Powell Says No Hard Evidence Iraqi WMD Hidden in Syria
Syria-USA, Politics, 1/22/2004

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says there is "no hard evidence" to suggest that Iraqi stocks of weapons of mass destruction were hidden in neighboring Syria before the U.S. and coalition forces attacked last year.

While being interviewed by a reporter for WPHT radio in Philadelphia January 21, Powell was asked about critics of the administration who contend that the inability to find WMD in Iraq means the United States should not have attacked that country. In his response, Powell said Saddam Hussein's regime had used WMD in the past and appeared ready to develop WMD in the future.

"Why we haven't found stocks, we can't answer that," Powell said. "We're still looking. Is it because they were destroyed, as they knew we were coming or something else happened to them? I don't know."

With regard to the suggestion that Iraq's WMD may have "ended up in Syria," Powell said, "that is always a possibility, but I have seen no hard evidence to suggest that is the case, that suddenly there were no weapons found in Iraq because they were all in Syria. I don't know why the Syrians would do that, frankly: why it would be in their interest. They didn't have that kind of relationship with Iraq."

Previous Stories:
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