ATS: Pentagon Report: Russian Pre-War Intelligence Given to Saddam

According to a recently released unclassified Pentagon report entitled "Iraqi Perspectives Project", Saddam's forces received intelligence regarding American troop movements from the Russian ambassador in Baghdad. According to the report Russian intelligence agencies had sources inside American central command in the days leading up to the invasion. The report is based in part off of captured Iraqi documents detailing American troop movements prior to the March 2003 invasion.



It is interesting the Pentagon would go public with such an explosive accusation at this point in time. During and after the invasion I had heard reports of large stockpiles of modern Russian weaponry (eg night vision goggles) being found in caches around Iraq. Combined with the oil for food debacle and you really have to wonder what type of allies the U.S has in the "War on Terror".

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[edit on 27-3-2006 by Riwka]

I agree, this is explosive news and I am suspicious of the timing. Faltering opinion polls and Bush's lowest approval ratings and we see a clear shot across the ol' Russian Reds bow. Whats next? Exhumation of Macarthy's body to hold hearings ala Weekend at Burnies?

All jokes aside, the Russians were never part of the coalition and therefore they shouldnt of been expected to be 'on our side'. That they provided help to Saddam Hussein doesn't even account to a betrayal, it just shows what side their bread is buttered i.e. the Russian interests were best served in bogging down or preventing American forces from succeeding in Iraq.

The oil for food program would have had little to do with it. The single biggest breacher of the oil for food program is the Australian government-sanctioned monopoly wheat exporter, the Australian Wheat Board. Any interest for Russia would be in the prevention of American domination of Iraq, moreso than securing their own stake in the country/region.

I'd expect a tit-for-tat exhange from the Russians. They might let a little embarassing nugget of American misdoings become public. And by God there are plenty of those to choose from.

[edit on 24/3/06 by subz]

I have to agree that it isn't the substance of the report that suprised me but rather the timing of its release. Russian/American relations haven't been particularly too frigid, and it just seems like this one was thrown out of left field. I would love to see the classified version of this report though.

It should also be noted that the report details American misteps in its own intelligence, ala the lack of weapons of mass destruction. Sounds like the Pentagon did a good job on this one.

why wouldn't russia give Saddam intel? Afterall, haven't we heard accusations that Russia (among the many) was secretly going against the UN sanctions with regards to Iraq?

What I find odd is, if Saddam had intel regarding troop movement, don't you think he'd have commanded a better fight? Perhaps he was using this intel to spirit the supposed WMD out of the country.

Well I agree so far with the issue of Time for the reports, seems that the Al-qaida link didn't work very well.

Also . . . does it matter now, it looks to me that the so call information given to Saddam didn't do any good. Right?

So why telling this now? because hidden agenda or . . . Trying to make Russia looks like the bad boy on all this.

Then again what does US get to gain releasing this information now, we all know that our government doesn’t do anything without making sure that is going to yield some responses from the public or at least it hopes for it.

Now about the MWDs I still don’t buy into then been taking to any country around, people needs to come to the realization that it was none in Iraq.


[edit on 24-3-2006 by marg6043]

Bushes polls have nothing to do with the release of the documents.

Several senators (both Parties) asked to have the documents released months ago and just recently did they mange to get them to release the documents. This is just the start, actually the 2nd batch is what it looks like. There are another 2 million or so documents to come and it will take time to translate them all.

By the time it is all said and done I am positive we will know a lot more of what took place inside Iraq and also if there was a connection to al-qaeda as some claim. We may even find out there were WMDs and where they went, or who was involved with the transfer of the WMDs.

Well, if anybody around here would have followed the reports that some members, myself included, have been giving since the beginning of the war that Russian officials, and Russian high ranking ex-military "who were part of the Communist coup in Russia yet are still free to do whatever they wish and still have influence inside the Kremlin", have been giving intelligence and military equipment to Saddam's regime since before the war started, plus several Russian's were given medals by Saddam's regime before the war, for their help... Together with the accusations of Russian defectors that Saddam had his WMD thanks to the Russians, and that they had operations for deep-sixing wmd in case any western countries were too close, then perhaps people would understand what happened to the wmd that Saddam had....

The Russians knew that whatever the regime of Saddam did, they will lose the war, and if any of the live wmd were found, they could be traced back to the Russians. You can understand the reason why the Russians would want to hide or destroy as much evidence as possible.

[edit on 24-3-2006 by Muaddib]

To answer the question why Saddam didn't put up a better fight, I read on an AP story (its gone missing now) right before I posted this story that the information the Russian's were getting was flawed. Basically it was all about the 4th ID being the main wave of the invasion (from Turkey down through North Iraq). Since this didn't happen a lot of Saddam's planning was ill fated.

Originally posted by Muadibb
The Russians knew that whatever the regime of Saddam did, they will lose the war, and if any of the live wmd were found, they could be traced back to the Russians. You can understand the reason why the Russians would want to hide or destroy as much evidence as possible.

