Russia Denies Involvement in Iraq Weapons

AP ^ | 10/28/04 | VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

[tomahawk]

Russia Denies Involvement in Iraq Weapons

1 hour, 46 minutes ago

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - Russia angrily denied allegations Thursday that Russian forces had smuggled a cache of high explosives out of Iraq (news - web sites) prior to the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

Defense Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Sedov dismissed the allegations as "absurd" and "ridiculous."

"I can state officially that the Russian Defense Ministry and its structures couldn't have been involved in the disappearance of the explosives, because all Russian military experts left Iraq when the international sanctions were introduced during the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites)," he told The Associated Press.

The denial followed a story in The Washington Times on Thursday that quoted a high-ranking U.S. defense official alleging that Russian special forces had "almost certainly" helped spirit out the hundreds of tons of high explosives that went missing from the al-Qaqaa base. The newspaper based its report on an interview with John Shaw, the deputy U.S. undersecretary of defense for international technology security.

Two weeks ago, Iraqi officials told the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency that 377 tons of explosives had vanished as a result of "theft and looting ... due to lack of security." The compounds, HMX and RDX, are key components in plastic explosives, which insurgents in Iraq have used in bomb attacks.

Russia' charge d'affaires in Iraq, Ilya Morgunov, also denied the report.

"I didn't hear about any weapons to be taken out," Interfax quoted him as saying. "Moreover, there was nobody to take them out, because we actually evacuated all of our personnel."

He said there had been no Russian special forces in Iraq, only civilian specialists working for foreign firms.

[Destro]

Not several - one unamed Pentagon source and what the unamed source "sources" is not exactly the same thing as what Shaw says. So we are left with speculation as the outcome of this Gertz article.

What say you?

[mikhailovich]

A media hatchet job that compels the Pentagon to declassify satellite imagery that proves a covert US-Russian agreement made in an F-250 Crew Cab? Sounds like a script for Walker, Texas Ranger.

[DaveMSmith]

I'm not pretending to imagine the skillset of a 'diplomat' stationed at the Russian embassy in Iraq in 2002/early 2003.

I am aware, however, how language and 'titles' are used to deceive and obsecure the truth.

I remember my initial reaction to the Russian convoy - 'what the heck are THEY doing there'? That question still hasn't been answered.

[Destro]

It was answered - they were evacuating their embassy staff.

[DaveMSmith]

Several.. you must have missed 'the second official said'

What say me? I'd go with Gertz. He's a journalist. NYT is the UN/DNC transcription service and what the AP spins on what Russia is saying ...

[Squantos]

because all Russian military experts left Iraq when the international sanctions were introduced during the 1991 Gulf War

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLSHHHHHHHHIIIIIIITTTT !

[Destro]

What do you mean you go with Gertz? Gertz just reported what he was told - he did not seek to confirm the report - to verify it. Speculation and hearsay from a tainted source at that.

I am not trying to badger you and I hope you see my point.

PS: This story by Gertz does not make Bush look good because he can be slammed by the spinmeisters for backing Putin. There are plenty on the Right as well as the Left that don't like Bush's relationship with Putin.

Do not buy anything you read at face value in these times. Goodle up Shaw like I did.

[GOP_1900AD]

From your posting history, your thoughts are all Russia all the time.

[TapTheSource]

Remember this??? The key revelation is this had to be approved at the HIGHEST LEVELS.

---

April 4, 2003

Looking Back into the Soul

Bush and Putin need to get beyond Iraq-related issues.

The Bush administration has accused Moscow of selling sensitive military equipment to Saddam Hussein, in violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions. During a March 24 telephone conversation, President George W. Bush discussed the sales of night-vision goggles, anti-tank Kornet missiles, and Global Positioning System (GPS) jamming equipment with Russian President Vladimir Putin.


According to the Russian website www.gazeta.ru, former Soviet generals have also admitted that, just days before the beginning of the U.S.-led campaign against Iraq, they received state awards from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. These are senior retired Soviet officers, General (three-star) Vladimir Achalov and General (also three-star) Igor Maltsev. Achalov, former Soviet deputy defense minister, participated in the failed putsch against then-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. He was also the Soviet airborne-troops commander and the last Soviet commander-in-chief of the rapid-reaction forces. Maltsev, who is considered a leading authority in air defense, was the chief of the Main Staff of the Soviet Air Defense. He is also a pardoned 1991 coup plotter.

Russian defense sources in Moscow told NRO that both retired generals had to obtain permission from top-level Russian political and military authorities to perform their advisory roles. Thus Russia's official denials that the Kremlin did not know about the "mission to Baghdad" can only sound hollow.

In the conversation with Bush, Putin not only denied sales to Iraq, but went on to accuse the U.S. of itself selling deadly military equipment to Iraq, and to other countries which may support (or have supported) international terrorism. The Associated Press and other media reports described the exchange between the two leaders as "tense." These accusations are just a symptom of the state of U.S.-Russian relations, which have been deteriorating since Moscow sided with Paris in the U.N. Security Council.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, also exchanged tough words last week, but affirmed that both countries have a broader agenda to pursue. Before the matter became public, U.S. officials repeatedly raised the issue with their Russian colleagues — who typically stonewalled, often with the most ridiculous explanations. In some cases, they went so far as to claim that the companies in question did not even exist.

Of course, it was not entirely news that Russian companies were selling high-tech equipment to Iraq. FOX News was reporting as early as January 2003 that Russia had sold GPS jammers, and that Saddam would use the civilian casualties that could ensue as a result of stray bombs or missiles for his own propaganda purposes. Moreover, according to Paul J. Saunders and Nikolas K. Gvosdev in The National Interest, as far back as 2000, a Kuwaiti newspaper disclosed a sale of this type by the Russian military-equipment company Aviakonversiya. Night goggles, which are readily available for sale in Russia, are even more dangerous, as they give the Iraqi military a capacity for nighttime operations it would otherwise lack.

