Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Syria’s Next Act (Obama DNI Clapper: WMD "unquestionably" moved from Iraq to Syria)
The Daily Beast ^ | July 19, 2012 | Eli Lake

Posted on 07/21/2012 2:41:42 PM PDT by Seizethecarp

Obama administration officials tell The Daily Beast that the CIA has sent officers to the region to assess Syria’s weapons program.

James Clapper, now the Director of National Intelligence and formerly the director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, said in 2003 that he believed materials had been moved out of Iraq in the months before the war and cited satellite imagery.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bush; dailybeast; iraq; jamesclapper; obama; russia; syria; waronterror; wmd
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last
Now Barry is leaking to the Daily Beast and putting CIA agents and assets at risk when it makes him "look good" to be "doing something" about Syria.

IMO, the CIA knows exactly where the Iraq WMD is stored in Syria, and Bush, being a patriot, kept silent about this in the interest of national security. Preemptive targeting of the WMD in Syria by the US and Israel is a given since 2003.

Meanwhile Chrissy Matthews continues to assure his audience on a regular basis that Bush had no basis for the Iraq War since no WMD were ever found there, yet Obama's own DNI, the man in charge of satellite surveillance at the time, said the evidence that illicit materials (WMD) were rushed to Syria from Iraq just before the US invasion was unquestionable.

1 posted on 07/21/2012 2:41:53 PM PDT by Seizethecarp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

In this article Eli Lake links to quotes in this 2003 NY Times news service article:

“Syria said to have Iraq arms”

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-10-29/news/0310290219_1_illicit-weapons-clapper-weapons-inspector

WASHINGTON — The director of a top U.S. spy agency said Tuesday that he believes that material from Iraq’s illicit weapons program had been transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by the Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war.

The official, James Clapper Jr., a retired lieutenant general, said satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the U.S. invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material “unquestionably” had been moved out of Iraq.

“I think people below the Saddam-Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse,” Clapper, who leads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at a breakfast with reporters.

He said he was providing a personal assessment. But he said “the obvious conclusion one draws” was that there “may have been people leaving the scene, fleeing Iraq, and unquestionably, I am sure, material.”


2 posted on 07/21/2012 2:45:55 PM PDT by Seizethecarp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

The ‘rats won’t admit it because it makes Bush look credible.

The Pubbies won’t admit it because they committed tons of $$$ and failed to interdict it.

Now we all pretend it doesn’t exist no matter what.


3 posted on 07/21/2012 2:47:23 PM PDT by Dr. Pritchett
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Pritchett; Seizethecarp

Dear Dr.P—the movement of Saddam WMD’s that Clapper talked about happened during the months before the invasion. Thus they were gone by the time the 3rd ID rolled across the border into Iraq. I guess it is thus Bush’s fault that he did not attack all convoys going between Syria and Iraq before the invasion.


4 posted on 07/21/2012 2:51:29 PM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

Anyone halfway intellectually honest would have to admit that the transfer out of Iraq in 2007-8 of 550 TONS (!!!!) of uranium constituted WMD material. Beyond belief.


5 posted on 07/21/2012 2:53:09 PM PDT by LS ("Castles Made of Sand, Fall in the Sea . . . Eventually (Hendrix))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

The only thing wrong with the story that Iraq moved WMD to Syria to justify the war is that there is not one witness— not one piece of evidence after 10 years ,over 4000 military lives 38,000 wounded and maimed and 1 trillion dollars, nothing but wishful indulgence. Shirley we are not going to do this schtick again to invade another sovereign country — but don’t call me Shirley!


6 posted on 07/21/2012 2:54:03 PM PDT by marygonzo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

The Israelis have been saying this since 2003.its now news


7 posted on 07/21/2012 2:54:28 PM PDT by hecht (restore Hetch-Hetchy, and screw San Francisco and Pelosi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

Waiting for the Left to apologize to President Bush...

Waiting...

Still waiting...

...


