WMD's in Syria?

That’s what Nizar Nayyouf “an exiled Syrian journalist now living in Paris” claims.

It has been confirmed that the Iraqi weapons which were smuggled into Syria through the intermediary of Colonel Zu Alhima Shalish are now located in three different places

“The first of these places is a tunnel on the mountain slope near the village of Baida, which is situated two kilometers from Misyaf. This place is under the jurisdiction of Department 489, which deals with coded messages and documents.”

“The second of these places is a factory owned by the air force in the village of Tal Sinan, which is situated between the two cities of Hamma and Salmiyah. The third of these places is the town of Shinshar, which is situated 40 kilometers to the south of Hums and 3 kilometers to the east of the Damascus-Hums highway. There are underground tunnels there, which belong to Brigade 661 of the air force. This is a reconnaissance force. These tunnels are several meters deep.”

Nayyouf’s source contends that the weapons, likely missile parts and chemicals, were transferred in large wooden boxes and barrels, under the supervision of Colonel Zu Alhima Shalish and his nephew Assef, who works for the Albashair Company, which is owned by the Assads and has offices in Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. The source says that this company was also responsible for the smuggling of Iraqi oil to Syria and providing weapons to Saddam’s regime.

The source also shared one more interesting detail: the weapons were smuggled across the border to these sites in ambulances.

“The persons who were responsible for such actions know of course that American satellites will see the big cars, and maybe they will estimate that something is dangerous,” Nayyouf said. “So they put them in ambulance cars — when I see ambulance cars of course I will think everything is ok, people are being carried to hospital, to other countries, no one will suspect.”

Geraghty does run down many of the potential doubts about this, most importantly “Show me the weapons!”. IMO, this theory fits well with Hussein’s past track record, of finding allies of convinience, being primarily interested in self preservation, and greasing skids with money. But, I’ll believe it when I see crates rolled out of storage.

Posted by jank at January 12, 2004 9:12 AM