Putin Steps Up to the Plate (Iraq and AQ)

Putin: Russia Gave Bush Iraq Intelligence NewsMax Wires Friday, June 18, 2004 ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Russia gave the Bush administration intelligence after the September 11 attacks that suggested Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was preparing attacks in the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Putin said he couldn't comment on how critical the Russians' information was in the U.S. decision to invade Iraq. He said Russia didn't have any information that Saddam's regime had actually been behind any terrorist acts. "After Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services, the intelligence service, received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Putin said. He said the United States had thanked Russia for the information. There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials.

"It's one thing to have information that Saddam's regime is preparing terrorist attacks, (but) we didn't have information that it was involved in any known terrorist attacks," Putin said in the Kazakh capital Astana after regional economic and security summits.

Putin said the intelligence didn't cause Russia to waver from its firm opposition to the war.

"Despite that information about terrorist attacks being prepared by Saddam's regime, Russia's position on Iraq remains unchanged," Putin said.

Putin didn't elaborate on any details of the terror plots or mention whether they were tied to the al-Qaida terror network.

A commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States reported this week that while there were contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq, they did not appear to have produced "a collaborative relationship."

President Bush, however, insisted Thursday that Saddam had "numerous contacts" with al-Qaida and said Iraqi agents had met with the terror network's leader, Osama bin Laden, in Sudan.

Saddam "was a threat because he had terrorist connections _ not only al-Qaida connections, but other connections to terrorist organizations," Bush said.

Putin does like Bush. Clintoon and Wesley Clark came close to war with Russia during the Kosovo war if we all remember. Russia objected to that war too and there was no UN resolution for that war the Demonrats and peaceniks alike think was so righteous. Putin was very cooperative after 9/11 and though Russia held out on Iraq, Putin does now relay to everyone that there was some reason to be cautious about Iraq. It seems as if the Iraq war hasn't hurt the relationship. And didn't Putin just make a comment with all the criticism the President has been getting-Putin said that the Demonrats, opponents here in the US don't have the 'moral high ground to criticize Bush' because of the war in Kosovo! Quite true, isn't it? Iraq is more a threat than Kosovo ever was and now with this put in perspective even more so.

I don't concur that Putin's warming up to the West and the GOP is disinformation or a false move. Russians have always liked predictable governments in the West, they don't like an unknown or an inconsistent leader. George W is quite predictable. The GOP is quite predictable. They may not agree with Putin on lots of things but by God, it's pretty obvious what George W is going to do.

Kerry, on the other hand, is a relative unknown. Bush wants to buy lots of oil from Putin but Kerry may go for hydrogen or dilithium crystals or solar cells or whatever. Bush relentlessly pounds hell out of US enemies but Kerry may, well, we just don't know, do we? Bush is not likely to raise a stink about anti-terrorist ops in Chechnya while Kerry and Fonda and the like would probably strut around Red Square holding 'down with Putin war criminal' signs.

Just MHO.

Russians have always liked predictable governments in the West, they don't like an unknown or an inconsistent leader. George W is quite predictable. The GOP is quite predictable. They may not agree with Putin on lots of things but by God, it's pretty obvious what George W is going to do.

Kerry, on the other hand, is a relative unknown. Bush wants to buy lots of oil from Putin but Kerry may go for hydrogen or dilithium crystals or solar cells or whatever. Bush relentlessly pounds hell out of US enemies but Kerry may, well, we just don't know, do we? Bush is not likely to raise a stink about anti-terrorist ops in Chechnya while Kerry and Fonda and the like would probably strut around Red Square holding 'down with Putin war criminal' signs. -- Sender

I agree. Got a good laugh about the dilithium crystals BTW. I don't think the Russians should be in Chechnya, but I'm not against someone killing terrorists, particularly Moslem terrorists, regardless of who started it (no one started it, in this case -- the Russian Empire conquered Chechnya, and no one now alive was there at the time). Bush has cut Putin a lot of slack regarding his crackdown on the rich oil guy and the Russian press, but OTOH has finished dismembering the former Soviet republics of Central Asia (as well as the would-be Soviet republic of Afghanistan) from Mother Russia. There's a disinfo campaign against Central Asia's oil reserves, and yet Putin wants control of the pipeline route, as well as regaining the former Soviet Georgia. Turkey is screwing with former ally Azerbaijan, which appears to be getting close to being in a vise between Turkey and Iran.

