New Book Claims WMD Went to Iran, Syria
Yossef Bodansky, the former director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare (and author of the best-seller “Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America”) in his new book “The Secret History of the Iraq War” says that Iraqi chemical weapons were shipped to Iran and Syria.
On page 496, Bodansky writes that residual chemical weapons were sent to Iran in the fall of 2002 and stored in tunnels under the Zagros Mountains near Kermanshah. This is 15-20 miles from the Iraqi border and the tunnels are near Baba-Abbas and Khoram-Abbad and near Harour. Some (or all) of these chemical weapons then were transported to Lavizan district in Tehran in February 2003.
The information about WMD going to Iran is particularly interesting. It is said by most experts that Saddam Hussein hated and feared Iran, and he did harbor the Iranian opposition group, Mujhahideen-e-Khalq.
Update: Curt Weldon’s book also says WMD went to Iran, although post-war debriefings of Iraqi personnel are said to convey a huge fear of Iran. According to the Iraq Survey Group, the Iraqis wanted the status of their WMD to be unclear so as to have a deterrent against Iran. In addition, the person claiming to be General Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, a high-ranking Iraqi general who defected in 1990, said his sources did not say WMD went to Iran and he casted doubt on it.
Despite this contradictory information, these reports come from credible sources such as Bodansky and cannot be dismissed, although skepticism is understandable. I personally have not made up my mind on this one.
Bodansky’s book also provides information on the WMD movement to Syria and the Russian role in it.
“Russian intelligence sources” are cited as reporting that Iraqi Republican Guard units from Tikrit moved conventional weapons, as well as WMD including 100 GRAD multiple-barrel rocket launchers, some with chemical warheads, into Syria. “Lebanese sources with access to eastern Syria” confirmed their arrival (Pg. 231).
