If Saddam had WMDs, why would he move them to Syria?

[Beaverhausen]

Ok- I can't for the life of me figure this one out.

Now that the wingnuts have latched onto the ex-general who said he "knows" Saddam had weapons and moved them, I am just trying to figure out the reason Saddam would move them instead of using them against the advancing coalition forces?


on edit: I don't think he had them, I'm just trying to figure out this whole scenario that the wingnuts are concocting.

[Seen the light]

1. It's just an excuse to go after Syria

There is absolutely no logical reason he would do that.

[AlCzervik]

2. grasping at straws, the wars popularity is in it's "Last throes"

that book imo will be discredited, it's only a matter of time.

[NoPasaran]

3. Because the only possible reason for having WMDs in the first place

Would be to hand them over to your bitter rivals and not use them yourself when you were threatened with invasion?
:shrug:

[bullimiami]

4. he wouldnt. of course.

you dont need to figure it out. its a pack of lies.

[pocket]

5. well, they did hand their MIGs over to Iran in the first gulf war

this would seem a lot more extreme, though.

I don't buy it.

[John Q. Citizen]

12. What do you mean, "...They did hand their MIGs over to

Iran in the first gulf war?"

Saddam would have handed them off to Daddy Bush before he would have given them to Iran.


Or do you have a link?

[pocket]

23. Iran promised to hold them for safekeeping, then simply kept them

"After this episode, the Iraqis made no more air efforts of their own, only sending most of their jets to Iran in hopes that they might someday get their air force back. (Iran never returned the jets.)"

http://www.indepthinfo.com/iraq/airwar.shtml


"In addition, Iran hasover 70 Iraqi Sukhoi aircraft of various types and a dozen orso Iraqi MiGs, seized when Iraqi pilots fled with them to Iranduring the Gulf War."

http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=3&issue_id=147&article_id=1740

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Air_Force

[John Q. Citizen]

28. Thanks for the links. It sounds like some pilots fled to Iran with

their planes, but I have a hard time believing Saddam would or could arrange to send the planes to Iran for safe keeping.

Iran and Saddam were mortal enemies, having just fought a long, bitter and extremely costly war.

[pocket]

29. the enemy of my enemy is my friend

at least until I get enemy #1 taken care of, then all bets are off.

[DemVet]

26. Actually, that is true

Google it up.

:)

[LynnTheDem]

6. 1. He didn't have "wmd"; 2. He wouldn't; Iraq & Syria were not pals.

3. Syria just ain't stupid (like george w bush & the rightwingnuttery are).

4. Secret Saddam tapes; no wmd since 1992.

5. CIA's Iraqi source; no wmd since 1992.

6. Saddam's son-in-law whom he later executed; no wmd since 1992.

7. USAF; Iraq "drones" useless little "balsawood toys".

8. DoE, US experts on nukes; centrifuges not for nukes, only for conventional (and legal) weapons.

9. CIA's NIE; Iraq threat low, no evidence Iraq has any chem, bio or nukes.

10. Both bush's rightwing weapons inspectors' final reports; no wmd since 1992.

11. Saddam did not have any "wmd", therefore didn't move wmd to Syria coz he didn't have any wmd to move to Syria.

(That's a bit of a toughie for rightwingnuts to wrap their peabrains around, though. Understandably.)

[Astrad]

7. And also

Why would Syria accept them? Do they have a death wish? I can just imagine the phone all:

Saddam: "Will you take these WMDs because if the inspectors find them the US will invade us and kill me?"
Assad: "We'd like to help but won't the same thing happen to us if we take them?"
Saddam: (Silence)
Assad: "Okay, sounds good, we'll take them."

[CottonBear]

11. LOL!

:rofl: Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Beaverhausen]

8. Ok- so I'm not crazy. But what are the wingnuts saying would be his reason

Does anyone know? Just in case I get into a "discussion" with one I need to try and figure out what they think would have been Saddam's motivation to move them instead of use them.

[LynnTheDem]

9. Ask em why Powell and Rice have both said no wmd moved to Syria.

Guess they're just bush-haters.

THERE WAS NO WMD TO MOVE.

Period.

[CottonBear]

10. Who knows? (to quote Rummy)

They also think that Hussein sent WMDs to Lebanon as well as to Syria. It's true! I heard a wingnut say this on CSPAN WJ this very morning!

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. They don't ever offer a reason. They don't want to admit

the jr duped them and duped them bad. I am certain the they don't actually believe it either.

[John Q. Citizen]

14. Because they lie and lie and lie and lie. They don't need a reason to lie.

[specimenfred1984]

18. Exactly

There's no other explanation needed. They lie to distract people from the fact they are robbing us blind, they lie to hide other agendas or, as you said, they just lie for the hell of it.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

25. I've had this discussion with them

They don't give a reason why he would do it, when you get to that point in the conversation, they just insult you.