8 posted on 07/21/2012 2:55:54 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have IngSoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has helped create a group of states known as “Friends of Syria” that seek a managed transition through financial support for the opposition

And the great sucking sound never stops as more billions are sucked out of our treasury. Does Hillary get an additional 15% finder's fee or will she have to be satisfied with the customary 10% to the Clinton Library, Pool Hall & Massage Parlor?

This little fiasco should create a few hundred more new millionaires. The state department is doing it faster than NFL and NBA combined!

9 posted on 07/21/2012 3:14:18 PM PDT by varon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: marygonzo

scairdy cat cry baby.......... still


10 posted on 07/21/2012 3:21:44 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: hecht
On of Saddam's former Generals has been telling us all along that the WMD was moved to Syria:

Saddam's General says for certain they DID have WMD

11 posted on 07/21/2012 3:30:39 PM PDT by JaguarXKE (If my Fluffy had a puppy, it would look like the puppy Obama ate!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp
The $64,000 question: When and on whom will Bashir al-Assad use his WMD? With the rebels (Shi’a Muslims) trying to topple him, he's got the means to kill them by the boat load. So, when does the killing begin for real? Certainly Barry and Hillary(!) will be upset, but there's nothing wrong with Muslim on Muslim genocide. The Muslims have done it for 1,400 years when they weren't killing Christians, Jews, and anyone else that offended the Prophet (curses be upon him).
12 posted on 07/21/2012 3:57:43 PM PDT by MasterGunner01 (11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MasterGunner01
The tactical Chem/bio WMD are messy and it appears to me that the regime enemies and supporters are intermingled to at least some extent. Any use would take out at least some friendlies, especially in the big cities where the conflict is not being fought.

Use against predominantly Sunni villages would bring in the UN as even Russia and China would fold, IMO, and conventional tanks and artillery seem to be able to make the rubble bounce already.

A lot of the Iraqi and Syrian WND would be strategic MAD-type weapons for missile delivery against Israel. I believe the Israelis are capable of detecting immanent use and preempting that use, as is the US, despite the framing in the article that the CIA is scrambling around to find out where they are (Ha!)

I expect that evidence of (hopefully unused) captured Iraqi WMD stockpiles in Syria will come out very soon.

13 posted on 07/21/2012 4:19:20 PM PDT by Seizethecarp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Pritchett

LTG DeLong (CENTCOM Dep. Cdr.) in his book from 2004 stated “we know Syria is hiding Iraq’s WMD”. It was no secret to anyone except the state run media.


14 posted on 07/21/2012 4:31:26 PM PDT by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

“James Clapper, now the Director of National Intelligence “

Also told us the muslim brotherhood was sort of civic organization, not involved in any type of extremism. F him,,and F his treasonous effort to try to stampede us into a war in Syria.

We would gain nothing from it except the installation of another America, Israel, and Jew hating government.


15 posted on 07/21/2012 4:34:32 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp
As I have been telling everyone who scoffed at the the existence of WMDs in Iraq.

“We don't have to worry about finding Saddam's missing WMD’s- eventually they will find us.”

After the Iraq war we found plenty of evidence of the industrial infrastructure to produce WMDs, we never found any extensive stockpiles of those weapons despite the fact that Saddam use of them against the Iranians and the Kurds proved that he had them .

The obvious explanation for the missing WMDs is that they were moved out of the country before we attacked. Surveillance from the run up to the war documented the loading and transport of large quantity's of military goods being loaded up and transported out of Iraq. A large fraction of these goods were transported via truck transport to Syria. WMDs were included in these shipments.

One of unsung victories of Bush's diplomatic efforts during the run up to the Iraq war was convincing the suppliers of Saddam's WMD arsenal to get Saddam to allow them to “temporarily” remove them from the country for safe keeping and to hide them from international inspectors until such time as the heat died down and they could be returned to Iraq. Because of Bush's behind the scenes efforts, no WMDs were used against our troops during the Iraq war.

Part of this agreement undoubtedly was that the US would allow safe passage of the WMDs out of the country and the US would keep the agreements secret for obvious reasons.