Wait, you were the one using Russian intelligence reports as proof that Sadaam had weapons of mass destruction. So, you're telling me that they wanted to give the US further justification to go into Iraq so that they wouldn't find Russian weapons? Those Russians, they sure are a clever bunch.

But seriously, I always thought the Russian reports were bogus because they came out around the same time Russia was trying to get into the WTO.

How do you justify all this "evidence" in your worldview?

[edit on 24-3-2006 by Jamuhn]

Shots, trust me, some people will continue to believe it is because of "timing" and because "according to them president Bush has the lowest ratings than any other president" which btw is a lie, if these people would have done some research they would have found that even president Reagan had lower ratings than president Bush alongside at least half a dozen other ex-presidents.

Anyways, there are people that nomatter what the truth is, they will believe "is all being done just to help president Bush in his ratings"..... and they don't want to hear anything else...

Jamuhm....first of all the Russian government didn't give any evidence that Saddam had wmd.... What they did was make sure that the U.S. would go to war with Iraq.

The Russians were playing both sides, while on the one hand helping Saddam's regime and telling the world that the U.S. had no reason for going to war in Iraq, the same Russian government, including president Putin were giving evidence to the U.S. that Saddam was planning terrorist attacks in U.S. soil.

The evidence I have been giving that Saddam had wmd is trough reports of high ranking military Russian "defectors" as well as Iraqi defectors, plus the actions that the Russian government has been doing since before the war in Iraq.

Before you go accussing people, you should inform yourself better as to what they were saying.

[edit on 24-3-2006 by Muaddib]

No accusations, just observing. Yes, you are right though, Russia was saying that Iraq was collaborating with al Qaeda and planning terror attacks. I guess Russia didn't want the US to get excited that they might find WMDs in Iraq.

Why do you think Russia wanted Sadaam to be targeted? And, when and where do you think Russia gave Sadaam WMDs?

By the way, these defectors have not always been right. Many times they have been wrong or simply lied for personal reasons.

Muadib,

Watch thenews? Coming from Saddams mouth was that he had WMDS.

The release was timed to squeeze the Ruskies to help in the UN resolution.

Originally posted by Muaddib
Before you go accussing people, you should inform yourself better as to what they were saying.

Oh if only you'd do the same, I assume you were refering to me with regards to the opinion polls (since I was the first one to raise the issue in this thread). I said "Bush's lowest approval rating", not the lowest approval ratings ever. But then again, you've mission accomplished in that i've replied and been diverted.

Russians would of been implicated as the source of WMDs if they were used, just as much as if they were captured. So the logic in the need for them to be removed to save Russia from being tied to them is erroneous. If the Russians didnt want their fingerprints on them they would not of allowed them to be used in the first place. So hence, whats the point of giving them to Saddam if him using them points to Russia?

Even playing devils advocate here for the time being, so what if the Russians did give the Iraqis WMDs? It absolutely no different to the military aid given to Saddam Hussein by the American government to fight the Iranians in the 1980's. Saddam was murdering his own people since the 70's, the thought of giving American weapons and funds to him was fine and dandy in the 80's. But when the Russians did it a decade later they are the spawn of Satan. You're far too biased in your views on the Russians, you've spoke of how much you hate communism due to your upbringing.

I wonder how Putin will react to this news. I sometimes find it funny how both Russia and the U.S are always looking for allies in beating extremists who aim to destroy them and yet the two can never make a working relationship last.

[sarcasm]And here I was thinking the cold war was over...


Guess I'd best put on the tin foil hat, start digging a bomb shelter and start whacking a few commies.
[/sarcasm]

Anyways, there are people that nomatter what the truth is, they will believe "is all being done just to help president Bush in his ratings"..... and they don't want to hear anything else...

I totally agree.

That is the exact reason why I pointed out the facts that I did, to make people aware this has been in process for a long time.

So...

The Russian's sold them the WMD.
The Russian's informed the United State's of the WMD.
The Russian's helped transport them to Syria, Iran, etc.
Then Russia told the Iraqi Government how they planned to attack.

Roughly, the United State's got played into killing thousands of people, having more terrorists hate them, a war which is near impossible to win and that has cost the tax payer millions as well as the Government's standing in the internatioanl community.

The United State's got played...and who says the Cold War's dead and Russia lost it? lol

He, He, it seems that Russia has been playing with US and Iraq all along.

Funny that Agent47 mention how Russia will react to the news . . . I imagine that they will just lie back and laugh about the whole thing and the . . .Timely way that US is bringing this up to the American public.

Probably to embarass Russia since they aint supporting the U.S. against Iran. No doubt even the Russian ambassador has some shady dealings with Saddam's regime. And also don't need to read the Pentagon's analysis.

Link

Russian intelligence officials repeatedly denied having any links with Iraqi spy services. But several recent British and U.S. newspaper reports cited documents found at the office of the Iraqi spy service, Mukhabarat, that showed Iraq was receiving intelligence assistance from Russia.

[edit on 24/3/06 by JAK]