The 1990-2003 War Against Saddam has millions of untold stories. Perhaps one of the most important happened at the onset of the invasion. On the evening of March 22 there are several reports that Russians were witness to an American airborne assault near the Syrian / Jordanian / Iraq border, on or near Highway 11, and in the vicinity of Akashat. Allegedly American airborne troops and/or Special Forces were trying to seize WMD. They were detected by Iraqi forces, surrounded, and as many as 30 were killed or captured. Forces from Jordan were sent to provide air support and rescue for the survivors.
There are no reports of this incident in the mainstream media, but Russian intelligence reports that were published on the internet during the invasion were generally close to the mark in accuracy (albeit embellished with a distinct political slant), and the Department of Defense has said affirmed that the reports do seem credible and accurate-particularly the ones that reference radio intercepts. This report of the border incident stems from such radio intercepts. It’s also echoed in Yossef Bodansky’s book, The Secret History of the Iraq War, but he cites several Russian eyewitnesses as well.
That the casualties are not listed in the DoD’s casualty list is not unusual since the words “Ranger” and “Green Beret” are missing from that list entirely. It seems Special Forces casualties are not generally reported in the same manner as conventional forces. If true, the presence of American forces captured and taken into Syria perhaps might be one of the reasons why more pressure hasn’t been exerted on the Assad Regime. In any event, on March 24th President Bush called Russian President Vladamir Putin and there can be no doubt that the issue of Russian support for Saddam’s regime was discussed. That the phone call (widely reported by the press at the time) came immediately in the wake of the border incident is interesting and poignant.
On March 29 and 30, Saddam contacted Belarus. The former Soviet Republic had been one of many that offered Saddam exile in the days just prior to the war. Instead of accepting the offer, Saddam had a Belarusian IL-76 transport plane flown to Baghdad, allegedly loaded with “sensitive cargo” and immediately flown back to Belarus. In December, Yevgeny Primakov’s plane had been reloaded with “sensitive cargo” (ie cargo the Americans would want-like WMD, WMD equipment, documents, and people), and flown to Belarus. All flights in and out of Saddam International were monitored closely by the USAF, British Intelligence, and a list of other foreign intelligence services.
Many of the Russian-made weapons procured through Syria’s front companies-like SES International-had come from Belarus. After the fall of Saddam’s regime, it was found that many of the senior leaders who had fled went to Syria and Belarus (sometimes in that order). If one asks, “What happened to all that WMD?” Then a finger can be pointed towards the former Soviet Republic at the very least for enabling the former leaders of Saddam’s regime to escape and orchestrate an insurgency, clearly for removal of “sensitive items” from Saddam’s regime, and very likely for accepting Saddam’s WMD, WMD equipment, documents, and people.
On April 5th, CENTCOM reported spotting a large column of Iraqi vehicles, and braced for a possible counterattack. Rather than race south to certain defeat and death, the column slipped into Syria. Russian intelligence reports reiterate this event as do Lebanese sources. Mainstream media reports only confirm the convoy’s sighting. Allegedly the convoy included Russian-made mobile rocket launchers some with chemical weapons.
The exodus from Iraq to Syria by Saddam’s allies and the highest ranking members of Saddam’s regime didn’t end on April 9th, but it was fully brought to the attention of the world when American Special Forces intercepted a Russian convoy headed into Syria. The Russians said that the convoy was on a diplomatic mission following a convoy that carried Primakov himself. To this day no one knows for sure. Some reports claim that Primakov’s convoy carried Russian WMD people, documents, and equipment that could not be left to fall into the hands of the Coalition. The contents of the convoy that American commandos attacked remain classified, but former deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology and security, John A Shaw, reports that American intelligence has documents confirming that Saddam’s Regime paid Russia to provide security forces for Iraq’s Russian-made arms and paid Russia to conduct counterintelligence activities that would prevent the Coalition from discovering the illegal arms supply line from Russia through Syria. “An Arabic-language report obtained by U.S. intelligence disclosed the extent of Russian armaments. The 26-page report was written by Abdul Tawab Mullah al Huwaysh, Saddam’s minister of military industrialization, who was captured by U.S. forces May 2, 2003.” Other intelligence officials confirm the possession of these documents and more. “The materials outlined in the documents included missile components, MiG jet parts, tank parts and chemicals used to make chemical weapons, the official said.”
One wonders how differently the war in Iraq would look if American commandos had been able to seize elusive WMD and present it to the world? As more and more captured documents are being released every day, why not present these documents as well? That answer will come later.
