Syria Pulls Terrorists out of their Hat.
This is certainly an interesting story:
CAIRO, Egypt – Iraqi officials said Sunday that Syrian authorities had captured Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and 29 other officials of the deposed dictator’s Baath Party in Syria and handed them over to Iraq in an apparent goodwill gesture.
Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a former Saddam adviser suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam, was captured in Hasakah in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, two senior Iraqi officials told The Associated Press by telephone on condition of anonymity. Hasakah is about 30 miles from the Iraqi border.
They added that al-Hassan was captured and handed over to Iraqi authorities along with 29 other members of Saddam’s collapsed Baath Party, whose Syrian branch has been in power in Damascus since 1963.
Refresh my memory. Didn’t Syria spend a lot of time telling us that no way, no how were there any members of Hussein’s regime hiding out in Syria? Didn’t the Syrian government spend a lot of diplomatic effort to assure us that there was no chance that anyone fom Hussein’s regime were sponsoring the terrorism in Iraq fron inside Syria? Did they tell us that they were actively and vigorously working to round up anyone from the Hussein regime who fled into Syria?
I sure do recall them saying all of that.
So tell me, what was this man and his 29 cohorts doing running free for so long only to be miraculously captured and remanded to Iraq at the exact moment Syria needed a goodwill gesture?
And answer me this. What else from the Hussein regime might still be hidden away in Syria?
Guesses anyone? You get bonus points for guesses that include tractor trailer loads of things that make loud *BOOM* noises and dispers all sorts of nasty toxic things into the air.
Related posts:
- Oh Poor Us! Syria Won't Return Our Calls Anymore.
- Syria Involved in Hariri Murder; Annan Involved in Whitewash?
- Chalk Up Another Terrorist
- The King of Clubs, Busted
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[...] elections in Egypt. The UAE contemplates elections as well. Protests continue in Lebanon. Syria caves to pressure and miraculously turns up Saddam’s bro-in-law and 29 others. Folks, dis [...]
But Jimmie!! You KNOW the most logical explanation for the Iraqi WMD's not being stacked up in neat rows at big buildings in downtown Baghdad labeled "WMD Warehouse" was OBVIOUSLY because they all NEVER REALLY EXISTED! Obviously. I mean, that just so CLEARLY would be a far better explanation than them being smuggled across the border into the custody of a fellow Ba'athist thugocracy while the US military was busy telegraphing their punches.
/sarcasm off
Funny how that happened, wasn't it? I mean, really, if the Syrian government wanted to promote any level of plausible deniability as to the fact that they've known where these guys were all along, you'd think they would have at least had the sense to turn over fewer than the absurdly large (not to mention round) figure of 30 scumbags all at once. They had to have been feeling some serious pressure. And this is just the beginning.
Here's a way to make all the Syrian statements true at once (at least, all the ones you've mentioned in this post):
1. No way, no how are any of Hussein's regime hiding out in Syria. We (the Syrian government) know where they are, so we can't say they're hiding. At least, not successfully.
2. No one from Hussein's regime is sponsoring Iraqi terrorism from inside Syria. We have Syrians for that.
3. Syria is actively and vigorously working to round up members of the Hussein regime. In fact, we've caught dozens of them. We're just not going to tell anyone about it, until we're finished with them.
4. We've captured 30 Iraqis! Now, just don't get too inquisitive about how long ago we did that, or whether we're holding any more….
I'm not claiming this theory is correct–maybe the Syrian government did lie–but I've heard facts twisted just as badly…just last year, during the presidential election, for instance.
Erich – You may well be right. However, during the last Presidential election campaign (and even before that, during the war preparation), lots of folks were jumping up and down and hollering about all the traffic between Syria and Iraq. It didn't get much attention because, hey, Syria voted for the US Resolution that authorized the war so the CW said that there's no way it would be working at cross-purposes with it.
But it sure made a lot of sense then and doesn't make any less sense now.