War (of Words) with Syria

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Thursday, Oct 30, 2003

[The WaPo article referred to below.]

Commanders Doubt Syria Is Entry Point
Officers See No Sign Of Foreign Fighters
Washington Post -- October 28, 2003

"If somebody is saying the Ho Chi Minh Trail runs through my area of operations, I'm going to tell them they're wrong," said Lt. Col. Joseph Buche, commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Battalion.
- mark 10-30-2003 8:03 am [link]

[Did anyone remember to brief the Dubster?]

US commanders: Claims about illegal infiltration from Syria to Iraq - ''unfounded''
Al Bawaba -- October 29, 2003

Commanders of U.S. military forces responsible for monitoring the border between Iraq and Syria told The Washington Post there is no evidence from human intelligence sources or radar surveillance aircraft indicating that significant numbers of foreign fighters are infiltrating into Iraq illegally.

U.S. President, George Bush, on Tuesday blamed foreign fighters for four suicide car bombings in Baghdad on Monday that killed at least 40 people.

Under a project that the U.S. military calls Operation Chamberlain, sophisticated Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) planes are gathering information about vehicle movement and relaying it to ground forces.

Commanders from the 101st Airborne have told the newspaper that neither the aircraft nor human intelligence sources show significant infiltration from Syria. "Concerns about illegal infiltration along the Syrian border appear unfounded," the officers told The Post.
- mark 10-30-2003 7:54 am [link] [1 ref]

Syria slams ICRC attack as harming Iraqi interests
Reuters -- October 29, 2003


- mark 10-30-2003 7:46 am [link]

[A hunch, you say? Lock and load!]

U.S. VOICES ASSESSMENT OF WMD TO SYRIA
Middle East Newsline -- October 29, 2003

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- For the first time, the U.S. intelligence community has released an assessment that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were transferred to neighboring Syria in the weeks prior to the U.S.-led war against the Saddam Hussein regime.

U.S. officials said the assessment was based on satellite images of convoys of Iraqi trucks that poured into Syria in February and March 2003. The officials said the intelligence community assessed that the trucks contained missiles and WMD components banned by the United Nations Security Council.

The U.S. intelligence assessment was discussed publicly for the first time by the director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in a briefing in Washington on Tuesday. James Clapper, a retired air force general and a leading member of the U.S. intelligence community, said he linked the disappearance of Iraqi WMD with the huge number of Iraqi trucks that entered Syria before and during the U.S. military campaign to topple the Saddam regime.

"I think personally that the [Iraqi] senior leadership saw what was coming and I think they went to some extraordinary lengths to dispose of the evidence," Clapper said. "I'll call it an educated hunch."
- mark 10-30-2003 7:44 am [link]

Syria to get Iranian help amid US sanctions threat
AFP via Borneo Bulletin -- October 29, 2003


- mark 10-30-2003 7:38 am [link]

Syria, China hail bilateral relations
China View -- October 29, 2003


- mark 10-30-2003 7:35 am [link]

U.S. says WMD went from Iraq to Syria
UPI via Washington Times -- October 29, 2003


- mark 10-30-2003 7:33 am [link]

[Oh yeah Mr. Lebanese politician, well NRO wants you dead.]

“If You Harbor a Terrorist”
Striking Syria to save Iraq
National Review Online -- October 27, 2003


- mark 10-30-2003 7:31 am [link]

Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003

US fury over comment on Wolfowitz's near escape
smh.com.au -- October 29, 2003

A top Lebanese politician has enraged the US embassy by saying he hoped the next attack on the the US Defence Department's No. 2, Paul Wolfowitz, would prove fatal
- mark 10-29-2003 12:22 am [link]

Saturday, Oct 18, 2003

Mofaz: Winds of war aren't blowing from Damascus
Ha'aretz -- October 17, 2003


- mark 10-18-2003 9:16 am [link]