Syria Scoffs at US Claim it Has Iraqi Weapons

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040125/wl_nm/iraq_syria_usa_dc&cid=574&ncid=1480

<snip>
"This (allegation) is meant to mislead (the public opinion). So long as there were no weapons of mass destruction (found) in Iraq itself how can they be in Syria?" Information Minister Ahmad al-Hassan told reporters.

U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts said Wednesday there was some concern Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had gone to Syria.

Syria, which vehemently opposed the U.S.-led war in neighboring Iraq, has repeatedly denied U.S. charges it has its own weapons of mass destruction programs.

"They are seeking to cover their failure," Hassan said after a meeting with a delegation of Iraqi journalists and artists in Damascus.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[annagull]

2. Yeah, about as much cred as the Bush administration

this just seems desperate. We had Iraq boxed in for months before the war, this is a pathetic excuse, even for the losers in the WH.

[ixion]

3. well, just as much credibility as the US these days...

this is precisely why you should not decalre a war on the premise of a lie, because you lose all credibility. :-(

[JohnyCanuck]

5. In this matter

I tend to believe Syria more than the lying assholes in the Bush administration.

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. Oh, those Silly Scoffing Syrians!

They are being rude to King George and Co.! Let's invade! </sarcasm>

BushCo and PNAC are trying to find another F***up to start...all in the name of trying to keep Chimp in the WH. Hey! We CAN'T change the Prez position now! We're at war with the world!
Such transparent idiots! :grr:

[markses]

6. Absolutely laughable

Witness the sheer non-committal answer by Pat Roberts:

"U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts said Wednesday there was some concern Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had gone to Syria."

THERE WAS (i.e., hide any actual agency in a vague formulation) SOME CONCERN...The phrase means absolutely nothing. Who was concerned? What were those "concerns"? What were the basis of those concerns? What logistical operations would have been necessary in order to pull off such a move? What would motivate Syria to take part in such an effort?

Obviously, nobody will be on record saying anything specific. Because it's BULLSHIT. And it's harder to get called on your bullshit later when you remain as vague as possible today. Period.

Anybody who believes or even has the slightest shred of belief that Iraq "moved its WMDs into Syria" is OUT OF HIS OR HER FUCKING MIND. I mean, gone. Loony. Insane. Without basic causal operators. Completely off the deep-end. If the US attempts an invasion of Syria on this basis, the entire world community should come to Syria's aid, with maximum military force if necessary. This pretext isn't even a pretext. It is an absurdity, made for absurd and stupid people.

[sistersofmercy]

7. Very well put!

:thumbsup:

[joanski01]

8. Well, I think they may keep

pushing this as a pretext to attack Syria. I heard Senator Pat Roberts say on Wolf Blitzer that everyone who said Iraq had no weapons will have egg on their faces when they are found in Syria. Senator Graham of FL sort of said that Syria is dangerous.

[jpak]

9. But Powell and Condi say there was no evidence

to support this nonsense???

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040122/2004012228.html

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=4933&fcategory_desc=Syria

What gives??? Someone didn't get Cheney's memo????

[0007]

11. The computer are being looked at so I'd say some are not

getting the memo's - We know Roberts is out of the loop.

[Mikimouse]

10. Well, you have to get that Iraqi

oil to Israel somehow, silly liberals! It would be so much easier to do with a pipeline through Syria. doncha think?

[snippy]

12. But does Syria have steroids?

[Unforgiven]

13. They do, they do, they do!

Ok, now that it's been said, is it alright to go and invade now?

[Fla_Dem]

14. Saddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/25/wirq25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/25/ixnewstop.html

~~~~David Kay, the former head of the coalition's hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, yesterday claimed that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme was hidden in Syria.

In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Dr Kay, who last week resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said that he had uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before last year's war to overthrow Saddam.~~~~

[markses]

15. An outright lie

By either Mr. Kay or the Telegraph. Nonsense.

Let's see what the article says:

"In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Dr Kay, who last week resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said that he had uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before last year's war to overthrow Saddam."

So we have 'evidence of unspecified material." That's, well, not particularly specified, as it were. The easier to see you with, Grandma.

"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."

And here we have 1) a so-called admission from "former Iraqi officials," who, while they know "a lot of materials" "went to Syria," don't know what materials constituted this "lot," nor, apparently, HOW they were shipped, nor to where they were shipped, or if they were even shipped (perhaps they were teleported, or flown over in a magical baloon). And not "weapons" themselves, mind you - Mr. Kay would never commit to anything as solid as that. Nay, nay, good friend, what we're discussing here are "some" (existential quantifier, ah, sweet reason) "components" (suitably non-specified) of - and here's our old friend "WMD programme." In other words, Mr. Kay says absolutely nothing at all - at least to anyone who hasn't decided the matter a priori in accordance with the lunacy that has overtaken the right wing in the US and Britain. Never mind that other public statements of Mr. kay indicate that he think Iraq had no weapons at all since shortly after the first Gulf War. The lunatic tories at the Telegraph will print damn near anything.

And the imbecile right wingers in the USA will grab on to any straw to avoid from viewing the obvious in its clear and distinct obviousness.

Shame, sir.

[NickB79]

16. Again, I ask, as I never get an answer to this

WHERE ARE THE F**KING FACTORIES AND LABORATORIES TO MAKE THE WMD'S?!?!?! To produce the tons of biological and chemical weapons the Bush administration went on about at great length in front of the UN and the US people in Bush's SOTU address last year, you would need very large, very hard to conceal factories and laboratories to grow/sythnesize/purify any biological or chemical weapons. We have so far found NONE of these kinds of facilities. If we had, Bush would be yelling it at every reporter from here to Bejing! Did Saddam smuggle sprawling, multi-acre, multi-million dollar weapons labs across the border somehow? Did he somehow destroy them without the US seeing him do so while the entire country was being watched by spy satellites, unmanned drones and spy planes? And, he somehow left no trace whatsoever that there was illegal weapons development being conducted there? Those two "mobile weapons labs" were not even close to being usable for weapons-grade chem/bio materials production. You know how I'm confident of this? They had TARP siding! I work in laboratories that deal with biological specimens. You know how sterile an environment you need to create halfway pure, functional chemical weapons, or to grow bacterial cultures to generate biological agents? Tarp sidings would have allowed every dust speck, fungal and bacterial spore in the Middle East to blow right into their "lab", contaminating and ruining any weapons development. I'm not even gonna get into the argument he had a working nuclear weapons program, because that is so laughable that even Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld working together couldn't spin that crap.

And even if, by some miracle, Saddam DID have these labs secretly built, but only had them years ago, made up a big batch of WMD's, and then destroyed the labs (again, without the US or the UN weapons inspectors noticing), you know what the storage life is for most chemical and biological weapons? In 100F desert conditions? About as long as a tub of Ben and Jerry's would last. Botulism toxins, VX nerve gas, etc, would all decompose within a few years even if kept in cold storage, much less buried in the desert or shipped in non-refridgerated trucks across the border (which I remind again, was being watched by every piece of US spy equipment in the sky for months leading up to the war).

This is such pure unadulterated BS that I can barely believe Bush and Rumsfeld can still repeat it with a straight face.

[Amager]

17. This is just another setup because bushco has already decided

Syria is next on the hitlist. I doubt it matters whether they convince anyone or not, they will stick with this story and start another war anyway.