U.S. officials are careful to point out that they do not view the sales under dispute as having been officially authorized by the Russian government. The question is, did the Kremlin give the sale a wink and a nod, or just shut its eyes and look elsewhere? The Americans have provided names, addresses, telephone numbers, and even shipping details, and have gone to great lengths to declassify their intelligence information in a good-faith effort to gain Russian cooperation to stop the sales. At this point, the Kremlin can hardly feign surprise.

The dispute highlights the underhanded methods military-hardware companies and the Iraqi government use to acquire forbidden technology and circumvent the U.N. sanctions. According to the Los Angeles Times, by exporting "components" — rather than finished goods — which would not be assembled until they reached Iraq, Aviankonversia president Oleg Antonov claimed that his company violated neither the U.N. sanctions nor Russian government regulations. If companies have traded this way with Iraq, what have their dealings been with Iran, North Korea, or even terrorist organizations, which may be interested in military systems from the former Soviet Union or even Western Europe?

The case typifies how a Russian company can be penny-wise (the whole transaction, which involved six GPS jammers, cost under $500,000) even as the Russian state is pound-foolish, losing the goodwill of the U.S. government — which could in turn translate into in the loss of billions of dollars in Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and Export-Import (ExIm) bank credits.

This flap over arms sales only proves how fragile the relationship between Moscow and Washington has become since Moscow sided with Paris, Berlin, and most of the Arab world in opposition to the war against Saddam. Three small and shady arms deals are threatening a broad, multifaceted matrix of ties, repeatedly characterized as "strategic" by Presidents Bush and Putin. Numerous security, diplomatic, and business relationships — from multibillion-dollar Cooperative Threat Reduction programs (which deal with non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction) to abrogation of the Jackson-Vanick Amendment (which denied Normal Permanent Trade Relations, currently under consideration by the U.S. Congress) to billions of energy investment dollars — may be jeopardized if U.S.-Russian relations go south.

It is in the interest of both countries to end the acrimony over Iraq and focus on the future. To achieve this, the Putin administration must "clean house" and take to task the culprits who sold banned weapons to Saddam. Moscow should expand cooperation with the United States on prevention of sales of dual-use and military technologies to countries on the U.S. State Department terrorism watch list.

Moscow also needs to remember that breaching the U.N. Security Council sanctions inevitably makes its own accusations that the U.S. is violating "international law" ring hollow.

Most importantly, the two countries should not lose sight of the strategic imperative of fighting the global radical Islamist terrorist networks. In that struggle, the survival of both Russians and Americans is at stake.

— Ariel Cohen, an NRO contributor, is research fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies in the Shelby and Kathryn Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

[jb6]

Who says the cold war died when Regan said "tear the walls down Mr Gorbechev"? The cold war is now a different war funded by other means. The Russians hate the Americans! Go the Russia and get the feel from the people, they have been inbred to hate the west. This is not over. It was never over. Dont be lied to its just funneled in a different way.

Outside of the fact that this is the stupidst thing I've read all week, you need some serious work on your grammer.

"Go to Russia and get the feel from the people"

Ok, have several times and your hatred was never there. Which people exactly did you get the "feeling" from?

[matchwood]

Since the days of the Czars, can anyone point to a single good thing the Russians have done? Has it ever been smart to trust the Russians even once since 1917?

We have to treat the Russians as enemies the same as we treat the French - no more, no less and their talk of cooperation is about as solid as promises from Jack Chirak.

[jer33 3]

"The Russians hate the Americans! Go the Russia and get the feel from the people, they have been inbred to hate the west.
This is not over. It was never over.
Dont be lied to its just funneled in a different way."

This is an aside to the thread. I have much interaction with Evangelical Russians and therefore with people in villages and cities inside Russia. Most people do not hate Americans.

[jb6]

Ivanov aside, you don't trust anything that comes from Russia, regardless, so the point is mute.

[GOP_1900AD]

I trusted my grand dad! And that's just for starters ...

[GOP_1900AD]

You appear to have a specific task here at FR:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=164916

[ronjon]

(/sarcasm on) Sure, the Russians always are upfront with the truth too! (/sarcasm off)

Remember they also vehemently denied that those were Russian Soviet pilots flying the MIG 15's over North Korea against us in the Korean war?

We now know the truth - It was Soviet pilots since the North Koreans didn't have the skills to fly MIGs!

[jb6]

Ok, your granddad, that's nice. One of the Nazi Luftwaffe Marshals was half jewish (Hitler liked him so they papered over that fact) didn't stop him from carrying out experiments on Jews or hating them. So you trusting your grandfather proves nothing.

As for my "purpose", its reading the news and having discussion. God, are you a paranoid person. Lay off the caffeine.

[GOP_1900AD]

Overtly, a large percentage of the threads you post on relate to Russia. Overtly, you time and time again are a Kremlin apologist. Keep on throwin' them stones boy!

[GOP_1900AD]

Oh and one more thing, I can see from your little ping list a couple threads up there, you are part of the FR Russian Mafiya. Either you're a Ruski or one of them tweaked out folks of the "I-used-to-be-in-a-liberal-Prostestant-sect-then-went-Orthodox" variety. Too bad if it's the latter.

[mikhailovich]

"From your posting history, your thoughts are all Russia all the time."

And that's a problem because???

Actually, the past 10 or so are on Bush, Cheney, Kerry, and very little on Russia.

Am I missing something that you see in your crystal ball?