Yaalon: Iraq Moved its Chemical Weapons to Syria
Before War
Sunday, December 18, 2005 / 17 Kislev 5766
Former IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon said in an
interview with the New York Sun on Thursday that Iraq moved its
chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started.
"He transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria, said
Yaalon. No one went to Syria to find it.
Yaalons assertion that Saddam Husseins weapons of mass
destruction were clandestinely sent to Syria on the eve of the war
contradicts U.S. President George W. Bushs statement last
Wednesday at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. Bush
said then that much of the intelligence on Iraq turned out to be
wrong, and that it appears that Saddam did not possess weapons of
mass destruction.
Despite his admission to what could be one of the greatest
intelligence blunders of all time, Bush defended his decision to
remove Saddam Hussein from power.
Given Saddam's history and the lessons of September the 11th, my
decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam
was a threat - and the American people and the world is better off
because he is no longer in power, said Bush.
Yaalon, who was IDF Chief of Staff from July 2002 to June 2005,
speculated, however, in April 2004 that Iraq transferred its
weapons to another country, such as Syria.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has also contended that Iraqs WMD were
transferred from Iraq to Syria before the war. In December 2002,
Sharon told Israel's Channel 2 Television that chemical and
biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been
moved from Iraq to Syria."
Syria has long been known to be developing its own chemical weapons
(CW) of mass destruction. In March 2004, former CIA director George
Tenet told the Senate Armed Services Committee that "Damascus has
an active CW development and testing program that relies on foreign
suppliers for key controlled chemicals suitable for producing
CW."
A senior official in the Iraqi embassy, Entifadh Qanbar, generally
supported Yaalons claim that Iraq moved its chemical weapons to
Syria, but said that his government is basically operating in the
dark because it doesnt control its own intelligence agency.
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hmmm.... Any comments?