An Iraqi air force general with information on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction is scheduled to meet with Senators Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) next week. It seems that the Iraq WMD controversy is about to crack open once more. In a book titled Saddam's Secrets, Gen. Georges Sada claims that Saddam Hussein moved weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to Syria prior to the American invasion. According to Sada, two cargo aircraft made 56 flights to Syria. They were carrying "yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel." There was also a truck convoy.
Sada is not the first person to make this claim. On 23 December 2002, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." Last month, former Israeli Defense Force chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, claimed that Saddam Hussein moved chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before American forces entered Iraq.
American officials have also commented on this information. After searching for WMDs in Iraq, U.S. weapons inspector David Kay said, "There is ample evidence of [weapons] movement to Syria before the war - satellite photographs, reports on the ground of a constant stream of trucks, cars, rail traffic across the boarder." Kay also said the Syrian government was not cooperative "in helping us resolve this issue." In August, 2004, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice (now Secretary of State) said, "We still don't have clarity about what role Syria may have played in the movement of weapons one way or another before the war."
The Syrians, of course, deny any receipt of Iraqi WMDs. But their denial is not credible. The Syrian regime is a totalitarian dictatorship with close ties to Moscow and Tehran. Like Russia and Iran, Syria is helping the insurgency in Iraq. And so far, the United States has been unwilling to confront Moscow on its connivance According to Bill Gertz, writing in the Washington Times on Oct. 28, 2004, "Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation...."
The battle in the Middle East is not against a rogue regime or two. The battle is against a Russian-led alliance that refrains from publicly announcing its own existence. The longstanding coordination between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran and Moscow should be famous. But who wants to acknowledge the truth? Who dares to understand? Even the president doesn't want to admit what the U.S. is up against in Iraq. And here comes an Iraqi general with information about Iraqi WMDs going to Syria. What chance does the poor man have?
For nearly three years Gen. Sada has kept silent, fearing for the safety of his family. Now Sada has written a book, and America's enemies are watching to see how U.S. officials react. In other words, Sada's testimony is a kind of indicator. If it is used by the administration to vindicate the Iraq invasion, then it follows that President Bush is ready to move against Syria and Iran. But if President Bush and his advisors ignore Sada's testimony, it is a sign that the administration is worn out by criticism and incapable of smashing America's enemies.
