Surprised?
The cache of weapons was probably provided via the
US armament program as a thumb nose to the Soviets during the cold war and as a deterrent to the USSR invading after slaughtering Afganistan
Mujahideen (sp?)
The interesting point is that I would suspect the US to have dumped in black-market arms from disarming or buying out black-market weapons (available at your local
7 Eleven). Some of these probably had included arms from
Russia. Alternatively, these are arms might have been provided by Russia to assist
Iraq in repelling the US (or a deterrant to
Israel). In any case, it sounds like they were dumpped in country.
Some other interesting specilation falls along the lines of why. We know that why now is because the Bush government needs a way to repel Kerry's attack on the missing weapons (that went missing over a year ago). But why would the Russians smuggle them out? Why did they refuse to assist in the campaign to patrol the country? What about aid? Wasn't that forgotten by Russia too? Did they ever forgive the debit? I am sure
Saddam Hussein was extended credit from Russia.
If they were passed into Syria, wouldn't the Syrian government be a little nervous? What about the Saudi's? I can't imagine their intelligence wouldn't have noticed something like this. For cripes sake, didn't
Syria dump a shell or two into
Saudi Aribia? What about the
Turks? Didn't we offer to give them
an ass-load of money to help stage for crying out loud? You'd think they would watch their neighbors!?! Hell, my neighbors know
everything I do!!!
Guerrilla News Network: "By Bill Gertz
Republished from The Washington Times
U.S. officials believe special forces organized convoys
Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.
John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, �almost certainly� removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.
�The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units,� Mr. Shaw said. �Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units.�
Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.
Most of Saddam�s most powerful arms were systematically separated from other arms like mortars, bombs and rockets, and sent to Syria and Lebanon, and possibly to Iran, he said.
The Russian involvement in helping disperse Saddam�s weapons, including some 380 tons of RDX and HMX, is still being investigated, Mr. Shaw said.
The RDX and HMX, which are used to manufacture high-explosive and nuclear weapons, are probably of Russian origin, he said.
Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita could not be reached for comment.
The disappearance of the material was reported in a letter Oct. 10 fr"