Author of “Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War
Reparations and America’s 2nd Civil War: Malensek, Scott: 9798864028674: Amazon.com: Books
What year are we talking about here? 2003?
There is only one reason I can think of, and that is that the President is protecting an American’s life.
“What year are we talking about here? 2003?”
March, 2003.
There was a History Channel show (I think called, Target America) where they interviewed some of the people involved. They didn’t get into the classified details, but their comments did confirm that a series of covert operations were done in the area at the time reported. The people on the show also talked about getting into H2 and H3 (two of Saddam’s “hyper-bases”) to prevent SCUD attacks. It was a good show.
I dunno if anyone was captured, killed, etc. Most special forces, Rangers and Special Operations casualties are not reported (check the list of 3500+- who have been killed, and see how many are Rangers, Green Berets, etc)
All in all, “WMD” is a misnomer. It wasn’t about mere stacks of chemical artillery shells. It was about a long list of “Unresolved Disarmament Issues” to use the UN’s phrasing. Reports are that Saddam started moving out a lot of “stuff” in June/July 2002, again in late 2002/early 2003, and finally in the heat of the invasion (just days before and just days after). Even with all that, a great deal of “Unresolved Disarmament Issues” were found to be proven correct in their concern as expressed by the UN inspectors and the Bush Admin.
These 20 planeloads are some of the shipments that General Sada said contained Chemical Weapons:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/ACOS-64BRQW?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=syr
I don’t believe Saddam Hussein sent “humanitarian assistance” to Syria. He was letting his own people starve to death.
10 al-Qaeda terrorists were captured in Jordan with more than 20 tons of Chemical Weapons. The reported targets were the Jordanian prime minister’s office and the headquarters of Jordanian intelligence, and the U.S. Embassy.
It has been reported that up to 100,000 could have been killed in the Terrorist Bombing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3635381.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/26/jordan.terror/
http://www.chinadaily.net/english/doc/2004-04/27/content_326599.htm
An Iraqi Nuclear Scientist, Dr Mahdi Obeidi, was hiding the key Nuclear Research and Nuclear Centrifuges needed to restart Saddam’s Nuclear Weapons Program. Saddam reported these nuclear documents, and key nuclear centrifuge parts as “Destroyed” in 1995!
The experts argued that Saddam Hussein had ASPIRATIONS of reconstituting his Nuclear Weapons Program. These Nuclear Documents and key Nuclear Centrifuge parts were declared DESTROYED by Saddam. They were NOT.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/06/25/sprj.irq.centrifuge/
Thanks, Scott. (Btw, I should say hi! Nice to see you over here. I’m back at my original blog after SWT’s domain expired in January.)
Good to see you too man! I’m impressed with all the comments so far on all three of these so far. Gunner’s was a great example.
See, people DO know the reality of the threat posed, and that in itself supports the suspicion that most opposition to the war in Iraq is opposition to war in general (as if anyone “likes” war) and/or political opposition (nah, BDS associated with opposition to the war in Iraq….crazitawk).
There were also reports about that time of rather large tonnage of radioactive metal scrap and machine parts turning up in the resale markets in Rotterdam, etc. Some reputedly had Iraqi markings. It’s been a long time since I saw the references, and haven’t bothered to chase them down again, but the “n-word” is also likely to resurface as more of this detail is released and investigated.
Unless a D-administration is elected and rapidly does a retro-fix, of course.
Thank you for the behind-the-scenes look at international intrigue involving Bio-Chemical Weapons potentially in the hands of Islamofascists worldwide. However, anyone claiming to have the insided dope on “all” such shenanigans is a fool and a dangerous one at that.
I have reason to believe that not only “known” stockpiles are being actively traded and transported, but that ongoing “illegal” research and development is going on in a number of locations, including right here at home. It’s worth pondering how these things came into being in the first place, who wants them, and why.
If you would like some concrete information on how the U.S. came to be one of the major manufacturers of such items, go here:
Thank you for the behind-the-scenes look at international intrigue involving Bio-Chemical Weapons potentially in the hands of Islamofascists worldwide. However, anyone claiming to have the insided dope on “all” such shenanigans is a fool and a dangerous one at that.
I have reason to believe that not only “known” stockpiles are being actively traded and transported, but that ongoing “illegal” research and development is going on in a number of locations, including right here at home. It’s worth pondering how these things came into being in the first place, who wants them, and why.
