No Doubt, CentCom Leader Says -- Iraq Had WMDs
by Chad Groening
September 27, 2004
(AgapePress) - The former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command says the U.S. had very credible intelligence that Iraq indeed possessed weapons of mass destruction prior to last year's invasion by coalition forces.In both October 2002 and January 2003, Senator John Kerry stated his belief -- and backed it up with votes in favor of invading Iraq -- that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and represented a real threat to America's security. Now candidate Kerry and his supporters are criticizing President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, based on the premise that no WMDs have been found there.
But in his new book Inside CentCom: The Unvarnished Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Regnery Publishing, 2004), retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong cites evidence that those weapons did exist.
"We had, let's just say, very, very, very credible [intelligence] from multiple sources that said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," the general says. "And about two days before the war, a large number of the senior Iraqis went to Syria with billions of dollars and -- quote -- 'suitcases with weapons of mass destruction in them' -- being biological weapons."
DeLong, described in the book as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's "answer man" during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ran CentCom -- the nerve center of both wars -- while Army General Tommy Franks was in the field. He says it is clear the Iraqis moved the evidence of WMDs prior to the invasion.
"Is it buried somewhere?" he asks. "The answer is, yes -- that's probably where it is. But it was there before, and they didn't get rid of it."
He says there is no doubt in his mind that the WMDs are hidden in Syria, Lebanon, possibly along the Iran-Iraq border, or buried in the vast desert of Iraq, which is the size of California.
