Posted on 10/30/2004 6:24:08 AM PDT by Quilla
Two Russian generals were photographed receiving awards from Saddam Hussein's government for helping Iraqi military forces less than 10 days before the U.S.-led invasion.
The two retired officers were identified by the newspaper Gazeta.ru as Col. Gen. Vladimir Achalov and Col. Gen. Igor Maltsev, both former high-ranking officers involved in Soviet rapid-reaction and air defense forces.
Both generals were photographed receiving awards from Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed in early March 2003, only days before the war began on March 20, 2003. The photographs were taken in a building that was bombed by U.S. cruise missiles during the first air raids on Baghdad, the newspaper stated. The mission and the reason the generals received the awards were not disclosed in the April 2, 2003, report. However, Gen. Achalov told the newspaper that he "didn't fly to Baghdad to drink coffee."
The comment bolsters the claims of Pentagon officials who say Russian military advisers and special forces units were helping Iraq's military and intelligence services before the Iraq war.
The Pentagon has identified Russia as Iraq's top arms supplier, along with France and China. U.S. military officials have said Russian military suppliers sold Iraq special electronic jammers that were designed to thwart attacks by U.S. satellite-guided joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMs.
The jammers were bombed by the JDAMs, after the global positioning systems satellites signals used to guide them were boosted.
John A. Shaw, deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said this week that two European intelligence services have obtained documentary evidence indicating Russian spetsnaz, or special forces, troops were involved in a covert program to shred documents on Russian arms sales to Iraq, and to move weapons out of the country to Syria, Lebanon and possibly Iran.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Gertz is the best investigative reporter in the country. This fleshes out the earlier story that Russia helped move weapons out of Iraq in terms of placing specific Russians in Iraq working with Saddam.
Man- you just gotta LOVE Gertz!
What baffles me is the complete lack of MSM coverage on this. I don't remember Gertz ever getting a big story wrong before...he seems persistent and thorough. Isn't it extraordinary that none of the MSM have even bothered to attempt to refute this?
I imagine that there are a few red faces at the Russian Embassy today.
I myself am rath perplexed by this!
It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, isn't it?
This is a naive question but do you think those weapons could have been moved out of Iraq without Putin's knowledge?
bbl
Gertz is right on the money every time. He's one heck of a investigative reporter. I guess the NYTimes or CBS wouldn't be interested in his services anytime soon.
It is entirely possible that he wasn't aware of it and may explain why the two officers photographed in Iraq are now retired.
I watched a jib jab type video yesterday that identified CBS as WeBS. The producers described Rather's network perfectly.
You notice there won't be any rabid reporters fighting over themselves to investigate this story, the same way they hammered the US Major yesterday at the Pentagon.
But the complete and utter apathy to anything having to do with the CORRUPTION of the "allies" we were supposed to wait for before moving on Iraq, as evidenced by this story and the Oil for Food revelations in the Duelfer Report and elsewhere, is downright criminal.
I found the link to the story in the Russian newspaper GAZETA.RU at:
http://gazeta.ru/english/
Plug in either of the Generals' names in search, and you'll find an article titled, "We didn't fly to Baghdad to drink coffee".
This is from April 2004. The generals admit to everything Gertz is asserting. Kudos to Gertz.
What a "surprise". The UN was against the war because they were on the take, and were trying to hide their corruption in the HUGE oil-for-food scandal. The French, Germans, and the Russians were trying to hide their illegal and immoral assistance of this Saddam's brutal regime during a time of sanctions. Just like demonRATS, these "allies" of ours were, and ARE, more interested in money and power, than in doing what is RIGHT. Socialist/Communist SCUMBAGS (I include the demonRATS and JOhnKERry here).
By ignoring this story, the media is perpetrating the Kerry lie that our soldiers and the President failed in securing the explosives. They are beneath contempt.
He ALWAYS Does!!!!
RED SQUARE?
I wonder how"pootie-Poot"will explain this to"W"???
RIGHT ON!!!The word"TREASON"comes to mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wasn't this story circulated along about the time of the invasion?
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