If you would like some concrete information on how the U.S. came to be one of the major manufacturers of such items, go here:
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14556
If you don’t believe what is posted there, then go here:
http://www1.va.gov/SHAD/
http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14556
If you don’t believe what is posted there, then go here:
http://www1.va.gov/SHAD/
One of my favorites was the CNN report that a US Marine unit (talking back during the invasion here) was tasked with setting up a water purification gig from the Euphrates, and even their equipment couldn’t handle the amounts of cyanide in the river at the time. USA Today, Telegraph, CBS, ABC, and others carried it too.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/06/wpois06.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/06/ixnewstop.html
lots more here:
http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/mariani/2004/mariani052804.htm
Jeff Kouba,
“What year are we talking about here? 2003?”
It’s a oldie but goodie! It’s all interrelated. We should rehash what happen during the early days of this conflict and we should also rehash what happen during the Sanction years too. All these pieces create a picture. This war did not start in March 2003.
Clinton Administration created a failed policy to contain Saddam in his containment box. Saddam was like a spider oozing out. He had his little spiders escape and corrupted the UN Oil for Food Program.
We were lead to believe Saddam was a threat to world security during the Clinton years but now the Democrats are singing a different tune. Saddam wasn’t a threat and Bush cooked the intelligence.
We’re being hoodwinked by the likes of Senator Levin and his ilk who want to discredit the Bush Administration at my families expense by saying there were “NO WMD” since our troops entered into Iraq.
Sam Pender said it best, “Opponents to the war like to point to the 1000+ pages of the Duelfer Report and summarize it as “NO WMD,†but there’s a lot more to Moby Dick than 5 letters.” – April 4, 2006.
All the Democrats want is to get the White House back. They believe they can do a better job dealing with terrorism by not confronting it. That’s exactly what the Clinton Administration did.
That’s why we were attacked through out the 1990’s. It was grievance over our treatment of the Iraqi people.
’93 WTC Bombing, ’96 Khobar Towers, ’98 U.S. Embassy Bombings in Nairobi and Tanzania. If you look at the dates more closely those attacks corresponds to anniversaries when we attacked Saddam during Desert Storm.
But I’m not suppose to know those things and there is NO WMD. All I can say is…I wasn’t born yesterday!
If we were able to be more forceful during the Clinton years dealing with Saddam we would not be in Iraq now. Clinton had a chance to overthrow Saddam in 1996. It was a joint venture between CIA and the Kurds but he got cold feet at the last minute. It would require our military involvement. Clinton had his own “Bay of Pigs”
The sanctions were eroding away after that incident. The Middle East countries who wanted to over throw Saddam couldn’t count on the United States to back them up. We were losing our creditability back then and our inactions allow the problem to fester. Saddam’s rebel-rousing propaganda enraged the Islamic Jihadist.
To say there is no connection between Saddam’s Iraqi Intelligence and Islamic Jihadist is being very naive. If they were not working together they were singing two part harmony.
The next disaster was Desert Fox in 1998. After that 96 hour air campaign Saddam decided not to allow UN inspectors to come back into Iraq. So we had nearly four years without UN inspection. This is what Saddam did during UN absence.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/report/2004/isg-final-report/isg-final-report_vol1_rfp-toc.htm
When the Democrats are incharge they will be soft on international scene and we will pay for it later. Just like what we did on 911.
great post Lisa
I had also heard one other explanation for why GWB hasn’t come out with this information and that’s that he’s protecting Putin’s reputation. I mean, how bad would it be for everyone involved for the world to find out that not only did Saddam have WMD’s, but Russia was supplying them, and helping Saddam hide them. All of this after Bush looked into Putin’s soul and found him to be a good man…
Jim C
Jim C,
“I had also heard one other explanation for why GWB hasn’t come out with this information and that’s that he’s protecting Putin’s reputation.”
Shouldn’t part of the blame go to Boris Yeltson?
He was in office from 1991 – 1999.
When the Soviet Union collasped so did the Russian economy.
Russian officers got into the illicit arms deals with the Russian Mafia.
Until Putin got into power Russia was the Wild Wild East.
Don’t forget during the Kosovo Conflict Saddam was exchanging weapons for oil from Slobodan Milosevic in the former Yugoslavia. Both were Pariahs and had to count on each other for logistic support. Also check out article bottom of page of the Telegraph called “Saddam seeks Kamikazi squad”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1999/03/28/wkosa128.html
Bio on Milosevic.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/03/30/milosevic.profile/
Human Rights Group suspected the Serbs using chemicals weapons against the Muslims.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/217753.stm