I would find that preposterous, given the hatred Saddam had for the Assad regime. The Assad family - and ruling clique - are "alewite," a type of Shi'a. Saddam was a Sunni and hated them. The official ruling party in Iraq, the Baathists, hated them, although the Assads were nominal Baathists themselves. It's tough to admit that Saddam really did destroy them but found it to his interests to keep people guessing (as the Israelis have), but that appears to be the case...
That didn't stop them from flagrantly violating the terms of the cease fire by repeatedly interfering with inspections despite multiple warnings and UN resolutions. They wanted the world, specifically Iran, to think they had WMDs.
I agree that it is unlikely Saddam would have done that. But, it is possible someone else made that decision among the chaos - Iraqi Shi'ites or just someone willing to take a bribe. Or it could have been disinformation from either the Iraqi regime or the Israelis - both having an interest in harming Syria.
Agreed. And the intelligence communities believed the likely false reports coming out of Iraq. Saddam bluffed Iran, but we called it. And here we are.
