Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."

Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloguing the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.

Most of Saddam's most powerful arms were systematically separated from other arms like mortars, bombs and rockets, and sent to Syria and Lebanon, and possibly to Iran, he said.

The Russian involvement in helping disperse Saddam's weapons, including some 380 tons of RDX and HMX is still being investigated, Mr. Shaw said.

NY Times,CBS & Kerry: Conspiracy To Divert Attention From Bombshell Documents?
10/27/2004

Posted on 10/27/2004 8:11:50 PM PDT by notkerry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1259525/posts

Why are the New York Times, CBS and John Kerry hyping a fraudulent story on the missing explosives? Why did CBS state the story would not hold until 48 hours before the election?

My opinion is they knew John Kerry’s presidential run was over when the following documents broke on October 26, 2004 if press and public where not all distracted elsewhere.

Documentary evidence was reveled on October 26, 2004 establishing that John Kerry worked with the Vietnamese communists while Vietnam War was still ongoing. The documents clearly state:

“The spontaneous antiwar movements in the US have received assistance and guidance from the friendly ((VC/NVN)) delegations at the Paris Peace Talks.”

The documents further state:

“Of the U.S. antiwar movements, the two most important ones are: The PCPJ ((the People's Committee for Peace and Justice)) and the NPAC ((National Peace Action Committee)). These two movements have gathered much strength and staged many demonstrations. The PCPJ is the most important. It maintains relations with us.”

The proof that John Kerry’s anti-war group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, was working with People's Coalition for Peace and Justice is contained in an April 20, 1971 letter written by Kerry VVAW sidekick, Al Hubbard. The letter is addressed from the offices of the VVAW in Washington, D.C. and states:

“This is an appeal for help for the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice. Over the past months the Peoples Coalition has supported the Vietnam Vets Against the War in many ways. The Coalition has made office space available at no charge, and permitted the use of all necessary office equipment such as mimeograph machines, stencil-making machines, folders and typewriters. They have loaned us cars, bullhorns, and public address equipment. Their staff has taken messages for us and joined fraternally in building our progress. Now we can return this support.”

John Kerry has admitted that he met with leaders of both communist delegations to the Paris Peace Talks in June 1970. This meeting actually included Madame Binh, foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Vietnam, also known as the Vietcong. The recently discovered documents clearly state that:

"The Nixon-Thieu clique is very embarrassed because the seven-point peace proposal is supported by the SVN people's (( political struggle)) movement and the antiwar movements in the US. Therefore, all local areas, units, and branches must widely disseminate the seven-point peace proposal, step up the people's ((political struggle)) movements both in cities and rural areas, taking advantage of disturbances and dissensions in the enemy's forthcoming (RVN) Congressional and Presidential elections. They must coordinate more successfully with the antiwar movements in the US so as to isolate the Nixon-Thieu clique."

John Kerry completed his betrayal of the country on July 22, 1971 when he called on President Nixon to accept the seven-point peace proposal supported by the Vietcong. The FBI files even document that Kerry returned to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese delegation in August of 1971.

See: John Kerry and the VVAW: Hanoi's American Puppets? Newly discovered documents link Vietnam Veterans Against the War to Vietnamese communists

http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets

U.S. Says Russian Engineers Aided Iraq's Missile Program

By James Risen

The New York Times -- WASHINGTON

A group of Russian engineers secretly aided Saddam Hussein's long-range ballistic missile program, providing technical assistance for prohibited Iraqi weapons projects even in the years just before the war that ousted him from power, American government officials say.

Iraqis who were involved in the missile work told American investigators that the technicians had not been working for the Russian government, but for a private company. But any such work on Iraq's banned missiles would have violated U.N. sanctions, even as the U.N. Security Council sought to enforce them.

Although Iraq ultimately failed to develop and produce long-range ballistic missiles and though even its permitted short-range missile projects were fraught with problems, its missile program is now seen as the main prohibited weapons effort that Iraq continued right up until the war was imminent.

After the first Persian Gulf war in 1991, Iraq was allowed only to keep crude missiles that could travel up to 150 kilometers, or about 90 miles, but the Russian engineers were assisting Baghdad's secret efforts illegally to develop longer-range missiles, according to the American officials.

Since the invasion in March, American investigators have discovered that the Russian engineers had worked on the Iraqi program both in Moscow and in Baghdad, and that some of them were in the Iraqi capital as recently as 2001, according to people familiar with the intelligence on the matter.

Because some of the Russian experts were said to have formerly worked for one of Russia's aerospace design centers, which remains closely associated with the state, their work for Iraq has raised questions in Washington about whether Russian government officials knew of their involvement in forbidden missile programs. “Did the Russians really not know what they were doing?” asked one person familiar with the U.S. intelligence reports.

"The U.S. has not presented any evidence of Russian involvement," said Yevgeny Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy.

Russia and the former Soviet Union were among Iraq's main suppliers of arms for decades before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, leading to the first gulf war.

The Bush administration has previously said it had uncovered evidence that Iraq had unsuccessfully sought help from North Korea for its missile program, but had not disclosed the evidence that Iraq had also received Russian technical support.

CIA and White House officials refused to comment on the matter, and people familiar with the intelligence say they believe that the administration has been reluctant to reveal what it knows about Moscow's involvement in order to avoid harming relations with President Vladimir V. Putin.

"They are hyper-cautious about confronting Putin on this," complained one intelligence source.

In his public testimony last week about the worldwide threats facing the United States, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, restated Washington's longstanding concerns about Russia's controls over its missile and weapons technology, without mentioning the evidence of missile support for the Saddam government.

This story was published on Friday, March 5, 2004.
Volume 124, Number 10

This doesn't surprise me at all, but it's still STAGGERING news in terms of both US domestic politics and international relations - I just hope there is good evidence for these claims, because otherwise there will be an international onslaught of cries of 'unproven' even it it's all true.

But this would explain just about everything about how all the major intelligence agencies of the world believed that Iraq was full of WMDs and programs for WMDs. Let's remember that before the war NO ONE but NO ONE objected to the war by saying "there are no WMDs in Iraq" - if anything, the more common anti-war argument was that an invasion could be an enormous human catastrophe with hundreds of thousands of dead.

Let's hope enough is coming out before the election on this to crush Kerry and the Euro-weasels once and for all!

The chant should never have been "Bush lied" it should have been "Putin lied" and "Chirac lied" and "Kofi lied" etc. etc.

From post: "Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloguing the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration. "

Great timing, I'd say - to get needed information just in time to answer to another story just coming out - This whole story about the Weapons - stinks - Political movement is running true to the nature of the beast -

What is known about this "Mr. Shaw" - and which "two European intelligence services" - ?

And I guess France and Germany didn't do anything during this time - and I wonder what their "intelligence services" knowledge is - ?

just wondering -

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