Given continued revelations about the Syrian regime (the Hariri assassination and others), I am interested if anyone knows any follow-up to my postings on here last January about Syrian dissident writer Nizar Nayouf. At that time Nayouf, a man of considerable distinction according several human rights organizations, was telling the world nefarious things about his native country. From the Washington Times coverage:
Syria’s Central Bank and the Medina Bank in Lebanon are holding at least $2 billion in cash, as well as gold bullion and platinum, that was smuggled out of Iraq, according to a letter written on the stationery of the Syrian army’s intelligence department.
The letter says $1.3 billion was deposited in the Syrian Central Bank in an official “presidency” account, while another $700 million was placed in the Medina Bank. The document does not state the value of the gold and platinum, although it says these are also in the Syrian Central Bank.
The handwritten letter to a Syrian exile in Europe, which also bears what appears to be the official stamp of the Syrian army intelligence department, says the deal was struck not long before a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq early last year.
The document was sent to Nizar Nayouf, an exiled Syrian human-rights activist and past winner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Press Freedom Prize who is living in Paris.
While the claims in the letter could not be further verified, Mr. Nayouf, a journalist and democracy activist who was released from a Syrian prison in May 2001, said past information provided by the same person had proved reliable.
The letter names two members of the Lebanese parliament as go-betweens.
To what extent has this been followed up? To what extent has the possibility that Saddam outsourced his WMDs to Syria at the same time as his money been researched? You can bet our mainstream media won’t waste a nickle on the task. Not part of their narrative. But this is one of the great stories of the Iraq War. And it just sits there.
(Hint: The French website Proche-Orient.info is a good place to start).
The fact that Saddam outsourced his WMDs to Syria appears to be the consensus opinion among Israeli Intelligence officials as well as some of its military officers. I put in a blog post about it here.
From a May 6, 2003 NY Times article:
We can assume that the Syrians are taking their cut for keeping the money for Saddam and his now-deceased sons. Of course, the money could be in use in order to help finance the “insurgents”.
You heard it here first.
I’ve put my money on Iraqi WMD went to Syria and also the BeKaa Valley in Lebanon from day one.
They had help to by our friendly Russians. Do you suppose the US Strafing run on the “diplomatic” limos highballing to Syrian border as Baghdad fell was not an accident?
And where do you suppose are friend Zarqawi’s raiders destine to set off one hell of a chem/weapons cloud in Amman, Jordan a year or so ago got their chem supplies from?
Where’s the MSM on these stories? Can’t seem to find their berrings with all the, “Bush Lied” furry.
We wish to invest this money in the United States. We will share it with you if you give us access to your bank account so we can transfer it…