Russian Special Forces Helped Protect WMD Move to Syria
A great article by The Washington Times provides more detail about the Russian role in evacuating Saddam’s WMDs. Gertz goes over the claims of Dr. John Shaw, but also says that a second defense official revealed that Iraq paid Russia to provide special forces to provide security for the arms provided by Russia and to conduct counter-intelligence to prevent Western intelligence from detecting the movement of weapons into Syria.
This second official also said that Russian personnel destroyed Iraqi documents that proved Russia’s role in providing Iraq with weapons. The official said other documents he had seen detailed the movement of parts for tanks and MiG jets, missile components and materials used to produce chemical weapons. The official said Russia’s Spetsnaz units used commercial trucks to ship the products into Syria.
U.S. intelligence also retrieved a 26-page document written by Iraq’s Minister of Military Industrialization, Abdul Tawab Mullah al-Huwaysh, which catalogued the extensive shipments of arms Russia provided.
Source: “Russia Tied to Iraq’s Missing Arms,” Washington Times, October 28, 2004.
