Russia provides Saddam with U.S. military strength at start of Iraq War

For the second day in a row, as we were "going to press" ABC News put a gist of a newly released Iraq Regime document on their website. But again Sammi provides a full translation of the document CMPC-2003-001950. Parenthesis are the translators:

We would like to inform you that the Russian ambassador met this evening with the general director of Foreign Economic Relations and the General Director of the Grains Trade and told us the following:

1- Provide the necessary facilitations for the travel of the Russian experts working in the projects of our ministry (probably grains or trade experts) without any delay for the period of time between the 5th and 8th of March. The last plane will take off on the 9th of March. He mentioned (the ambassador) that the request of evacuating the Russian citizens follows an order from the Russian president.

2- He said that Russia, France and Germany and both Syria and China were expected to join the three of them, have prepared a project of resolution opposing the Anglo-American project submitted to the United Nations. Voting on both projects will take place on the 9th of March. He pointed that some countries of the Security Council might refrain from voting, like Pakistan, Chili and Kenya.

3- During the meeting the ambassador gave us the following information about the US military presence in the Gulf as per the 2nd of March:

Number of troops: 206,500 out of which 98,000 naval forces and 36,500 infantry. 90% of theses forces are in Kuwait and on the Navy ships.

US troops have reached the island of Bubiyan (Bubiyan is largest Kuwaiti island in the Kuwaiti coastal islands chain)

Number of tanks: 480 Number of armored cars: 1132 Number of artillery: 296 Number of Apache helicopters : 735 Number of fighter planes: 871 Number of Navy ships: 106. 68 in the Gulf and the rest in Oman (State of Oman), Aden (Yemen), the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Number of air carriers: 5. One nuclear powered. Three in the Gulf one in the Mediterranean and one on its way. Number of Cruise missiles: 583 based on the US Navy and distributed on 22 ships. Number of Cruise missiles on planes: 64 Number of heavy bombers B-52 H: 10 in the Indian Ocean. Number of B1-B: 8 present in the US base of Thumarid in Oman.

4- The ambassador pointed that what worried us (most probably “us” refers to the Russians) was the increase in the number of planes in Jordan where the number of planes in Al Sallt base was as follows: 24 planes F-16 10 planes Tornado 11 planes Harrier He also mentioned that there were 10 A-10 tank destroyers in the Jordanian base of King Faysal.

5- The ambassador also pointed that a certain number of the 82nd Division (82nd Airborne) which was deployed in Afghanistan started coming to Kuwait. The number of troops has reached 750 soldiers.

Translator’s note: The original Iraqi document is made of four pages. The released document shows only three pages. It is not improbable that the fourth page could have been lost or might show up in a different release.

Ray: This one seriously doesn't require any analysis. It speaks volumes about our "friends" the Russians.

Yeah, sure how many cruise missiles we had and the plan not to go in to major cities was "truly nothing that Iraq could not have found out (to a large degree) simply by using the Internet or watching the TV news."

Document written sometime before March 5, 2003

The first document (CMPC-2003-001950) is a handwritten account of a meeting with the Russian ambassador that details his description of the composition, size, location and type of U.S. military forces arrayed in the Gulf and Jordan. The document includes the exact numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, different types of aircraft, missiles, helicopters, aircraft carriers, and other forces, and also includes their exact locations. The ambassador also described the positions of two Special Forces units.

Document dated March 25, 2003

The second document (CMPC-2004-001117) is a typed account, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hammam Abdel Khaleq, that states that the Russian ambassador has told the Iraqis that the United States was planning to deploy its force into Iraq from Basra in the South and up the Euphrates, and would avoid entering major cities on the way to Baghdad, which is, in fact what happened. The documents also state "Americans are also planning on taking control of the oil fields in Kirkuk." The information was obtained by the Russians from "sources at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar," according to the document.

This document also includes an account of an amusing incident in which several Iraqi Army officers (presumably seeking further elaboration of the U.S. war plans) contacted the Russian Embassy in Baghdad and stated that the ambassador was their source. Needless to say, this caused great embarrassment to the ambassador, and the officers were instructed "not to mention the ambassador again in that context."

(Editor's Note: The Russian ambassador in March 2003 was Vladimir Teterenko. Teterenko appears in documents released by the Volker Commission, which investigated the Oil for Food scandal, as receiving allocations of 3 million barrels of oil — worth roughly $1.5 million. )

Document: CMPC-2003-001950
Translator: Sammi @ Ray Robison

March 24, 2006 05:52 AM

Office of the Presidency
Mr. Secretary (of the President)

Subject: Meeting with the Russian Ambassador

Best of our salutes,

We would like to inform you that the Russian ambassador met this evening with the general director of Foreign Economic Relations and the General Director of the Grains Trade and told us the following:

1- Provide the necessary facilitations for the travel of the Russian experts working in the projects of our ministry (probably grains or trade experts) without any delay for the period of time between the 5th and 8th of March. The last plane will take off on the 9th of March. He mentioned (the ambassador) that the request of evacuating the Russian citizens follows an order from the Russian president.

2- He said that Russia, France and Germany and both Syria and China were expected to join the three of them, have prepared a project of resolution opposing the Anglo-American project submitted to the United Nations. Voting on both projects will take place on the 9th of March. He pointed that some countries of the Security Council might refrain from voting, like Pakistan, Chili and Kenya.

3- During the meeting the ambassador gave us the following information about the US military presence in the Gulf as per the 2nd of March:

Number of troops: 206,500 out of which 98,000 naval forces and 36,500
infantry. 90% of theses forces are in Kuwait and on the Navy ships.

US troops have reached the island of Bubiyan (Bubiyan is largest Kuwaiti island in the Kuwaiti coastal islands chain)

Number of tanks: 480
Number of armored cars: 1132
Number of artillery: 296
Number of Apache helicopters : 735
Number of fighter planes: 871
Number of Navy ships: 106. 68 in the Gulf and the rest in Oman (State of Oman), Aden (Yemen), the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Number of air carriers: 5. One nuclear powered. Three in the Gulf one in the Mediterranean and one on its way.
Number of Cruise missiles: 583 based on the US Navy and distributed on 22 ships.
Number of Cruise missiles on planes: 64
Number of heavy bombers B-52 H: 10 in the Indian Ocean.
Number of B1-B: 8 present in the US base of Thumarid in Oman.

4- The ambassador pointed that what worried us (most probably “us” refers to the Russians) was the increase in the number of planes in Jordan where the number of planes in Al Sallt base was as follows:
24 planes F-16
10 planes Tornado
11 planes Harrier
He also mentioned that there were 10 A-10 tank destroyers in the Jordanian base of King Faysal.

5- The ambassador also pointed that a certain number of the 82nd Division (82nd Airborne) which was deployed in Afghanistan started coming to Kuwait. The number of troops has reached 750 soldiers.

]Translator’s note: The original Iraqi document is made of four pages. The released document shows only three pages. It is not improbable that the fourth page could have been lost or might show up in a different release.]

Original Arabic: here.

From either a strategic or more importantly tactical viewpoint the number of cruise missiles we had was actually of little true relevance to Saddam and his army. The fact is we had "too many" and Saddam knew this long before some foolish Russian ambassador looking to make some extra $$ told his people this fact.

As I said, I haven't had the luxury of time to go through all doc's regarding this subject....but from what I have seen there is not much of tactical importance......furthermore the notion/assertion that some of our ODA's / SOF units positions were given away is complete hogwash. This didn't happen, nor would it have been possible for a number of reasons (prior to OIF).

The larger concern here would be where is the mole / traitor on our side (if it does come out that additional / more valuable information was passed along).

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