Tue, Jun 7, 2005 4:43pm ET

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On MSNBC, Jed Babbin falsely claimed that Duelfer report backed claim that Iraq smuggled weapons into Syria

Echoing several conservative pundits, American Spectator contributing editor and former deputy undersecretary of defense Jed Babbin falsely claimed that the Iraq Survey Group's (ISG) report on the search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq contained "a very substantial body of evidence" that illicit weapons "might have been moved into Syria" before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Though Bush administration officials have "held out the possibility" that such an undetected transfer occurred, the ISG's final report, commonly known as the Duelfer report, included no evidence to support this conjecture.

According to an October 6, 2004, Washington Post article:

The Bush administration has held out the possibility that illicit weapons and their components were secreted by [former Iraqi dictator Saddam] Hussein across the border into Syria. This may still be true, but [special adviser Charles] Duelfer's team did not find any proof to support this notion, the [U.S.] official [briefed on the report prior to its release to the public] said. "They have no evidence of this," the official said. "It's an unresolved issue." Syria denies it aided the hiding of illicit materials.

From the June 6 edition of MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast:

RON REAGAN (co-host): And in fact, no commission that's looked into that question has said what you've just said, that stuff was moved. Everybody that looked into it said there were no weapons of mass destruction. He made a strategic decision --

BABBIN: No, no, wrong.

REAGAN: That's correct. The 9-11 Commission absolutely said that.

BABBIN: No, the 9-11 Commission was talking about --

REAGAN: The Duelfer report said that, too.

BABBIN: The Duelfer report said that. The Duelfer report also said that there was a very substantial body of evidence that showed that much of what Saddam had was moved and might have been moved into Syria. Duelfer said that very specifically.

—N.C.

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