27
And there were also some crates marked “Acme.”
Iraq’s WMD Secreted in Syria, Sada Says
By IRA STOLL - Staff Reporter of the Sun
January 26, 2006
Yes, with Judy Miller out of commission, the NY Sun can now scoop the Times!
The pilots told Mr. Sada that two Iraqi Airways Boeings were converted to cargo planes by removing the seats, Mr. Sada said. Then Special Republican Guard brigades loaded materials onto the planes, he said, including “yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel.” The pilots said there was also a ground convoy of trucks.
Then on the Syrian side, government agents gave the Republican Guard big sacks marked ‘$,’ and everyone drank from a clay jug with ‘XXX’ on it.
More likely, here’s what just crashed through the wall at the Sun:
The flights - 56 in total, Mr. Sada said - attracted little notice because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in June of 2002.
Nice mise en scène, standing up barrels of WMDs in airliners, labeling them with a generic skull-and-crossbones, and nobody wearing hazmat suits or anything — while using as cover a flood in Syria eight months earlier. And this worked 56 times without a major disaster? When even Powerline hedges its bets on a story like this, you know you’ve got a Kool-Aid Klassic.
Bradrocket adds:
And even if, by some fucked-up Satanic-leprechaun-miracle, this story turns out to be true, it’s not a good thing. It’d mean that we invaded Iraq to disarm Saddam Hussein, only to see his weapons fly into the hands of Hezbollah. Not. Very. Smart.
Pinko Punko said,
January 27, 2006 at 10:48
Oh YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!
merlallen said,
January 27, 2006 at 12:11
They have to be somewhere. We know they are not under Mr. bush’s desk or where ever it is that the Nat’l Press Club meets.
mdhåtter said,
January 27, 2006 at 14:22
I liked the one where the WMD were buried under the highways.
so, be sure to rip up all their major roads on our way out.
Brad R. said,
January 27, 2006 at 15:05
So why hasn’t Syria supplied said WMD to the insurgents they’re funding? C’mon, wingers, you’re smarter than this…
TravisG said,
January 27, 2006 at 15:28
They have to be somewhere. We know they are not under Mr. bush’s desk or where ever it is that the Nat’l Press Club meets.
Partisan sniping aside, you must admit that it was very clever of the president to begin his search for the weapons where we’d least suspect it.
celticgirl said,
January 27, 2006 at 15:39
Riiiiiiiight - how very convenient. These guys sure know how to flog a dead horse, don’t they?
U.S. to so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ - “Time to invade Syria! Who’s with us?”
*crickets*
Mal de mer said,
January 27, 2006 at 16:15
Boy, I really missed out on this. For only couple of thousand, or an advance from Regnery on a book I could write in few days, I’d provide a really good story about where the WMD’s are, and one even more believable than this:
*ahem*…They’re in France.
teh l4m3 said,
January 27, 2006 at 16:41
And Time thought they were so clever, with that “We Got Him!” cover — just because George W. walked Saddam off the edge of the cliff and handed him an anvil.
Sheesh.
DUDACKATTACK!!! said,
January 27, 2006 at 17:47
There are no WMD’s in Syria.
Because there is no oil there, either….
Pere Ubu said,
January 27, 2006 at 18:03
“yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel.”
Um, yeah. That’ll work. I can just see it now:
“Achmed, you don’t happen to remember which barrel was the anthrax and which one was the nerve gas, do you?”
and, of course, the “convoy of trucks” which somehow managed to sneak out of one of the most highly-surveiled countries in history.
The sad part is that the wingnuts will eat this up, no matter what. Frankly, though, I’m surpised given the recent propaganda that they aren’t claiming Iran as the recipients.
Strange Forces said,
January 27, 2006 at 18:38
Pere-
Why would we be upset with Iran? I mean they hate the gays, we hate the gays; We’re pals!
FlipYrWhig said,
January 27, 2006 at 20:25
That’s nothing. When the pilots found out about the cargo, they were so concerned that they held up little signs saying “Uh oh.”
Timmah420 said,
January 27, 2006 at 21:08
Wow, if this is the believability of the new neo-con lies, I think we can safely say that their propoganda machine is having a major breakdown.
I’ve seen high school drama class plays with a more coherent and plausible story.
Dawg said,
January 27, 2006 at 21:57
I’m a little surprised Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard didn’t write this story first. He churns these things out like pellets dropping from a deer’s butt.
As for Mr. Stoll, I’m sure he’s counting his Pulitzer money even as we speak. I mean Iraqis have proven to be such good sources in the past.
Andrew A. Gill, SLS said,
January 28, 2006 at 6:34
Hey! This is great info! Next time I want to smuggle something into the country, I’ll label 56 boxes:
“DEFINITELY NOT ILLEGAL TO IMPORT”
If 56 airplanes going from one of the most repressive regimes in the world to one of the most active terrorist countries doesn’t arouse suspicion, so long as it’s listed as a civillian flight?
Anything I do is gonna be golden.
Marq said,
January 28, 2006 at 9:07
That’s how they told the generic barrels apart: post-it notes, with hand-written notes like “NOT anthrax” and “NO VX gas in here.” Of course, the content of the first barrel would have been anthrax, and of the second, VX nerve gas. Ah, the magic of reverse psychology!
Citizen Twenty said,
January 29, 2006 at 23:08
I saw an interview with the pathetic little iraqi chimp the white house has trotted out to spread this story/bullshit around.
The Fox interviewer completely accepted his story as if the fellow had also written one of the chapters in the bible.
I am a bit surprised though, it certainly took the Bush PR machine a long time to crap out this latest masterpiece.
anna said,
March 25, 2006 at 16:26
Did anyone see the interview with Georges Sada,
(the ‘chimp’ guy,on the Jon Stewart Show?
He (JS)could have used the skull and crossbones, $ and XXX bit above!
JOanzi said,
May 29, 2006 at 3:14
Read:
The Holmes Blog
Fact Check On General Georges Sada’s Tall Tales
Hats off to Philip Holmes. I wish I had found his writeup before wasting time reading the Amazon wingnuttia reviews from the christia-nuttia crowd that published the book and pays for the guy’s speaking engagements!
JOanzi said,
May 29, 2006 at 3:17
Read
The Holmes Blog
Fact Check On General Georges Sada’s Tall Tales
Hats off to Philip Holmes. I wish I had found his writeup before wasting time reading the Amazon wingnuttia reviews from the christia-nuttia crowd that published the book and pays for the guy’s speaking engagements