Syria on Board for Iraq?

[Communication]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82377,00.html

WASHINGTON — Senior Defense officials say they are seeing "military equipment" coming across the border from Syria to Iraq.





When pressed about what kind of equipment and how much, the officials said, "night vision goggles and other things," but would not elaborate on how much or how it is affecting the campaign.

The United States says Russia, too, has provided Iraq with night-vision goggles, as well as electronic jamming equipment that could alter the path of U.S. bombs and aircraft.

During diplomatic wrangling within the U.N. Security Council in the past few months, Syria unabashedly opposed any sort of military action in Iraq.

Syria "has been the major conduit for illegal military equipment" into Iraq, Fox News foreign affairs analyst Marc Ginsberg, said Thursday.

Ginsberg, a former U.N. ambassador to Morocco, said Syria has been making money off the oil it allows Iraq to illegally sell on the black market.

[redcake]

That's been my prediction all along. I wouldn't be shocked to see Syria come in by the time we get to Baghdad.

Keep in mind, if we're talking about land grabs, Syria wouldn't mind getting some of theirs back from Iraq. If Iraq falls it'll be a double threat to them having the US on one side, and Israel on the other, with the possibility that the US will allow Israel, and Jordan in there during the rebuild... or maybe even granting the right of return to Iraqi Jews.

My guess is Syria would hit in both directions, and go after Israel too...but either way I'm thinking Israel would jump once they get involved. Anyone else have a hunch on the matter???

[Communication]

Very interesting report from debka. Although debka always has to be taken with a grain of salt, they report:

Several hundred Lebanese Hizballah volunteers for Saddam’s army are on their way to Baghdad through Syria in a convoy organized by Syrian Army

DEBKAfile reported earlier that a Syrian bus hit by a US missile was part of the flow of Syrian-sponsored volunteers to Baghdad


This to me is very interesting because one of the propaganda pieces reported on one of the leftist radio stations I listen to said that the US recently bombed a bus, with no further explanation. SO I naturally figured that it was a civilian bues, because they didn't mention that it was an Iraqi military bus.

[Communication]

It's true:

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=277902&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0

Syria is granting free passage across its border with Iraq to volunteers who wish to join the fight against the U.S. and British forces. Thus far, dozens of volunteers, primarily Palestinians from the refugee camps in Lebanon, have crossed over into Iraq through Syrian-controlled border posts.

The passage of volunteers with Damascus's consent has given rise to the theory that the U.S.-fired missile that struck a Syrian bus traveling in Iraq was an intentional attack on a busload of such volunteers. The bus left Damascus on Sunday and was hit by the missile some 50 kilometers inside Iraqi territory. The missile strike left five people dead and dozens injured.

Speaking on the subject, the Syrian military analyst, Hitham al-Kilani, said in an interview on Al Jazeera, on 24 March, that "the Syrian border was opened to Syrian, Arab and Muslim volunteers wishing to reach Iraq and participate in the fighting against the American invasion."

[cerulean]

According to this article, the Daily Mail reported that Saddam's first wife (mother of the infamous Udai and Qusay and also Saddam's first cousin) and their three daughters have gone to Syria.

http://news.sify.com/cgi-bin/sifynews/news/content/news_fullstory_v2.jsp?article_oid=12968621&page_no=1
Saddam's wife, daughters safe in Syria
London, March 27


Saddam Hussein's first wife Sajida, mother of Uday and Qusay reportedly left for Damascus along with his daugthers Raghad, Rana and Hala, a few days before the bombing of Baghdad.

She is staying with the Iraqi Ambassador to Syria Mohammad Rafat Al Ani, claims the Daily Mail.

The paper attributes its information to Saddam's former minister of protocol Haitham Rashid Wihaib, who now lives in London. It adds the women left with three lorry loads of possessions and 60 bodyguards.

