The New York Sun looked into the allegation that Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria before the war started. And comes up with these tidbits:
Retired Israeli Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force from July 2002 to June 2005, says Saddam “transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."
General Yaalon made similar remarks in April 2004, saying of the Iraqi weapons, "Perhaps they transferred them to another country, such as Syria."
An official at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, Entifadh Qanbar, said he believed the Israeli general's account.When, during an interview with the Sun in April, Vice President Cheney was asked whether he thought that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been moved to Syria, Mr. Cheney replied only that he had seen such reports.
An article in the Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on December 23, 2002, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria." The allegation was denied by the Syrian government at the time as "completely untrue."
Two years ago it was reported that 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.
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