You know, Tee and Brass take a lot of shit in here for posting alternatives to what is generally accepted as conventional wisdom.
Yet, there are a number of people in here who actually believe that the tens of thousands of tons of biological, chemical and possibly nuclear weapons of Saddam Hussein's Iraq were smuggled out of that country and into Syria
while under constant surveillance by the United States, United Kingdom, and other powers.
I thought this an isolated nutter theory for those whose tongues were so attached to a Bush orifice that they simply could not allow for the WMD to not be there, even if it meant that a two-bit dictator with absolutely no military tactical ability at all, pulled one of the most cunning tricks of modern history.
Yet, this is really a belief, a strong one in the right-wing world. I'm a bit bewildered. So I thought a closer look was in order.
According to
newsmax the real culprits were the infamous Russian Spetsnaz special forces units.
"I am absolutely sure that Russian Spetsnatz[sp] units moved WMD out of Iraq before the war," stated John Shaw, the former deputy undersecretary for international technology security.
Just to note, it is spelled "Spetsnaz" (without the 't') when transliterated and it means Special Purpose Regiment. Supposedly the WMD were hidden in both Syria and Lebanon by the Spetsnaz and there are satellite photos confirming this.
For further proof of Russian involvement with rebuilding Saddam's chemical weapons stockpile the article makes the following claims:
According to the book "Russian Military Power," published in 1982, "It is known that the Soviets maintain stocks of CW (chemical weapons) agents."
The two primary Russian chemical weapons in the 1982 Soviet inventory were the nerve agent "VX" and "blistering agents - developments of mustard gas used so effectively in World War I."
Of course, the Soviet Union wasn't the only nation that had a massive stockpile of VX in 1982! Mustard Gas was not used "so effectively" in World War I. In fact, it was mostly a failure except as an area-denial agent, which only helped to further the massive stalemate. Where mustard gas excelled was in later use against weaker enemies who had no way to counter it, or use it back against the attacker. For example, Italy used it against the Ethiopians in the 1930's.
Back to the article, this is not proof at all, of anything! It is just a statement from a book on the Cold War Soviets who certainly did have a lot of nasty NBC weapons, just as we did.
Now we really go on a conspiracy rollercoaster ride. Did the assassinated Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri discover that the Russians and Syrians had hidden Iraq's WMD in his country? Is that why the Syrians had to rub him out? The article suggests this...
However, the possibility that Hariri discovered the location of the Iraqi WMD systems inside his country lends some credible backing to a Syrian assassination effort to silence him.
Also, we are told that Moscow gives Syria a great line of credit on new weapons systems, whereas the Russians expect China to pay in cash, upfront. This can only mean that Syria is "paying" for these new weapons by hiding Russia's big secret! We wouldn't want a full-scale mob war to break out.
And how did the author come by the above piece of dirty little information? We're never told. Maybe he had a private eye tail a Syrian weapons buyer, or maybe he did a credit check on Syria. Who knows?
So how do explain the ability of Iraq and the sinister Russians to pull this big ruse off? Well that is one issue the author does not sidestep, surprisingly. It was out and out CIA failure.
There is no question that the Russian effort to remove Iraqi WMD systems was the most successful intelligence operation of the 21st century. The Russians were able to move hundreds of tons of chemical, biological and nuclear materials without being discovered by CIA satellites or NSA radio listening posts.
"There is a clear sense on how effective they were," noted Shaw.
"The fact that the CIA did not know shows just how successful the Russian operation was," he concluded.
So where was MI6 and James Bond? No doubt he was taken in by an alluring Iraqi belly-dancer, who was really an Iraqi double agent.
This is another article from the very esteemed
Worldnet Daily.
I'm not sure it is even worth covering. An opposition Syrian party based in Maryland, claims that President Assad smuggled in the Iraqi WMD in "large wooden crates and barrels."
A little note about the Reform Party of Syria. They are
pro-Israel, believe in separating mosque and state (something they have in common with the Ba'athists), and they supported Nicolas Sarkozy's election in France. Why they supported anyone in France, I have no clue other than Syria was at one time a colonial extension of France.
That's about it on this article. Of course, it is wise to remember that we took a lot of information on Iraq's programs from an Iraqi political pressure (Iraqi National Congress) group led by Ahmed Chalabi. So one is wise to understand the group's own motives, especially this particular group who would
never be elected by the Syrians in a free election.
