Here’s more detail from the October 29, 2003 N.Y. Times story:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28— The director of a top American spy agency said Tuesday that he believed that material from Iraq’s illicit weapons program had been transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by the Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war.

The official, James R. Clapper Jr., a retired lieutenant general, said satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material ”unquestionably” had been moved out of Iraq.

”I think people below the Saddam Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse,” General Clapper, who leads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at a breakfast with reporters.

He said he was providing a personal assessment. But he said ”the obvious conclusion one draws” was that there ”may have been people leaving the scene, fleeing Iraq, and unquestionably, I am sure, material.” A spokesman for General Clapper’s agency, David Burpee, said he could not provide further evidence to support the general’s statement.

FROM

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/003296.html

 

AND

 

Hullabaloo

Sunday, June 06, 2010

 
Very Serious Kooks And Spooks

by digby

Guess who this is?

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 [2003]— The director of a top American spy agency said Tuesday that he believed that material from Iraq’s illicit weapons program had been transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by the Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the recent war.

The official, a retired lieutenant general, said satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material ”unquestionably” had been moved out of Iraq.

”I think people below the Saddam Hussein-and-his-sons level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse,” [the General], who leads the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said at a breakfast with reporters.

He said he was providing a personal assessment. But he said ”the obvious conclusion one draws” was that there ”may have been people leaving the scene, fleeing Iraq, and unquestionably, I am sure, material.” A spokesman for [the General’s] agency, David Burpee, said he could not provide further evidence to support the general’s statement.

That’s obviously some neocon nutcase who was completely discredited for those ludicrous remarks, which even people at the time thought were bizarre and unbelievable, and which turned out to total nonsense, right?

Sadly, no. This is the fellow President Obama has chosen to head up the Director of National Security, General Clapper. Yes, that’s right. That person, who is either a fantacist or an unrepentant propagandist, is going to oversee all the intelligence activities for the United States. If we have another terrorist attack, prepare to invade Finland.

As Jonathan Schwarz pithily observed: America. Still completely fucking nuts.

FROM

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/very-serious-kooks-and-spooks-rising-to.html