September 26, 2004 Bulletin

Ex-CENTCOM No. 2: Intel Showed Iraq Smuggled Out WMDs

Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong, the number two in command of the Iraq war until last September, has revealed that U.S. military intelligence had determined that WMD were being smuggled out of Iraq even as the United States forces were preparing to invade.

"I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon and Iran," Gen. DeLong told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, while discussing his new book, "Inside CENTCOM: The Unvarnished Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

"Two days before the war, on March 17 [2003], we saw through multiple intelligence channels - both human intelligence and technical intelligence - large caravans of people and things, including some of the top 55 [most wanted] Iraqis, going to Syria," Gen. DeLong explained.

"We also know that before then, they buried some of the weapons of mass destruction," he added. "There are also some in Lebanon and probably a small amount in Iran."

The WMD smuggling operation didn't require large vehicles, the ex-general explained.

"In order to transport their biological weapons, they could take their entire experimental weapons system in one or two suitcases - pretty easy to hide," he told Malzberg.

As for Saddam's chemical weapons cache, his deputies could have fit them into "a van - probably one van or two vans and either bury it or drive it across one of the borders," DeLong said.

Human intelligence, said the former number two CENTCOM chief, indicated that Saddam's deputies also "took billions of dollars with them when they went into Syria."

It's no surprise that weapons buried in Iraq have yet to be uncovered. "Seven-eighths of the country is arid desert and it's the size of California. You could probably bury 100 Empire State Buildings in Iraq and not find them," the one-time CENTCOM deputy maintained.

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Viewpoints, Outlook

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