According to the report, Saddam Hussain has made extensive arrangements to "flee Iraq". He has sold off property to rich Iraqis and valuables in various countries to "raise millions in cash for his own exile". The transactions have been made in dollars and deposited outside Iraq.

The Daily Mail claims several senior ministers including Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz have also sent their families to Syria. Saddam Hussain and the ministers plan to join their families when Baghdad falls.

The information adds that an aeroplane is on a 24- hour standby to fly out the Iraqi leader. The report claims that the families could flee undetected because they had shifted close to the border much before hostilities started.

Wihaib has been quoted as saying, "He(Saddam) knows it is only a matter of time before he is defeated... and he has made sure for a very comfortable exile".

He predicts that the war will be over within the next two weeks. But Wihaib stressed that Saddam will never be captured alive. He has ordered his guards to shoot him if he fails to get away.

Does anyone have the original Daily Mail article?

The Ba'ath party started in Syria in the first place.

I think I read on Debka a few days ago that the Syrian bus actually was carrying volunteers to go fight in Iraq.

Anyway, if Saddam gets killed at some point soon, maybe his wife and daughters won't really care if Syria takes over Iraq or not. It sounds like they are set up for a comfortable existence elsewhere.

[localbrew]

Just as I suspected the IDF is going to sit around and expect the US military take care of Syria. In these days we count those who render us lip service and those who will fight with us. Thanks for the lip service (it really feels good) but only the UK to date has put their military ahead of their mouth in a meaningful way. I don’t count 2,000 troops by Australia as anything more than lip service with a tip after the fact.

American and British fighting men and women are in battle, dying and being taken prisoner while Israel is doing what? [edit]politics, the Muslim street and world opinion.[edit] This is war not a conversation at the UN.

[Communication]

Originally posted by localbrew
Just as I suspected the IDF is going to sit around and expect the US military take care of Syria. In these days we count those who render us lip service and those who will fight with us. Thanks for the lip service (it really feels good) but only the UK to date has put their military ahead of their mouth in a meaningful way. I don’t count 2,000 troops by Australia as anything more than lip service with a tip after the fact.

American and British fighting men and women are in battle, dying and being taken prisoner while Israel is doing what? [edit]politics, the Muslim street and world opinion.[edit] This is war not a conversation at the UN.

Actually, the US specifically told Israel to stay out of the war for political reasons.

[tandem]

Originally posted by Communication
Actually, the US specifically told Israel to stay out of the war for political reasons.
indeed. believe me localbrew there are quite a few commanders in the israeli military who would love to get the syrians, especially those commanders who served in the yom kippur war. the fact is the US asked israel to stay out of this war, which israel promised to do as long as israel is not attacked by iraq

[cerulean]

Israel was more or less ordered by the US not to strike back when Iraq hit it with Scuds in 1991. Fortunately, there were few fatalities, but lots of property damage from those Scuds, not to mention the distress people had to endure for a period of weeks. I think Israel has once again been ordered to stay out of this war, more or less, but my understanding is that Israel told the US it would not hold back if attacked by Iraq this time.

The reasoning is that if the US and Israel were both attacking an Arab country, it would look bad to the Arab world. Of course, it probably doesn't really make much difference, but that's the PR angle the US is taking.

=================
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/277670.html
Assad: Syria fears becoming next coalition target

By Daniel Sobelman, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies


Syrian President Bashar Assad was quoted in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir Thursday as hinting that Syria expects to be the next target of coalition forces.

"We will not wait until we become the next target," Assad was quoted as saying, adding that the attack on Iraq is aimed at other countries as well.

Assad also called on other Arab nations to oppose the coalition forces and called Israel a threat to Syria, Israel Radio reported.

As long as the state of Israel exists, Assad was quoted as saying, Syria remains threatened. He also said there's no chance that U.S. President George W. Bush's road map would put an end to the Palestinian intifada. . . .

Of course, so long as Syria does not supply terrorists and cause other general unrest, Israel is no threat to Syria. Syria and Israel could co-exist very peaceably, if Syria wanted to do so.

