Assad moving chemical weapons to Iraq and Lebanon, says Syria opposition General

[morningfog]

(CNN) - The head of the opposition Free Syrian Army told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday he has intelligence showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government is moving its chemical weapons out of the country.

"Today, we have information that the regime began to move chemical materials and chemical weapons to Lebanon and to Iraq," Gen. Salim Idriss said from inside Syria.

CNN could not independently verify Idriss' claim.

Several senior Israeli officials told CNN's Elise Labott that they have not seen movements into Lebanon or Iraq, and that they did not believe it made sense for the Syrians to be moving weapons so soon.

And Iraq categorically denied that chemical weapons had crossed into its territory, with an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speculating "there is a political agency behind this claim."

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/12/assad-moving-chemical-weapons-to-iraq-and-lebanon-syria-opposition-general-salim-idriss-claims-to-cnns-amanpour/

WMDs love to make that trip.

[kelliekat44]

1. Maybe they are moving them to a designated spot for the inspectors? nt

[morningfog]

3. I doubt it:

http://mobilebeta.reuters.com/syria-chemical-weapons-sites-being-dispersed-1

An elite Syrian unit that runs the government's chemical arms program has been scattering the weapons to dozens of sites across the country, potentially complicating U.S. plans for air strikes, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The newspaper, citing unnamed U.S. officials and lawmakers briefed on the intelligence, said on its website on Thursday that a secretive military group known as Unit 450 had been moving the stocks around for months to help avoid detection of the weapons.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies and Middle Eastern officials still believe they know the location of most of the government's chemical weapons supply, the Journal said. But "we know a lot less than we did six months ago about where the chemical weapons are," one official was quoted as saying.

[cthulu2016]

2. This is the rebel group we support, BTW

For whatever that is worth in either direction

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. ah yes, flashback

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gohmert-iraq-had-wmd-rumors-they-moved-stockpile-syria

Remember when Goehmert (and other RW loons) claimed Sadam moved the stockpile to Syria? Yes, yes he did.