[Beaverhausen]

27. and then they say "Clinton thought he had them, too."

[donheld]

15. We all know that's bullshit

They were watching Saddam's every move. If he'd have been moving WMDs anywhere they'd have satellite photos of those movements. Your just hearing propaganda.

[sabra]

16. To make Bush look bad

I swear I heard a Freeper say that.

[Beaverhausen]

17. The freepers I'm thinking of would also believe this

well, it's something I guess.

[oblivious]

19. You mean these WMDs? Why to keep them out of the wrong hands!

Deadly drone is a prototype
"Held together with tin foil and duct tape"

by Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor March 13, 2003
...AL-TAJI, IRAQ — Iraq rolled out a controversial drone aircraft Wednesday, in an effort to rebut American claims that Iraq could use it to spread chemical and biological weapons.

The primitive craft — its wings held together with tin foil and duct tape, and two wooden propellers bolted to engines far smaller than those of a lawn mower — looked more like a high-school science project than the "smoking gun" that could spark a war.

"We are really astonished when we hear that this has been 'discovered' by inspection teams, it has been declared in detail," said Ibrahim Hussein, an Iraqi Air Force general. "Nothing was hidden about it."

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that this drone "should be of concern to everybody," and American officials have sought to portray the issue as one of a series of Iraqi disarmament missteps. Britain also called Wednesday for "an accounting for unmanned aerial vehicles" as one of its six disarmament conditions for Iraq.
http://www.unknownnews.net/attackofthedrones.html

Iraqi Drones Not For WMD

Aug. 24, 2003
(AP) Huddled over a fleet of abandoned Iraqi drones, U.S. weapons experts in Baghdad came to one conclusion: Despite the Bush administration's public assertions, these unmanned aerial vehicles weren't designed to dispense biological or chemical weapons.

The evidence gathered this summer matched the dissenting views of Air Force intelligence analysts who argued in a national intelligence assessment of Iraq before the war that the remotely piloted planes were unarmed reconnaissance drones.

In building its case for war, senior Bush administration officials had said Iraq's drones were intended to deliver unconventional weapons. Secretary of State Colin Powell even raised the alarming prospect that the pilotless aircraft could sneak into the United States to carry out poisonous attacks on American cities.

The administration based its view on a Central Intelligence Agency finding that Iraq had renewed development of sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles — UAVs — capable of such attacks. The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency also supported this conclusion.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/28/iraq/main570588.shtml

[underpants]

21. Pentagon: 'Chemical Ali' Killed in Attack

Pentagon: 'Chemical Ali' Killed in Attack
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/4/7/204930.shtml

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon believes "Chemical Ali," Saddam Hussein's cousin who ordered a chemical attack on Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988, is dead, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed Monday.

'Chemical Ali' reported dead
Monday, 7 April, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2925375.stm


Officials: Body of 'Chemical Ali' Found in Basra
Monday, April 07, 2003
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83383,00.html


'Chemical Ali' Captured in Iraq
Thursday, August 21, 2003
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95314,00.html


'Chemical Ali' in U.S. custody
Thursday, August 21, 2003
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/21/sprj.irq.chemical.ali/
DOHA, Qatar (CNN) -- Ali Hassan al-Majid, the Iraqi general known as "Chemical Ali," is in U.S. custody, military officials tell CNN.

[geniph]

20. The rent was too high in his neighborhood

...he got a deal on a storage unit in Syria.

I had to crack up at what that guy said on the Daily Show when Jon Stewart asked him what kind of WMDs, and weren't they kind of large to put on planes and fly to Syria:

"Oh no, they were ingredients...in yellow barrels...with skulls and crossbones on them."

If that's not scripted horseshit, man, then WHAT is that SMELL in here?!

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Anybody Here Think The EU, The Chinese, The Russians, and. . .

. . .and every other country with a spy satellite, plus of course us, wasn't watching? If they were moved, there would be photographic evidence in every intelligence agency files in the world.

And, if he moved him, and we didn't see it, then fire Rice! She was head of NSA at the time.
The Professor

[killbotfactory]

24. He didn't, and he wouldn't.

All his existing WMD weapons were destroyed over a decade ago, according to the Duelfer report.

Shipping them to Syria is just a right-wing fantasy. They don't want to admit the truth.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/

[Karmakaze]

30. Standard racism...

The "reason" behind the claim is:

"They're all Arabs, right? So of course they are working together to destroy America. Therefore, if no WMD were found in Iraq then Hussein must have moved them somewhere else. Syria is one of the nations that we want to target, and is the one with the least reason for us to attack, so that must be where he sent them! Q.E.D!"