I do think that Assad had at least one true statement in that interview, though - that there's no chance the "roadmap" is going to end the Palestinian intifada.

[cerulean]

Now World Net Daily has an article about Saddam's family going to Syria that is very similar to the one I posted earlier in the thread. I think it might be based on the same source, although WND says it is based on a Sydney Daily Telegraph article.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31753

OPERATION: IRAQI FREEDOM
Saddam heading for Syria?
Report says dictator making preparations to flee Baghdad
Posted: March 27, 2003
5:00 p.m. Eastern


Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has made extensive preparations to flee Iraq and has already smuggled his family out to Syria, according to a report in the Sydney Daily Telegraph.

Just days before the bombing of Baghdad began, says the paper, Saddam's first wife, Sajida – mother of his heirs Uday and Qusay – fled to Damascus with three truckloads of possessions and 60 bodyguards.

In addition, the dictator reportedly has been selling off property and valuables to raise money for his exile.

Saddam's former protocol minister, Haitham Rashid Wihaib, told newspapers in London that Hussein's family members are staying with Iraq's ambassador to Syria.

According to the Telegraph report, several of his most senior lieutenants, including his deputy Tariq Aziz, also have sent their families on ahead to Syria before the fall of Baghdad.

The families were able to slip away because they had been staying close to the border for several weeks, avoiding allied monitoring of movements from Baghdad. . . .

Sydney Daily Telegraph article:
http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6199125%255E25778,00.html

[cerulean]

http://highmarkfunds.stockpoint.com/highmarkfunds/newspaper.asp?Mode=iraq&Story=20030328/087w1322.xml

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Mar 28, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Iraq's information minister on Friday denied U.S. claims that Syria was sending military equipment to Baghdad, calling the claims "baseless" and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "ridiculous."

"These accusations against brotherly Syria are of course baseless," Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said in an interview with Lebanon's Al-Hayat LBC satellite channel. "He (Rumsfeld) makes such lies on a daily basis."

At a Pentagon briefing Friday, Rumsfeld warned Syria to stop sending military equipment to Iraqi forces, saying such shipments have included night-vision goggles.

"We consider such trafficking as hostile acts and will hold the Syrian government accountable for such shipments," Rumsfeld said. . . .

Read the rest of the article to see more insults from the Iraqi information minister against Rumsfeld.

[Johnny Yuma]

Originally posted by Communication
Very interesting report from debka. Although debka always has to be taken with a grain of salt, they report:

Several hundred Lebanese Hizballah volunteers for Saddam’s army are on their way to Baghdad through Syria in a convoy organized by Syrian Army

DEBKAfile reported earlier that a Syrian bus hit by a US missile was part of the flow of Syrian-sponsored volunteers to Baghdad


This to me is very interesting because one of the propaganda pieces reported on one of the leftist radio stations I listen to said that the US recently bombed a bus, with no further explanation. SO I naturally figured that it was a civilian bues, because they didn't mention that it was an Iraqi military bus.

Donald Rumsfeld, in a Pentagon briefing today(I watched it), said the exact thing. He added that the US would and is looking upon these shipments by Syria and Russia as a hostile act against the coalition. He, also, warned Iran about Iraninan nationals who were in Iraq and aiding them, are considered combatants.

[Johnny Yuma]

Originally posted by tandem
indeed. believe me localbrew there are quite a few commanders in the israeli military who would love to get the syrians, especially those commanders who served in the yom kippur war. the fact is the US asked israel to stay out of this war, which israel promised to do as long as israel is not attacked by iraq

I don't remember our (I live here....) government announcing that publicly. They did during the Gulf War. Please cite your source.

[Johnny Yuma]

Originally posted by cerulean
I think I read on Debka a few days ago that the Syrian bus actually was carrying volunteers to go fight in Iraq.


New quips to write on US weapons: "Take Greyhound, and leave the driving to us...."