefer, I think you are being a little hard on Georgia Frawg. He/she seems to be one of the more normal and down to earth libs that post on this site.

James,

I met Loftus once... 8 or so years ago when i was in high school..

Jim, sound to good to be true! Let's hope this is the smoking gun. If we can validate that saddam had WMD, we will have the neccessary clout to go after them! As of now, it would be real hard to get many countries to back us in going after any of these rogue holdouts.

I have felt that this would be the sort of scenario that would emerge. Anyone with even a particle of a brain knows that every country that is as large as Iraq has WMD's. We all do! To get into Iraq and find none shouted loud, (to me, at least), that something was amiss. We haven't found the large amount that a country of this size would have in some sort of storage. We've found plenty down at the personal soldier battlefield level, As we should expect to find with a defeated army.
When this event happened, It was world news that a levee or dam, collapsed in Syria, and Saddam made a big show of his humanity, supporting the Syrian rescue effort. I remember it, but didn't think of tying the two events together. Makes sense, though. H'mmmmmmmm hope it's all true.
nuf sed

Isn't Bush already saying we had bad intel on WMDs? The man changes his rational for the war with the wind. Will Bush flip-flop and say the reason was WMDs again? Or stay with Iraqi Freedom?

It's all good. At least he isn't driving drunk again...

Probably did move them to Syria after Rockefeller made his little visit to the Middle East telling them that we were coming and by the way you better hide the WMD so you can discredit Bush later. There are traitors in our midst.

The Iraqi general Georges Sada book and the Nigerian forgeries are:
a. disinformation
b. spin
c. soon to be featured on Oprah's book club

As a 16 year old Republican, I am consistently only one of few in my school supporting Bush and his decision to enter Iraq and deal with global terrorism. A few weeks ago I read an article in Investor's Business Daily in which there was evidence pointing to Iraq's possession of WMD, and their movement to Syria. When I discussed this at school I was told by teachers that it was gossip and that no sources were stated, although the article stated it had received its information from tapes at the Saddam Hussein trial. I feel that it is obvious the left dominates the media and we as supporters of the GOP need to stop this blatant criticism of Bush and his policies. This disrespect for our president is disgusting. There is proof out there, the left just decides not to cover it, and call us "naive".