"COMING CLEAN" ON IRAQI WMD IN SYRIA

Author: Jim Guirard -- TrueSpeak Institute

Submitted to but rejected by several media outlets in mid-2004

Author's Note: In late 2003, some months before its unsuccessful submittal to the media, the draft Executive Order featured in this op-ed essay was submitted without public notice to the White House and was seriously evaluated by "the right people" for a period of about six weeks before being rejected without comment.

I believed at the time, and am even more convinced today by information learned since then, that the Administration felt that the tactic explained below, indeed, might work -- but that in the process the Russians would be caught "red-handed" in the smuggling of Iraqi WMD into and through Syria.

My speculation: Convinced that our weapons inspectors would be able to prove the existence of Iraqi WMD by other means -- as they might yet prove by continued searches and via the ongoing translation of millions of documents in Saddam's archives -- an understandable decision was made to opt against an approach that might have settled the WMD issue in President Bush's and America's everlasting favor but might also have caused a huge confrontation with Vladimir Putin's increasingly communoid Russia. .... Jim Guirard

Over the past several months, all candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination for the presidency and most elements of the establishment media have joined forces in accusing the Bush Administration of exaggerating, hyping and deceiving with regard to the issue of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.

But, true to their shared negative attitudes toward the President's policies of liberation and democracy in Iraq, all of these critics have proceeded to do the very same thing -- to exaggerate, hype and deceive in concluding that, indeed, Saddam Hussein had no such weapons.... BUSH LIED! ... CASE CLOSED!

Of course, their anti-Bush tactics are as careless of the national security interests of this country as they are hateful and viciously partisan. All of these increasingly harsh critics of "the Bushies," as New York Times columnist Maureen "Dowdy" Dowd derisively calls them, conveniently ignore vital parts of WMD investigator David Kay's recent testimony to the Congress, in which he

estimates that the search for WMD within Iraq is "only about 85% completed" (while CIA Director George Tenet says it is "not nearly" that complete) and may yet discover significant chemical and biological caches there;
speculates that Iraqi WMD might have been spirited away before, during or after the war to (or thru) neighboring and friendly Syria and Occupied Lebanon, where no WMD search whatever has been conducted.

Usually ignored or buried deep in the media's story is Dr. Kay's observation that "we were all wrong, probably" -- the last and usually ignored word of testimony carrying with it at least the possibility of the opposite result.

And almost always suppressed is Dr. Kay's assertion that he would almost surely have come to the same conclusions re the likely presence of WMD in Iraq as George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair did -- and as the 14-member UN Security Council did in its unanimous vote on Res.1441, as well.

In addition to the obvious need to await results from the remaining 15-30% of the ongoing search inside Iraq (Who, after all, would have dared to stop the recent Super Bowl game with 10-12 minutes remaining?), the Democrat candidates, the media, the foreign policy community and the general public would do well to demonstrate their objectivity in this matter by supporting a Presidential demand that Syria and Occupied Lebanon open themselves to inspections and searches that are just as intrusive as those which are still underway in Iraq.

To this end, and in fair-minded pursuit of an opportunity to settle the vital WMD issue for once and for all, why not encourage the Bush Administration and the Coalition of the Willing to offer Syria a "safe haven" way to avoid the prospect of both regime change and criminal prosecution if Iraqi WMD were, indeed, to be found there.

Such a plan might take some form of the following draft of a Presidential Edict or Proclamation -- directed not only toward the Syrian Government generally but also toward President Bashar Al-Assad and each of his Ministers of Government individually, as well

PROPOSAL: A GEORGE W. BUSH EXECUTIVE ORDER RE POSSIBILITY OF IRAQI WMD IN SYRIA....

There is mounting and increasingly persuasive intelligence that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were moved from Iraq into Syria and/or Occupied Lebanon, or trans-shipped elsewhere, either before or during or after the liberation of Iraq from the fascist-left tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

Because it is uncertain whether Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was either aware of or criminally complicit in such suspected transfers of WMD to or through Syria or Occupied Lebanon, he and his Ministers of Government may not be culpable of such willful collaboration with the mass murderers of the now-deposed Saddamite dictatorship of Iraq.

In a spirit of compassion for the long-repressed peoples of Syria and of Occupied Lebanon, and in a spirit of generosity toward the person and Ministers of Government of the relatively young and inexperienced President Al-Assad, the Government of the United States of America hereby proclaims with utmost solemnity:

that it strongly suspects that Iraqi WMD are hidden or stored in Syria and/or in Syrian-occupied Lebanon, or have been transported elsewhere through these countries;
that it is determined to find, confiscate and destroy such WMD wherever they are located, in order that such deadly materials do not fall into the hands of rogue governments or of terrorist evildoers (mufsidoon) of any description;
that it does hereby accord the President of Syria and each of his Ministers a qualified presumption of innocence for the suspected presence of Iraqi WMD in Syria or in Occupied Lebanon, or which have been transported elsewhere from these nations;
that it does hereby accord President Al-Assad and his Ministers individually a period of thirty (30) calendar days from this date to certify whether or not Iraqi WMD are present anywhere in -- or have been transported through -- Syria or Occupied Lebanon either before, during or after the recent liberation of Iraq;
that if these WMD are admitted by President Al-Assad to be present in or to have been transported through these nations but are immediately turned over -- or if comprehensive information enabling their confiscation is immediately turned over -- to the United States and its Coalition Partners, President Al-Assad and any of his Ministers who formally join in this admission will be considered personally ignorant of and, therefore, guiltless of the crime of having received, hidden or trans-shipped this particular contraband; but,
that if the President of Syria and his Ministers fail to certify in a timely fashion or formally deny any complicity in or knowledge of the receipt, hiding or trans-shipment of any Iraqi WMD whatever, and if such denial is later proven to be false (either that they knew or reasonably should have known), the United States of America will consider this an intentional act of betrayal and enmity, and as presumptive evidence of his and his Ministers' past and present collaboration with both the person and the criminal regime of the deposed Saddam Hussein -- with all appropriate consequences of liberation, regime change and criminal prosecution to follow at a time chosen by the Government of the United States and its Coalition of the Willing allies.

Now that Saddam Hussein has been ignominiously captured and imprisoned, and now that Libya's Muammar Qaddafi has quietly allowed US and British confiscation of his WMD programs and hardware, what about Syria's Baathist leadership?

One would expect that Mr. Al-Assad and his Ministers -- who are all individually and equally vulnerable under the terms set forth in this proposed Presidential Edict -- might opt to "come clean" and to earn the prospect of staying in power and of living out their normal lives.

Put yourself in their hot seat. What would you do? -- particularly if you are guilty as sin and if you then Imagine a determined President George W. Bush being re-elected and having four more years after this one to find what he is looking for and to punish the miscreants.

Jim Guirard -- TrueSpeak Institute 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com

Jim Guirard is a Washington, DC attorney, national security consultant and writer. He spent many years as Chief of Staff to US Senators Allen Ellender and Russell Long of Louisiana. His new TrueSpeak Institute is devoted to truth-in-language and truth-in-history in public discourse.