Iraq's WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says

[R Glass]

The Book "Saddam's Secrets," was released (and this article) about 7.5 Years ago. The Plot Thickens!

"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 by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed.

The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.

"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."

Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."

Democrats have made the absence of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq a theme in their criticism of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in 2003. And President Bush himself has conceded much of the point; in a televised prime-time address to Americans last month, he said, "It is true that many nations believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong."

Said Mr. Bush, "We did not find those weapons."

The discovery of the weapons in Syria could alter the American political debate on the Iraq war. And even the accusations that they are there could step up international pressure on the government in Damascus. That government, led by Bashar Assad, is already facing a U.N. investigation over its alleged role in the assassination of a former prime minister of Lebanon. The Bush administration has criticized Syria for its support of terrorism and its failure to cooperate with the U.N. investigation.

The State Department recently granted visas for self-proclaimed opponents of Mr. Assad to attend a "Syrian National Council" meeting in Washington scheduled for this weekend, even though the attendees include communists, Baathists, and members of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group to the exclusion of other, more mainstream groups.

Mr. Sada, 65, told the Sun that the pilots of the two airliners that transported the weapons of mass destruction to Syria from Iraq approached him in the middle of 2004, after Saddam was captured by American troops.

"I know them very well. They are very good friends of mine. We trust each other. We are friends as pilots," Mr. Sada said of the two pilots. He declined to disclose their names, saying they are concerned for their safety. But he said they are now employed by other airlines outside Iraq.

The pilots told Mr. Sada that two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, Mr. Sada said. Then Special Republican Guard brigades loaded materials onto the planes, he said, including "yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel." The pilots said there was also a ground convoy of trucks.

The flights - 56 in total, Mr. Sada said - attracted little notice because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in June of 2002.

"Saddam realized, this time, the Americans are coming," Mr. Sada said. "They handed over the weapons of mass destruction to the Syrians."

Mr. Sada said that the Iraqi official responsible for transferring the weapons was a cousin of Saddam Hussein named Ali Hussein al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali." The Syrian official responsible for receiving them was a cousin of Bashar Assad who is known variously as General Abu Ali, Abu Himma, or Zulhimawe.

Short of discovering the weapons in Syria, those seeking to validate Mr. Sada's claim independently will face difficulty. His book contains a foreword by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, David Eberly, who was a prisoner of war in Iraq during the first Gulf War and who vouches for Mr. Sada, who once held him captive, as "an honest and honorable man."

In his visit to the Sun yesterday, Mr. Sada was accompanied by Terry Law, the president of a Tulsa, Oklahoma based Christian humanitarian organization called World Compassion. Mr. Law said he has known Mr. Sada since 2002, lived in his house in Iraq and had Mr. Sada as a guest in his home in America. "Do I believe this man? Yes," Mr. Law said. "It's been solid down the line and everything checked out."

Said Mr. Law, "This is not a publicity hound. This is a man who wants peace putting his family on the line."

Mr. Sada acknowledged that the disclosures about transfers of weapons of mass destruction are "a very delicate issue." He said he was afraid for his family. "I am sure the terrorists will not like it. The Saddamists will not like it," he said.

He thanked the American troops. "They liberated the country and the nation. It is a liberation force. They did a great job," he said. "We have been freed."

He said he had not shared his story until now with any American officials. "I kept everything secret in my heart," he said. But he is scheduled to meet next week in Washington with Senators Sessions and Inhofe, Republicans of, respectively, Alabama and Oklahoma. Both are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The book also says that on the eve of the first Gulf War, Saddam was planning to use his air force to launch a chemical weapons attack on Israel.

When, during an interview with the Sun in April 2004, Vice President Cheney was asked whether he thought that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been moved to Syria, Mr. Cheney replied only that he had seen such reports.

An article in the Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on December 23, 2002, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." The allegation was denied by the Syrian government at the time as "completely untrue," and it attracted scant American press attention, coming as it did on the eve of the Christmas holiday.

The Syrian ruling party and Saddam Hussein had in common the ideology of Baathism, a mixture of Nazism and Marxism.

Syria is one of only eight countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention, a treaty that obligates nations not to stockpile or use chemical weapons. Syria's chemical warfare program, apart from any weapons that may have been received from Iraq, has long been the source of concern to America, Israel, and Lebanon. In March 2004, the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying, "Damascus has an active CW development and testing program that relies on foreign suppliers for key controlled chemicals suitable for producing CW."

The CIA's Iraq Survey Group acknowledged in its September 30, 2004, "Comprehensive Report," "we cannot express a firm view on the possibility that WMD elements were relocated out of Iraq prior to the war. Reports of such actions exist, but we have not yet been able to investigate this possibility thoroughly."

