There were reports 3 months before the war that Saddam had already shipped
his WMD's to Syria...so it wasn't an "after-the-fact" excuse:


Syria denies hiding Iraqi weapons
Sharon: Israel investigating reports

JERUSALEM (CNN) --Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his country is
looking into reports that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has transferred to
Syria weapons he wanted to hide -- a claim Syria denies.

"We have such reports," Sharon said in an interview Tuesday broadcast on
Israel's Channel 2 television.

"We are in the process of verification of these reports," Sharon said. "What
we assume -- and again I say, we have not yet finalized the reports -- is
that weapons that he (Saddam) wanted to hide -- chemical weapons, biological
weapons -- were indeed transferred to Syria."

Syria said the allegation "is completely, absolutely not true," according to
a statement from the Syrian Foreign Ministry. "And it aims to divert
attention from Israel's arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons
which other countries support by money and weapons to protect Israel and
help it develop."

Sharon's response was prompted by an interviewer asking whether he could
confirm that Saddam had smuggled chemical and biological weapons to Syria.
The interviewer also wanted to know if the United States was aware of the
purported smuggling.

"I imagine so," Sharon said. "The whole thing needs verification."

Syria's statement said: "This accusation against Syria is laughable because
Syria has already agreed to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and it has
called in all the countries in the region to make the Middle East the region
with no weapons of mass destruction. The only side that stands against this
call is Israel and Israel with its arsenal of these weapons is not only a
threat to Palestinians ... but a threat to the whole world's peace and
security."

A Bush administration official said if Sharon's allegations were true "this
would be further evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and
weapons of mass destruction programs and is seeking to hide them from the
world."

The official said any country approached to accept conventional weapons from
Iraq would be making a "serious mistake."

"We would urge those countries to think carefully before doing so," the
official said.

Bush has threatened possible military action against Iraq if it refuses to
abide by United Nations resolutions calling for it to disarm itself of
alleged weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad has repeatedly denied
possessing such weapons -- chemical, nuclear or biological.

On December 7 Iraq delivered to U.N. weapons inspectors 11,000 pages of what
Baghdad said were details of its weapons of mass destruction programs and
possible facilities that might be used to develop them.

U.N. Resolution 1441 -- passed unanimously by the U.N. Security Council on
November 8 -- demanded the Iraqi documents be handed over by December 8.

The resolution also called on Iraq to abide by all the U.N. resolutions that
Iraq promised to follow in a cease-fire agreement reached after it lost the
1991 Persian Gulf War.


"thunder" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 17:05:40 +0000, NOYB wrote:

It's too early. David Kay's preliminary report was pretty convincing
all
by itself. However, the Bush administration knows that it will take a
lot
more to convince the most ardent naysayers. I suspect the final report
will be all the proof that anyone needs...and will be released sometime
next summer.

Maybe, but they are releasing the Iraqi weapons scientists now. Doesn't
look good for finding any WMDs.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articl...pons08-ON.html