Bush honored his pledge and his opponents used his good faith against him and destroyed his administration and the credibility and legitimacy of the Iraq war based on what they knew to be the false that there were never any WMDs in Iraq.

Now the truth is coming out about Saddam's WMDs because Assad is now threatening to publicize the fact that he is in possession of Saddam's WMDs and the circumstances of how Saddams WMDs ended up in Syria to pressure the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress to come to his aid to keep him in power.

The stakes are high because Democrats in Congress who were fully aware that Saddams WMDs were moved out of Iraq in response to Bush's behind the scenes diplomatic pressure to prevent those weapons from being used against US and Coalition soldiers are same Democrats who cynically ridiculed and beat up on George Bush for his claim that Iraq had WMD’s are now c**ping their pants at the though that their ill advised Middle East policies are going result in the loss of control to terrorists or use of these weapons against civilians.

There is almost a 100% certainty that Assad will use these WMDs to either stay in power or to take as many of his enemies and innocent bystanders down with him if it looks like he is going to join the Dead, Deposed Arab Dictators Club.

Furthermore, if and when Assad loses control of those weapon's it is 100% certain they will fall into the hands of any one of a number of terrorist organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood front groups such as Al Queda or Hamas and/or more likely, Iranian backed terror groups such as Hezbollah since Iran is currently a major player propping up Assad

Obama and the Democrats are now leaking the fact that a significant portion of Saddam's Iraqi WMD arsenal now call Syria home to try to deflect blame from themselves when these WMDs either fall into the hands of terrorists or are used by Assad in desperate attempt to survive the civil war resulting from the instability and anarchy that has resulted from the the Obama administration's disastrous machinations in the Middle East

The sad fact is that George Bush did an outstanding job of cleaning up the very international terrorist threat that Bill Clinton and his Democrat allies allowed to grow to dangerous levels of strength and organization from and terror attack standpoint and to grow to even more seriously dangerous levels of influence and ability to shape and radicalize public opinion to further their movement as a strong and permanent presence in the Muslim world. during the 8 years they controlled US Foreign policy.

To prevent the Democrats from politically destroyed for decades because of their disastrous Clinton Era fostering of terrorism and to prevent Bush from receiving the credit he was due for his outstanding leadership on the War on Terror, Congressional Democrats knowingly lied about what happened to Saddam's WMDs and Saddams support of international terrorism and used those lies to successfully destroy the Bush administration.

The sad fact is that those Democrat attacks seriously damaged Bush's and the United States international credibility which seriously constrained the US Diplomatic and Military freedom and ability to follow through with securing the WMDs transferred to Syria after the Iraq war.

We all may now pay a high price for the bad faith attacks against George Bush and his Administration by Democrats and their allies in the media on the WMD issue. Unfortunately, the slogan "Bush Lied and people died" may have to be changed "Democrats and the Media lied about WMDs so many, many people died".

16 posted on 07/21/2012 4:34:55 PM PDT by rdcbn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

This is nothing more than another story designed to make us intervene in Syria. Im waiting for the babies in incubators story next, like Kuwait. Or maybe catching babies on bayonets, like WWI Germans in Belgium.

Not falling for it.


17 posted on 07/21/2012 4:40:51 PM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seizethecarp

The worst case scenario I was thinking was akin to Hitler in his bunker. Assad knows he’s going to die and so he turns his WMD loose on everyone because if he cannot win this, then he’s taking out everyone he possibly can in his “twilight of the gods”.


18 posted on 07/21/2012 4:53:38 PM PDT by MasterGunner01 (11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: MasterGunner01

They will use them on Israel to unite the mooselimbs and turn the civil war intp a jihad against Israel..they may use them in Syria as well an say it was an israeli plot, while Iran attacks ..


19 posted on 07/21/2012 6:36:51 PM PDT by aces
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: rdcbn

Very well put. I had suspected this was the case but couldn’t wrap my brain around all the facts and express it as precisely and elegantly as you just did.

Thank you.


20 posted on 07/21/2012 6:40:25 PM PDT by 1forall (America - my home, my land, my country.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson