Since shortly before the Iraq War, we’ve been hearing reports that Iraq smuggled their weapons of mass destruction to Syria. Today at National Review Jim Geraghty writes about an exiled Syrian journalist who claims to have very specific knowledge about these smuggling operations: The WMD Road to Damascus.

One of the most troubling and intriguing theories has been the idea that Hussein smuggled them to Syria or some other nation before the war began. Now Nizar Nayyouf, an exiled Syrian journalist now living in Paris, claims to have contact with a Syrian military intelligence official who is confirming that theory.

Speaking to the British television station ITN Friday, Nayyouf said that his source says he knows three sites where Iraq’s WMDs are kept.

“It has been confirmed that the Iraqi weapons which were smuggled into Syria through the intermediary of Colonel Zu Alhima Shalish are now located in three different places,” the Syrian source reportedly wrote in Arabic to Nayyouf. “The first of these places is a tunnel on the mountain slope near the village of Baida, which is situated two kilometers from Misyaf. This place is under the jurisdiction of Department 489, which deals with coded messages and documents.”

“The second of these places is a factory owned by the air force in the village of Tal Sinan, which is situated between the two cities of Hamma and Salmiyah. The third of these places is the town of Shinshar, which is situated 40 kilometers to the south of Hums and 3 kilometers to the east of the Damascus-Hums highway. There are underground tunnels there, which belong to Brigade 661 of the air force. This is a reconnaissance force. These tunnels are several meters deep.”

Nayyouf’s source contends that the weapons, likely missile parts and chemicals, were transferred in large wooden boxes and barrels, under the supervision of Colonel Zu Alhima Shalish and his nephew Assef, who works for the Albashair Company, which is owned by the Assads and has offices in Beirut, Damascus, and Baghdad. The source says that this company was also responsible for the smuggling of Iraqi oil to Syria and providing weapons to Saddam’s regime.

The source also shared one more interesting detail: the weapons were smuggled across the border to these sites in ambulances.