Watch out! There’s a new movement amongst the bloggers to revive the Saddam-had-WMD meme.
It’s stemming from a new book called “Saddam’s Secrets” written by Georges Sada. From yesterday’s New York Sun:
The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein’s air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed.
The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, “Saddam’s Secrets,” released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.
“There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands,” Mr. Sada said. “I am confident they were taken over.”
Sounds plausible, doesn’t it? But wait it gets more bizarre:
Mr. Sada, 65, told the Sun that the pilots of the two airliners that transported the weapons of mass destruction to Syria from Iraq approached him in the middle of 2004, after Saddam was captured by American troops.
“I know them very well. They are very good friends of mine. We trust each other. We are friends as pilots,” Mr. Sada said of the two pilots. He declined to disclose their names, saying they are concerned for their safety. But he said they are now employed by other airlines outside Iraq.
The pilots told Mr. Sada that two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, Mr. Sada said. Then Special Republican Guard brigades loaded materials onto the planes, he said, including “yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel.” The pilots said there was also a ground convoy of trucks.
The flights – 56 in total, Mr. Sada said – attracted little notice because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in June of 2002.
So the #2 man in Saddam Hussein’s Air Force knows for sure that 2 Boeing aircraft had their seats removed and the planes filled with unspecified WMD in yellow barrels in 2002.
Georges Sada is an Assyrian Christian who was born in Iraq. It’s true he was once a high-ranking officer in Saddam’s Air Force but he retired in 1986.
In 1990, Saddam hired him back (right before the Persian Gulf War) because of his “ability to organize the air force” but Sada was fired less than a year later. Got it? He was not an official in Saddam’s military, government or anything else after 1990.
Sada is basing his statement on un-named pilots who allegedly flew these two airplanes in 2002. And you can be sure he will never name them. It’s the allegation that’s the thing.
Sada was also on conservative talkshow Hannity & Colmes yesterday, also claiming the same unsubstantiated bull about Saddam flying out his WMD as part of the media blitz orchestrated by his publicist.
Sada became a born-again Christian after he was retired from the Air Force in 1986. He has been active with religious groups ever since. He is the president of the National Presbyterian Church in Baghdad and chairman of the Assembly of Iraqi Evangelical Presbyterian Churches.
He’s also worked closely with Coventry Cathedral in Britain, particularly their International Center for Reconciliation, part of their international ministry. The ICR is headed up by Andrew White, who spent a lot of time in Israel and is now the Anglican vicar of Baghdad.
According to a cache of the the ICR’s website, Georges Sada has been working in Iraq on their behalf for 5 years. And the cache comes from 2004, which puts Georges Sada being active in Iraq back as far as 1999.
Sada was a strong supporter of the 2003 invasion and later became a spokesperson for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. In July 2004, Sada said this on Allawi’s behalf:
“If [a guerrilla] was in opposition against the Americans, that will be justified because it was an occupation force,” the spokesman, Georges Sada, said yesterday. “We will give them freedom.”
So Sada is an evangelical Christian who also managed to get a top job in the post-Saddam government.
Sada meanwhile is going to meet the Senate Armed Services Committee next week. I’ll see if I can’t keep track of this to see what he says.
What’s hilariously ironic is that Sada saved the lives of some American POW‘s in 1991 because mistreating them would be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
As expected, the rightwing blogs are falling over themselves to link to old quotes from people who “suspected” Iraq had shipped its WMD to Syria.
But it’s the NY Sun who accurately guesses why Sada’s revelation is now surfacing:
The discovery of the weapons in Syria could alter the American political debate on the Iraq war. And even the accusations that they are there could step up international pressure on the government in Damascus. That government, led by Bashar Assad, is already facing a U.N. investigation over its alleged role in the assassination of a former prime minister of Lebanon. The Bush administration has criticized Syria for its support of terrorism and its failure to cooperate with the U.N. investigation.
The State Department is allowing the “Syrian National Council” to meet in DC again, which is the Syrian version of Chalabi’s old outfit the Iraqi National Congress, which received some 33 million dollars from the American taxpayers.
Want to see what the Syrian National Council’s agenda is?
“We are not looking for reform in Syria. We want a complete change in the regime in Syria,” Mohammed Aljbaili said at a press conference June 6. He described the Syrian regime under President Bashar Assad as “one of the most totalitarian rules in the world.”
The Washington-based council will coordinate with opposition groups inside and outside Syria to promote democratic change in the country, according to a statement issued by the council’s executive committee. In addition to Aljbaili, the other members of the executive committee are Najib Alghadban, Hussam Aldairi, Mohammed Alkhawam and Abd Almuhaymen Alsibai.
“A democratic government in Syria is likely to preserve the national interest of Syria better than any other regime,” said Alghadban.
Imagine just for one minute if a group of American “dissidents” were meeting in Damascus to openly advocate the overthrow of the American government. Just imagine that for one second.
And the drum beat of war goes on…
Peace
