"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
Backyard Renegade wrote:

Let me ask a question here. Is it at all possible that the convoys of
trucks tracked into Seria the last few weeks while the French,
Russians, and Germans held the majority of the member countries back,
were the very carefully accounted for WMD moving to the Bekka (sp?)
valley in Lebanon? Could we really know where they are

As to your question, certainly it is possible, but it is unlikely. The
Israelis, who are far more sophisticated in these matters than we are,
would have noticed.

Hehehe. You haven't been paying attention. The Israeli's *did* notice.
Read:

Syria denies hiding Iraqi weapons
Sharon: Israel investigating reports
Wednesday, December 25, 2002 Posted: 3:13 PM EST (2013 GMT)


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.



http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/12/25/israel.syria/