Mr. Sada is an unusual figure for an Iraqi general as he is a Christian and was not a member of the Baath Party. He now directs the Iraq operations of the Christian humanitarian organization, World Compassion."

http://www.nysun.com/foreign/iraqs-wmd-secreted-in-syria-sada-says/26514/

[adgal]

Again I agree with your comments.  I would certainly think that has at least something to do with it.  But again, I would argue that there is probably no Middle Eastern country exempt from that.  When I talk about a Pandora's Box, I mean that I think US involvement here will increase the terrorist activity - it's a great tool for the extremist's to use to recruit, especially if civilian lives are lost in air strikes.  Even if the motives are pure, they can twist it up.  I don't want to see a World War.  The last 2 were in Europe, the next will probably be in the Middle East.  I certainly don't pretend to know the solution - maybe there isn't one.  I just don't think this will help matters, and could escalate things faster then any of us is prepared for.

[brice1967]

This is just an assumption but my guess is that they are saying  Syria is a threat to us because of the potential to harbor terrorists, train terrorists, and add the gas to the mix and you've got a fine stew of destruction.  (This morning on an AOL link was a clip from an interview and Assad said something along the lines of "America could and should expect everything and anything if they intervene, and not necessarily from the government.)

You're right about Pakistan, but that whole region pretty much hates the west.  It's because they don't understand just as we don't understand all of their "in-fighting".  

[adgal]

Agreed.  If Syria is a humanitarian effort, then so was Iraq.  I agree, and under those terms it certainly was justified.  However, in both cases I keep hearing that the two regimes pose a threat to the US.  I cannot see how that applies?  I also do not dispute that Iraq and even Syria are havens for terrorism.  The thing is that pockets of Al Quada and other extremists exist probably in every country in that region.  In fact, Pakistan is arguably one of the largest hot beds of terrorism, and they possess nuclear weapons.  That to me is a bigger threat then the rest of these countries combined.  Now, the leader there is supposed to be an allie, but if civil war breaks out there, now there is a real threat.  See what I mean?

I also agree with your comments about western civilization not understanding what is happening there.  I have heard a lot about if Assad is overturned, who will wind up in charge?  There is a scary thought.  No one can convince me that 10 years in Iraq and Afghanistan, and countless innocent lives lost has changed much.  Yes, I hurt and feel for the people there - I just don't think this is fixable from here.  I really don't.  I think air strikes or anything else will ultimately open a Pandora's Box.  

[brice1967]

I don't necessarily think the war in Iraq was "necessary" so to speak, but if you are going to use the use of gas alone as a criteria, then the Iraq war was completely justified.  (IMO)  Hussein had and used gas, and Assad has and used gas.  Equal playing field, if you ask me.

Iraq was a bit more complex though.  Iraq was a haven for terrorism.  Hussein had no problem using and then later anthrax, not to mention the fact that he was also lining people up and out right assassinating them with a bullet to the back of the skull.

So if Syria is supposed to be a "necessary humanitarian effort", Iraq easily fits the same bill.

Adgal mentions that "Hussein is gone and I'm sure Assad will be at some point.  Then what?"  Nothing new, that's what.  These people are fighting a fight that western civilization will never understand.  It's ingrained and or indoctrinated to hate certain neighbors in that part of the world, and we are just naive enough to think we can get that to stop.

On a side note, every time we've been involved with some kind of an intervention in that part of the world and propped up a new leader, we've had to go back and get rid of the leader we propped up.  In my life, it started with the Ayatollah Komeni (he's still around in Iran) then later included Hussein, Bin Laden (who obviously was not the leader of a country) Gaddafi....  We keep doing the same thing over and over and expect something different.

How about we elect someone (a group of someones) that is smart enough to realize this and quit butting in where we don't belong.  It cannot be our job, at our expense to continue to be the world's watch dog.  It's not fairing well for us on a lot of levels.

[adgal]

I guess there is no way we will ever know for sure what happened.  It's certainly possible that those weapons were moved, however, it does not necessarily change my opinion that the war was not justified.  The main reason the US and it's supporters invaded was the claim that this was a threat to the US.  Iraq having chemical weapons would certainly be a threat locally, but not to the US.  There really are similarities between Iraq and what's being proposed in Syria. A lot of innocent people, both American, allies and Iraqi citizens died in Iraq.  The same will be true in Syria, even if it's limited to air strikes (which I truly don't believe will be where it stops).  And the outcome?  Yes, Hussein is gone, and I'm sure Assad will be at some point to.  Then what?  Those countries are and still will be a mess.  

[Vance2335]

Get a Bush hater to believe this and I'll give you a million dollars. But I don't expect a Bush hater to do anything but hate Bush and continue to believe the lie.