(FOX News) Claudia Rosett- Packed into the Iraq Survey Group report from CIA chief weapons sleuth Charles Duelfer is news that there were some mighty big crumbs for many countries that loudly defended Saddam during last year's debates at the UN. Take Syria. Saddam's government signed contracts with a Syrian company owned by a relative of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to buy "portable air defense systems, Kornet antitank guided missiles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), heavy machine guns, and 20 million machinegun rounds for delivery to Iraq," according to a former high-ranking Iraqi official. Plenty of forbidden items poured through Syria into Iraq, including munitions that may still be killing coalition troops and Iraqi civilians. For the final two years of Saddam's regime, Duelfer's report explains: "Syria was Iraq's primary conduit for illicit imports," handling contracts for $1.2 billion worth of forbidden goods and services, including weapons and military technology.
2004-10-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive