We had to have been monitoring that place constantly, plus our guys on the ground.
Fifty trucks is a long convoy, tough to miss on satelite images.
We had to have been monitoring that place constantly, plus our guys on the ground.
Fifty trucks is a long convoy, tough to miss on satelite images.
I can't tell if you are being facetious or not. In case you're not:
CIA can't rule out WMD move to Syria - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - April 27, 2005
"Based on the evidence available at present, ISG judged that it was unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria took place," his report stated. "However, ISG was unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
Speculation on WMDs in Syria was fueled by the fact that satellite images picked up long lines of trucks waiting to cross the border into Syria before the coalition launched the invasion.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050427-121915-1667r.htm
Ah, breaker one-nine, this here's the Rubber Duck. You gotta copy on me, Pig Pen, c'mon?
Uh, Breaker One-Nine, this here's the Rubber Duck
You got a copy on me Pig-Pen? C'mon
Uh, yeah 10-4 Pig Pen, fer sure, fer sure
By golly it's clean clear to Flag-Town, C'mon
Uh, yeah, that's a big 10-4 Pig-Pen,
Yeah, we definitely got us the front door good buddy,
Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy
Then what is that a picture of? ;)
Didn't Colin Powell show satellite photographs of these trucks leaving known WMD sites to the UN before the war started in 3/03?
You don't have to bunch 'em all up.
On June 9th [2004], the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council about the export of Iraqi WMD, missile and nuclear components shipped out of Iraq before, during and after the invasion. As reported by MENL news service, UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos told the Council, "The removal of these materials from Iraq raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks," and said inspectors found Iraqi WMD and missile components shipped abroad that still contained UN inspection tags.
The World Tribune reported on Perricos's briefing. "He said the Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent both to Europe and around the Middle East at the rate of about 1,000 tons of metal a month... The Baghdad missile site contained a range of WMD and dual-use components, UN officials said. They included missile components, reactor vessel and fermenters ... required for the production of chemical and biological warheads. 'It raises the question of what happened to the dual-use equipment, where is it now and what is it being used for,' Perricos's spokesman, said. 'You can make all kinds of pharmaceutical and medicinal products with a fermenter. You can also use it to breed anthrax.'"
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said vehicle traffic photographed by U.S. spy satellites indicated that material and documents related to the arms programs were shipped to Syria."
"Last month Moshe Yaalon, who was Israel's top general at the time, said Iraq transported WMD to Syria six weeks before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
Last March, John A. Shaw, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said Russian Spetsnaz units moved WMD to Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
"While in Iraq I received information from several sources naming the exact Russian units, what they took and where they took both WMD materials and conventional explosives," Mr. Shaw told NewsMax reporter Charles Smith.
Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong was deputy commander of Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In September 2004, he told WABC radio that "I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon and Iran."
In January 2004, David Kay, the first head of the Iraq Survey Group which conducted the search for Saddam's WMD, told a British newspaper there was evidence unspecified materials had been moved to Syria from Iraq shortly before the war.
"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 program," Mr. Kay told the Sunday Telegraph.
Also that month, Nizar Nayuf, a Syrian journalist who defected to an undisclosed European country, told a Dutch newspaper he knew of three sites where Iraq's WMD was being kept. They were the town of al Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria; the Syrian air force base near the village of Tal Snan, and the city of Sjinsar on the border with Lebanon.
In an addendum to his final report last April, Charles Duelfer, who succeeded David Kay as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said he couldn't rule out a transfer of WMD from Iraq to Syria.
"There was evidence of a discussion of possible WMD collaboration initiated by a Syrian security officer, and ISG received information about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that WMD was involved. In the judgment of the working group, these reports were sufficiently credible to merit further investigation," Mr. Duelfer said."
"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw told an audience Saturday at a privately sponsored "Intelligence Summit" in Alexandria, Va. (www.intelligencesummit.org).
"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."
"Two days before the war, on March 17th, we saw through multiple intelligence channels - both human intelligence and techinical (satellite,eavesdrop) intelligence - large caravans of people and things, including some of the top 55 Iraqis, going to Syria."
It's only a guess, but:
Monitoring may have ignored the 50-truck WMD convoy, as it was busy looking at the 100-truck convoys carrying the swag from the Oil-for-Food scam to a safe place in Syria.
Fifty trucks is a long convoy, tough to miss on satelite images.
Recall that there were reports that reconnaisance (satellite and aerial) detected these convoys.
That's what I thought at first as well, but noone ever said Saddam wasn't a slick spin-meister. If he got away with the transfer of so much stock, it's only because an act of God occurred to provide him exactly the coverage he needed to justify such a remotely-observable convoy. So Saddam got the weapons out to a friendly Islamic government, and he got international credit for his humanitarian efforts in the face of American aggression.
MARCH 2003 : (THIS IS THE TIME IRAQ MOVED 'UNSPECIFIED MATERIALS' TO SYRIA,' INCLUDING SOME COMPONENTS OF IRAQ'S WMD PROGRAMS, ACCORDING TO LATER REPORT BY DR. DAVID KAY) - "Kay says some Iraq weapons in Syria: report,"AFP, Sunday, January 25, 2004. 1:00pm (AEDT) via http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1031270.htm
2003 : (US SATELLITES SPOT SUBSTANTIAL VEHICULAR TRAFFIC GOING FROM IRAQ TO SYRIA JUST PRIOR TO US ATTACK ON MARCH 19, 2003- See WEAPONS INSPECTOR DAVID KAY) "In his testimony before Congress last year, weapons inspector Kay said U.S. satellite surveillance showed substantial vehicular traffic going from Iraq to Syria just prior to the U.S. attack on March 19, 2003." 47 posted on 04/18/2004 11:38:09 AM PDT by Maria S
***
In a briefing for journalists reported on October 29, 2003, the director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency said satellite images showed a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria just before the American invasion in March 2003. Retired Air Force Lieutenant General James Clapper Jr. said he believed "unquestionably" that illicit weapons material was transported into Syria and perhaps other countries. He said "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. ... I think probably in the few months running up to the onset of the conflict, I think there was probably an intensive effort to disperse into private hands, to bury it, and to move it outside the country's borders." ----------------- "Iraqi Chemical Weapons," http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph published on January 25, 2004, Dr. David Kay, the former head of the Iraq Survey Group, said there was evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before the start of the war to overthrow Saddam. "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."---------------------- "Iraqi Chemical Weapons," http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/
Translation indicates the 50 trucks were in multiple convoys(plural) or groups. So 5 convoys of 10 trucks each might not be so obvious, and 10 convoys of 5 trucks each would be barely noticeable, if spread out a bit in time. (Hours not days).