On Saturday, January 10, 2004, at 12:38 AM, Eubulides wrote:
> Syria Role On Iraqi Arms Is Studied
> By Mike Allen
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Saturday, January 10, 2004; Page A15
>
>
> National security adviser Condoleezza Rice reeled off a list of White
> House grievances against Syria yesterday and said the administration is
> investigating a report that Iraq stashed weapons of mass destruction
> across the border in Syria.
>
> Rice, briefing reporters in advance of President Bush's trip to Mexico
> next week, said the United States will "tie down every lead" about any
> possible disposition of unconventional weapons by Iraq, including the
> possibility that some were smuggled into Syria. U.S. forces have
> searched
> for months without finding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, a failure
> that has bedeviled the White House.
>
> Rice said the United States has "a number of issues that we'd like to
> talk
> to . . . the Syrians about." These include "the borders with Iraq and
> what
> may have happened in the past there and what may be continuing to
> happen
> there; Syrian support for terrorism in Damascus, particularly support
> for
> Hezbollah and Hamas, and their relationship with Lebanon in that
> regard,"
> she said.
>
> As for the possibility that Syria hid chemical and biological weapons
> for
> Iraq, Rice said: "I don't think we are at the point that we can make a
> judgment on this issue. There hasn't been any hard evidence that such a
> thing happened. But obviously we're going to follow up every lead, and
> it
> would be a serious problem if that, in fact, did happen."
>
> Administration officials have been expressing increasing frustration
> with
> Syria and have said the country "is on the wrong side in the war on
> terror." U.S. officials believe some key leaders of Saddam Hussein's
> Baath
> Party escaped into Syria, which has a Baathist Party regime and
> remains on
> the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. The
> administration also has complained that Syria has let foreign fighters
> cross the border with Iraq to attack U.S. troops; Damascus has denied
> that.
>
> Rice was asked about reports claiming that Hussein used ambulances to
> smuggle chemical and biological weapons to three sites hidden in Syria
> in
> the months before the U.S. invasion in March. News services said the
> claim
> was made yesterday on Britain's independent Channel 5 News by a Syrian
> dissident, Paris-based human rights campaigner Nizar Nayyouf, who said
> he
> had been given the information by a senior source inside Syrian
> military
> intelligence he had known for two years.
>
> Rice said she "can't dismiss anything that we haven't had an
> opportunity
> to fully assess," but she said the administration has no "indications
> that
> I would consider credible and firm that that has taken place."
>
> The smuggling report followed an interview this week in which Syrian
> President Bashar Assad told London's Daily Telegraph that he would not
> abandon his country's suspected chemical and biological programs unless
> Israel gives up its undeclared nuclear arsenal.
>
>
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