Quick Note on Syrian WMDs and Iraq

On the overall Syria situation, I have made clear my strong view that the Obama misadministration is leading us into a disaster--almost regardless of the end result of the intervention, our national interests lose. In addition, we are apparently going to intervene in a half-baked manner that would not have been necessary had we maintained a base in Iraq. That base would have given us an ability to come at the Syrians from two sides. A robust US military presence in Iraq also would have helped curb what is growing Iranian influence in Iraq, and hampered Iran's ability to intervene in Syria and Lebanon. Such, however, is the quality of our "leadership" that we are operating with self-imposed and severe handicaps, at the same time that we adopt grandiloquent objectives.

I notice some renewed speculation about the origin of Syria's stockpile of chemical WMDs. That reminds me of a little event in which I participated. The date, April 9, 2003, the day Saddam's statue was pulled down in Firdos Square in Baghdad. I was sitting in my office at a US Embassy in Asia. As were millions of others people around the world, I watched the destruction of Saddam's monument on TV. My phone rang; my office manager said that the Ambassador wanted me to take a call from Iraq's Embassy. I first thought it a joke, but, no, Iraqi Charge Abbas was indeed calling. I picked up the phone, and, in very good English, he immediately said, "I am calling from the Embassy of Liberated Iraq. I have told your Ambassador, you have done a good thing. You have given us freedom!" I was a bit surprised. This man had a reputation as one of the most loyal Saddamers around; just a few days prior he had been agitating for protests at the US Embassy. I had gone into the host nation Foreign Ministry to lodge my own protest over his activities. He previously had been, apparently, a senior official in the Iraqi Finance Ministry, and was very close to Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. He now wanted to talk, and was willing to come to our Embassy, but I was curious about the Iraqi Embassy and wanted to go there. We agreed to meet there in a couple of days if State approved.

On appointment day, I took along an Arabic-speaking officer from the political section, just in case our friend's English failed him. We arrived at a rather run down small facility. The Iraqi employees were friendly towards us, well, they did a lot of bowing and smiling, gave us tea, cookies, dates, and other sweets, and didn't shoot us. I felt a bit like Major Heinrik Strasser walking into Rick's Cafe in "Casablanca," not knowing quite what was going on, but, at least, nobody burst into La Marseillaise. The Iraqi Charge was a small, good-looking man, impeccably dressed and groomed. Abbas spoke very good English and French and, I believe, Turkish, along with his native Arabic, of course. We did a lot of chit chat, in which I asked about his family in Iraq. He hadn't heard from them, but had learned that his family home had been damaged, and sheepishly asked whether the USG would pay to repair it. I asked if Iraq had paid to repair damage it caused in Kuwait. He smiled. We talked about many things, most having no bearing on this story. I did, however, ask about Iraqi WMD. He denied vehemently that Iraq had nuclear weapons, although he acknowledged that Saddam had long wanted them and an Iraqi nuclear weapons program, in disrepair in recent years, did exist or had. He was uncomfortable, vague, and I think not too knowledgable on the topic. I asked about chemical weapons. He perked up. Abbas laughed. He claimed that Iraq managed to slip those into Syria, "Right under your noses!" He roared this line, letting his nationalist sentiment overwhelm his new putative role of American vassal. Abbas insisted that the weapons had gone by plane, and, mostly, by truck. We agreed that he would come to our Embassy for further conversations.

I dutifully reported back to State my conversation with the Iraqi. Never heard anything back.

He showed up a few days later at our Embassy; I turned him over to people better than I at interrogation. He spent several hours with them and then left. He, apparently, told them, again, that Iraq had smuggled chemical weapons into Syria. The interrogators, however, discounted this, telling me afterwards that it seemed unlikely that the Iraqis could have carried out this operation without our knowing.

Folks, it ain't much, I know, but that is all I know . . .well, about that, that is.

WLA