Sada on the Daily Show

Iraqi General George Sada was on The Daily Show the other night talking up his book to Jon Stewart. It was a really interesting interview, not just because Sada is an interesting individual, but because he is unequivical about the existence of Saddam's WMDs and their preinvasion transfer to Syria. What was interesting was the quiet of the audience as Jon interviewed him. The Daily Show's audience is pretty interactive and tends to come down left of center, but there seemed to be a palpable "whoa" moment going on in the audience.

Articulate and engaging, he cannot be easily dismissed. The assertions made about WMDs are not new, conservative news and opinion journalists covered this weeks ago. I couldn't help thinking that it was the first time a large portion of the audience heard that an Iraqi bigwig confirm the arguement.


Mssr. Reynolds links to an earlier interview with Mr. Sada and excerpts a email from James Lileks commenting on Sada's book.

In his book he doesn't say he saw the WMD sent to Syria, but he describes the operation, and says this:

"My own knowledge of these transfers [WMD to Syria] doesn't come from any of the published reports but from a man who was actually involved in the transfers - a civilian pilot who witnessed the commercial 747 going back and forth between Syria and Iraq at that time. And he has confirmed for me that it happened just this way."

Sada says there were about 56 transfers. He is much more specific about his first-hand knowledge of a planned WMD attack on Israel in the run-up to the first Gulf War, but of course we have to take his word for it all. Or not.