From the Washington Times:
Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein’s weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned. John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, “almost certainly” removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.“The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units,” Mr. Shaw said. “Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units.”
Debka reported that the weapons had been moved to Syria right around the time the invasion began, if I recall correctly. The notion that it was the Russians who did the moving is certainly new to me and is a pretty big deal that raises some serious questions about our “ally”, but I don’t quite understand how the idea that the weapons are in Syria – along with many families from the Iraqi Ba’ath elite, by the way – can possibly be considered breaking news.
Don’t get me wrong, confirmation is always a good thing, but it was pretty obvious that Hussein wasn’t ever going to send his toys to Iran and Syria is not just the only other Ba’athist regime in the world, it’s also right next door.