Where Is Iraq Really Hiding its Forbidden Weapons?
General Ali Hassan al-Majid, the Iraqi minister of industry, paid a visit in the last week of January to Damascus, where he held several private conversations with president Bashar Assad. Majid’s formal title conceals the great power he wields in Baghdad as Saddam Hussein’s cousin and overseer of Iraq’s manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. After speaking with Assad, Majid headed to Beirut for talks with Lebanese president Emile Lahoud. While he was there, reports appeared in the Arabic press that Majid had sounded out Assad on whether Syria would offer asylum to Saddam, his family and possibly other members of the Baghdad leadership in the event of a US attack on Iraq. Assad’s response was not immediately known. Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan paid a visit of his own to Damascus on Tuesday, February 4, and was immediately ushered in the see the Syrian leader. DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military and intelligence sources report that around the time of the two top-level visits to
