Posted on 03/25/2006 4:34:56 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
MOSCOW (AP) -
Russia's foreign spy agency denied Saturday that Moscow gave Saddam Hussein information on U.S. troop movements and plans during the invasion of Iraq, while analysts speculated the Pentagon claim was tied to a growing rift between the West and the Kremlin.
A Pentagon report Friday cited two captured Iraqi documents as saying Russia obtained information from sources "inside the American Central Command" in Qatar and passed battlefield intelligence to Saddam through the former Russian ambassador in Baghdad, Vladimir Titorenko.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service dismissed the claims.
"Similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia's intelligence have been made more than once," agency spokesman Boris Labusov said. "We don't consider it necessary to comment on such fabrications."
Yevgenia Albats, a Moscow-based journalist who specializes in intelligence matters, said she suspected there was "at least a certain truth reflected in the Pentagon report," considering Russia's close relationship with the ousted Iraqi leader.
But she cautioned that didn't necessarily mean the Kremlin was involved.
"It is sometimes difficult to figure out whether certain steps were undertaken with the knowledge of top Russian authorities or whether those were steps undertaken by certain intelligence officers on their own," Albats told The Associated Press.
She also said the release of the Pentagon report probably had as much to do with the poor state of Russian-U.S. relations as their differences over the Iraq war, which along with other disputes have frayed a once promising partnership between Presidents Bush and Vladimir Putin that developed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Albats noted the report appeared on the heels of Putin's trip last week to China, which added to U.S. unease over strengthening Moscow-Beijing ties. That development has caused Washington to recognize "it had lost whatever leverage it had over Russia," she said.
"It wasn't just another visit to China, it was a statement addressed to the United States," she added. "There is concern in Washington that China plus Russia, combined, will present a real problem for the United States."
A leading Russian Internet news agency, Gazeta.ru, speculated the Pentagon report was released to affect the U.N. Security Council debate on what to do about Iran's nuclear program as Russia and China are resisting U.S. and European demands for a tough stand.
"The leak about Russian spies in Doha can be interpreted as pressure on Moscow, which has taken a tough, principled position on the Iranian nuclear question," it said.
Sergei Oznobishchev, head of the Institute of Strategic Evaluations and Analyses, also tied the report to increasing U.S. distrust for Russia.
"They are irritated by Russia's strengthening position in the international arena and its foreign policy course," Oznobishchev was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.
The Pentagon report wasn't the first to raise questions about Russian help for Saddam's regime at the time of the invasion in March 2003.
At the time, Gazeta.ru reported that two retired Russian generals visited Baghdad less than 10 days before the U.S.-led offensive and speculated they were advising the Iraqi military. The report showed photographs of them receiving medals from Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a newspaper believed at the time to have well-placed contacts in Russia's military and intelligence spheres, reported in March 2003 that Russian intelligence agents were holding daily meetings with Iraqi officials.
The U.S. administration accused Russian companies of shipping prohibited equipment, including anti-tank missiles, night-vision goggles and electronic jamming devices to Iraq, possibly via third countries. Moscow vehemently denied the allegations.
The unclassified Pentagon report did not assess the value or accuracy of the information Saddam got or offer details on Russia's information pipeline.
The Iraqi documents also left unclear who may have been the sources at Central Command's war-fighting headquarters, which is at Camp As Saliyah just outside Doha, the capital of Qatar. No Russians were authorized to be at the closely guarded base.
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On the Net: http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2006/pa032406.htm
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France is not our friend.
Moscow based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer described the reports of Russian assistance as "quite plausible" ==
I guess we need more solid proves then munblers of windbag Felgenhauer who just sucks up his reviews from his thumb.
It ther in inet the faxmiles of those "found" docs?
http://70.169.163.24/
Foreign Military Studies Office
Joint Reserve Intelligence Center
Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents
ISGQ-2003-M0004667
LIEUTENANT GENERAL ‘AMIR:
... We have succeeded in a few of the UN paragraphs, we have won Russia, ahhh … we have convinced Russia by way of generous accounts [payoffs] in which, you remember how and why it happened …
Would love to discover the details of those 'generous accounts', along with the how and the why.
'Russian Spy Agency Denies Pentagon Report ~"
thats instincts, and years of training
The Mafia uses cutouts in the same way.
Soon the Russia defenders on FR will be all over you for daring to point out these tidbits about our wonderful Russian allies.
Less explainable from a Russian point of view would be the GPS jammers that we targeted and destroyed in the very beginning.
Even the Russkies didn't know how easy their junk was to detect and destroy.
Good logic, sir. I'll remember it.
I thought at the time that President Bush had a show and tell with Putin at Camp David, because of the strange things that Putin said at the press conference.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/990883/posts
Maybe. It seems to be more of a question of who's lying; the Iraqi who made the claim or the Russians in denying it.
There are documents....
Boy. I picked a bad time to be eating lunch while viewing this post! heheh.
More plausible is it sounds like the Russians were helping us out - no investigation is being planned either - a funny thing when you consider there may be a mole involved. No investigation means that there was no real mole but it covers for the American effort to sow disinfo (with Russian help) to Saddam in the hopes he decided to leave before the invasion started. The significance of telling Saddam America would not fight in the cities was to show the Baathists was because Iraq's strategy was to lure Americans into cities for urban fighting - the only equalizer the Iraqis could do to even out the odds against them somewhat. When the Russians told Iraq America was not going to drive into the cities the Baathists had no alternative strategy. The problem was that nutjob Saddam did not even believe America would invade so the hoped for impact this disinfo was supposed to have did not materialize.
Tip o' the hat to Russia.
Before people start scratching their heads at that since Russia voted against the invasion - Germany was also against the Iraqi invasion in public but German intel was inside Iraq feeding America information at the same time.
Think outside the box a little people. Some of you sound as simplistic as the Iraqi generals in your analysis.
It's a muddled picture!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2103277,00.html
Mole may have been fed false information
However, the mole’s betrayal might have provided little assistance to the Iraqi dictator. It is conceivable that the material was either deliberately skewed to confuse the Baghdad regime or was out of date by the time that Saddam and his war planners were given the details.
There is even a possibility that the mole had been discovered by the Americans early on and steps were taken to feed him or her with false information. None of the material released in the Pentagon papers gave Saddam such crucial information that enabled him to take measures against the US-led advance on Baghdad.
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The Times indicates the Russian mole was fed disinfo - and the Russians did not know it was disinfo.
The problem with that theory is that my background in logistics tells me that the American invasion plan was no secret to Russian intel based on their ability to spy from satellites in space on our positions. The American invasion plan was clear to anyone who could see it from space because you could not hide such a deployment.
So I think (since even a stooge mole is still a mole and this mole has not been charged with spying now that the war is over and his usefulness gone) that the Russians were helping out the Americans spread disinfo to Saddam.
Remember, Russia wanted Saddam to voluntarily step down.
Why?
In hopes that if Saddam stepped down there would be no need for America to invade and the guy who would take over would be friendly to America but most importantly preserve the Russian oil contracts.
But you ask - would not the Russians want to keep Saddam in power to preserve said contracts? The answer is that everyone - including the Russians who warned America Saddam was planning an attack on the USA (Putin told Bush of this plot personally post 9/11-that is a fact) - knew Saddam was out and the only question was what way he would go out.
Welcome to the real world - its very grey and complicated.
Only 2 Russia defenders so far.
That is a stupid comment - made by someone who has no counter thesis and would be anti-Russian in any case I assume.
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