Intel Showed Iraq Smuggled Out WMDs

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

Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong (USMC Ret.), who until last
September was the No. 2 in command of the Iraq war
under Gen. Tommy Franks, revealed Sunday that U.S.
military intelligence had determined that weapons of
mass destruction were being smuggled out of the
country as the U.S. prepared 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," the former No. 2 CENTCOM chief said.

Human intelligence, said DeLong, 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 former Marine said.