Is there any thruth to the WMD's having been moved to Syria?

Question

Multiple reports from captured Iraqis loyal to Saddam say they have been. There was a lot of time between the departure of the IAEA to the point of invasion, in which they could have easliy accomplished this. I don't know if I believe it or not. What do you think?

Answer 1

Its possible that the WMDs were smuggled to Syria, though both the Syrian Baath party and Iraqi Baath party are not on the best of terms. Syria was one of the few Arab countries that supported Iran during the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s.

A former Iraqi Air Force general and senior military adviser to Saddam Hussein, Gen. Sada, claims that Iraq sent it's chemical and biological weapons stockpiles to Syria weeks before the U.S. invasion in March of 2003.


Considering that both Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad both regarded the U.S. as a threat to their power and sphere of influence, I have my suspicions that the WMDs are either in Syria or Lebanon. It is a sobering thought that chemical, biological, or possibly nuclear weapons technology might be in the hands of Hezbollah.

Answer 2

There is no credible report, the Iraqi generals have every reason to lie to get in the news and try to make a political career for themselves in the new Iraq. Furthermore, these men may have had a grudge with Hussein, as is often the case with dictatorships.

In any case, the ISG (the group that investigated WMD in Iraq under Bush's appointment) dismissed this theory as unlikely. The sarin uncovered in Iraq was deprecated and decayed, from the 1980s and the Defense Department has since said as much:

"Offering the official administration response to FOX News, a senior Defense Department official pointed out that the chemical weapons were not in useable conditions.

"This does not reflect a capacity that was built up after 1991," the official said, adding the munitions "are not the WMDs this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had, and not the WMDs for which this country went to war."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200499,00.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/04/26/iraq.main/

Answer 3

Occum's Razor: 95% of the time go for the simplest explanation. I've heard this story floating around Internet message boards for years. Syria hasn't been invaded in that time. The White House has never mentioned this or brought this up. This theory was around before David Kay released his report and he concluded the WMDs weren't there. The Bush Administration has known since June 12, 2006 that there weren't any WMDs when the areas northwest of Baghdad near Tikrit that Rumsfeld claimed we knew had WMDs turned up empty. Since then Bush modified "WMD" to "weapons programs" and then "documentation of programs" and now never mentions them at all.

Most of America doesn't care about the WMDs anymore and is tired of the war. The "Move WMDs to Syria" story is red meat for the talk radio audience who will support Bush no matter what anyway.

Answer 4

There is no proof the WMDs are in Syria. Israel, Iran & Iraq claim
the weapons were moved right before the overthrow of Saddam.
These are not he most trustworthy sources & I do not think Syria can do anything with them - lack of intelligence. I am not worried about Syria.

Answer 5

It would not surprise me if Iraq gave weapons of mass destruction to Syria. But there is no way for me to know considering I am not in the United States of America military or government. I do believe what we have been told for the most part, so I trust this report from the government too.

Answer 6

500 sarin and phosgene shells were discovered in Iraq. Syria is a Baathist state and had a trading relatioship with Iraq, it is highly probable. Movement of heavy trucks was noticed transiting the Syrian Border before the war.

Answer 7

Oh Yes, They really existed, and still do. If you go to www.snopes.com and type in "Sand Planes" It has had photos of long range bombers that they actually buried in the sand along side their big airport. They had plenty of time to ship them off, some by boat to North Korea, some may have gone to Russia, they had lots of time to send them to their friends anywhere. The guy, Scott (somebody) that was the U.N. Weapons inspector had a lot of proof on them. If you ever get a chance to listen to him on talk radio, you will be a believer.

Answer 8

It's more than likely they were moved to Syria, Saddam hates Israel, Syria hates Israel, Iran hates Israel, Saudi Arabia hates Israel, Lebanon hates Israel, ect. Therefore they could be hidden nearly anywhere on the Arabian Peninsula.

Answer 9

Saddam didn't have any weapons to hide in Syria in the first place.

Answer 10

It's called the shell game, now you see them now you don't. They WMD's were there our people saw them. Like anything that can be talked about there is two side of everything, this is where you need to do your homework, who do you believe, show me the facts.