Pentagon report says Russia gave Iraq intelligence

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Russia provided intelligence to Iraq's government in the opening days of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, including information that fed Iraqi suspicions that the main U.S. invasion force coming from Kuwait was actually a diversion, a Pentagon report released on Friday stated.

The report said an April 2, 2003, document from the Iraqi minister of foreign affairs to President Saddam Hussein stated that Russian intelligence had reported information on American troops plans to the Iraqis through the Russian ambassador.

The intelligence, the document stated, was that the American forces were moving to cut off Baghdad from the south, east and north, that U.S. bombing would concentrate on Baghdad and that the assault on Baghdad would not begin before around April 15.

In fact, Baghdad fell about a week before that date.

"Significantly, the regime was also receiving intelligence from the Russians that fed suspicions that the attack out of Kuwait was merely a diversion," the report stated.

The revelations were contained in a report by the U.S. military's Joint Forces Command assessing the events in the opening months of the war.

The Russians are not our friends - was Bush ever so naive as to think they were, or was he just playing along with Putin to try to get something, anything at all, out of him? Churchill held his nose and worked with Stalin to win WWII, but he was never naive enough to forget that Stalin was really an enemy of freedom and democracy. I do find it interesting that the Russky briefing(s) may have helped to lead to a more rapid collapse of Saddam's regime, though I'm not sure how much more Iraq could have resisted even if they knew exactly what was really happening.

"Whether by chance or design, one piece of Russian intelligence actually contributed to an important U.S. military deception effort. By telling Saddam that the main attack on Baghdad would not begin until the Army's 4th Infantry Division arrived around April 15, the Russians reinforced an impression that U.S. commanders were trying to create to catch the Iraqis by surprise."

Giving intelligence information to the Russians is like giving it to the Democrats in the Senate. Either way, it will promptly leak out to people who want to kill Americans. It is excellent that the Russians passed on bad information to their Iraq allies in Saddam's regime.

Perhaps the future planning for information in the Senate ought to include giving them bad information, so the leaks will help, rather than hurt, our war effort. When you are dealing with a sieve, pour in tainted water, and see where it runs out.

Congressman Billybob

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