Putin does like Bush. Clintoon and Wesley Clark came close to war with Russia during the Kosovo war if we all remember. Russia objected to that war too and there was no UN resolution for that war the Demonrats and peaceniks alike think was so righteous. Putin was very cooperative after 9/11 and though Russia held out on Iraq, Putin does now relay to everyone that there was some reason to be cautious about Iraq. It seems as if the Iraq war hasn't hurt the relationship. And didn't Putin just make a comment with all the criticism the President has been getting-Putin said that the Demonrats, opponents here in the US don't have the 'moral high ground to criticize Bush' because of the war in Kosovo! Quite true, isn't it? Iraq is more a threat than Kosovo ever was and now with this put in perspective even more so. -- bushfamfan

Saddam Hussein owed Russia billions for some arms and the development of the most advanced Russian fighter jet (work began under the USSR; the USSR hasn't cut many checks lately; Saddam wanted the plane), and tried to out-Bush GWB because of the political change in Central Asia. Russia backed Serbia (Yugoslavia) which is understandable. Richard Holbrooke led the charge to impose unacceptable conditions on Serbia's sovereignty, then Clinton launched a war which resulted in more atrocities by the Serbians, but again, I'm not against someone killing terrorists, particularly Moslem terrorists.

George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent

Reprising this from Rush Says 9/11 Commission Member DID Find Iraq/AQ Connections:

That [characterization deleted] who gave us the Kosovo War, Richard Holbrooke, has been lying again, true to his partisan affiliation:

The Fog Of Invented Facts
by Edward Jay Epstein
The invented fact here is that Atta was on the CIA's watch list. Nor was he on any other government watch list prior to September 11th. Its repetition lays down a fog about the responsibility for the attack. For example, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, when lecturing at the JFK Library on Oct 4th, 2001, described the "law enforcement failure" of September 11th as follows:
"To understand how bad it was, you need look no further than the specific movements of Mohammed Atta, who was probably the mastermind of these attacks, all of which has now been in the newspapers. The CIA put him on the watch list of most wanted terrorists in the world sometime in the early summer or late spring of this year... It is clear, therefore, that the FBI. and the FAA. don't talk to each other, that the FBI. never gave the watch list names to leading American airlines"

Soooo, how is it that Holbrooke opposes the GWB moves (which were passed by both houses of Congress by huge majorities)? Because he's a lying liar, unlike the victims of Al Franken's latest POS.

Epstein is described as a liberal by William Safire, who cites his website. Epstein's writing is more commonly found on Slate (hardly a conservative publication), the NY Times, and other bastions of the partisans. The following piece appeared in the local paper here sometime after it was first published.

Missing Links Found
by William Safire
November 24, 2003
Remember how anti-liberation politicians and journalists pooh-poohed Colin Powell's February 2003 speech to the U.N. about the presence in Iraq of a Qaeda associate, identified in this space as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? Powell's assertion had this "sensitive reporting" basis: "As of Oct. 2002 al Zarqawi was setting up sleeper cells in Baghdad to be activated in case of a U.S. occupation of the city." ...Feith's intelligence summary available to senators: "The Czech counterintelligence service reported that the Sept. 11 hijacker [Mohamed] Atta met with the former Iraqi intelligence chief in Prague, al Ani, on several occasions. During one of those meetings, al Ani ordered the IIS [Iraq Intelligence Service] finance officer to issue Atta funds from IIS financial holdings in the Prague office." ...Though the C.I.A. can confirm two Atta trips to Prague, in 1994 and 2000, it cannot confirm the two other visits the Czechs reported, including one on April 9, 2001, with Saddam's top European agent, al-Ani, then vice consul in Prague. C.I.A. chief George Tenet testified that the meeting reported by the Czech service was "possible," but the F.B.I. floated hints that car rental records showed Atta to be traveling between Virginia and Florida that week. Enter the writer Edward Jay Epstein in the liberal online journal Slate: "All these reports attributed to the FBI were, as it turns out, erroneous. There were no car rental records in Virginia, Florida, or anywhere else in April 2001 for Mohamed Atta, since he had not yet obtained his Florida license." You cannot rent a car without a driver's license.

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