posted
Pentagon Says Russian Intelligence Contributed to Saddam's Mistakes
By Al Pessin Washington 24 March 2006
A report issued by the U.S. Department of Defense Friday quotes an Iraqi document as saying Russia provided intelligence to Iraq during the decisive early weeks of the war in 2002. But the report says the information was false, and contributed to Iraqi leaders' misunderstanding of their situation and miscalculations about how to respond to the U.S.-led invasion. The report also says that even after the invasion Iraqi leaders continued to believe their regime would not fall, and that many senior officials did not know whether their country had weapons of mass destruction. Those are among the findings in the 210-page report, based on extensive interviews with former Iraqi officials and reviews of documents captured when Baghdad fell.
Among the report's more dramatic revelations are Iraqi documents that say Russia was providing intelligence to the Iraqi government from sources at the U.S. command center in Bahrain. According to the documents Russia told Iraq about U.S. strategy, plans for troop movements and the timing of the invasion. But the information was false, contributing, the report says, to Iraqi leaders' confusion. One U.S. official says the Russian information was only a small part of Saddam Hussein's calculations. It says Saddam Hussein was convinced the United States would not pursue the invasion into Baghdad and overthrow his regime; he was more concerned about internal dissent and a possible threat from Iran; and he refused to believe that his forces were crumbling, issuing orders to units that were no longer functioning.
The report also says that the Iraqi information minister and other senior officials, including Saddam Hussein, believed their own declarations that they were winning the war, right up until U.S. forces entered Baghdad.
posted
Moscow’s hostile actions in Iraq were not limited to intelligence-sharing. Retired Russian generals, including a former commander of the Soviet air defenses (Igor Maltsev) and a former commander of Soviet paratroops and special forces (Vladislav Achalov), advised Saddam on preparations for war with America. They focused, among other things, on the USSR’s World War II “partisan” movement. The USSR successfully deployed this guerilla movement in territories occupied by the Wehrmacht, and it was highly effective at disrupting supply operations, cutting communication lines, and gathering intelligence. Additionally, Saddam, a life-long admirer of the Vietnamese General Võ Nguyên Giáp, the architect of Vietnam’s military strategy, integrated guerilla tactics into post-war resistance planning.
posted
Evgeny Primakov responded in the Russian newspaper Kommersant: To begin with, I was never in Iraq in 2002. I went there three weeks before the American invasion to deliver an oral message to Saddam from President Putin urging him to resign. Talk that the USSR equipped anyone with nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction is also nonsense. The USSR didn't even give China anything at the height of the crisis. It's a joke to think that we gave anybody there anything. Sometimes it is even absurd. They even accused me of selling Saddam nuclear weapons for $800,000 when I was foreign minister! First of all, the head of the foreign ministry can't sell those types of things. Second, the sum is altogether unlikely. The U.S. has gotten stuck there and now it can't justify what it has done in Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and now they are looking for way to explain that they had been there.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
what i'm digging for specifically are reports on Russian SUPPORT for our invasion of Iraq..
i clearly recall people saying Russia confirmed our intel.. but i can't find anything specific..
Russia has done very well economically since we invaded Iraq... so well that Moscow has become the most expensive city in the world to live in....
here's a quote from Putin's June 2004 visit to the white house... quoted directly from the whitehousedotgov...
PRESIDENT PUTIN: (As translated.) First of all, I would like to thank the U.S. President for having invited me to such a wonderful place. Indeed, we had a very thorough discussion which pertained to virtually the entire spectrum of the U.S.-Russia relationship.
I have congratulated the U.S. President with the positive change currently underway with the U.S. economy, which has to be acknowledged as his merit. And this happens with the background of the unreasonable growth for costs and pricing for the energy resources. We're all interested in these positive changes, because in the contemporary world of today, when we live, it is important for all of us that the U.S. economy improves, for the entire world - for Russia, included.
I'd like to point out the fact that our relationship has been developing all across the board, including such sensitive areas as the military cooperation.
Now, as regards the adoption of the United Nations Security Council resolution, without any exaggeration I would state that it is a major step forward. And I hope I will express the view which is held by all members of the Security Council that, indeed, we have witnessed a very constructive dialogue which was in progress over the past few days in this area. And this is not about passing a new document in the Security Council regarding Iraq. This is about a quality change in the status in Iraq and with regards to the presence of the military troops there. This is about a quality change of the impact the United Nations have over the situation in Iraq. Naturally, it will take quite a long time before this adoption of the document will have any impact on the real change on the ground in Iraq.
this sortof jumped out at me:
And this happens with the background of the unreasonable growth for costs and pricing for the energy resources.
what an interesting statement.... unreasonable growth? at the time one might have passed it off as a mistranslation...
but?
maybe not....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
Putin Jabs Bush: ‘We Certainly Would Not Want…The Same Kind of Democracy As They Have in Iraq’
During a press conference today at the G8 summit in Russia, President Bush told President Vladimir Putin that Americans want Russia to develop a free press and free religion “like Iraq.” To laughter and applause, Putin responded: “We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.” CNN’s Ed Henry called it a “tough jab.”
BUSH: I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq, where there’s a free press and free religion. And I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia will do the same thing. I fully understand, however, that there will be a Russian-style democracy.
PUTIN: We certainly would not want to have same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, quite honestly.
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 19, 2004; Page A11
Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that his intelligence service had warned the Bush administration before the U.S. invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein's government was planning attacks against U.S. targets both inside and outside the country.
Putin, who opposed Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq, did not go into detail about the information that was forwarded, and said Russia had no evidence that Hussein was involved in any attacks.
"After Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services, the intelligence service, received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Putin said, according to RIA Novosti, the Russian news agency. "American President George Bush had an opportunity to personally thank the head of one of the Russian special services for this information, which he regarded as very important," the Russian president told an interviewer while in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said yesterday that Russia has provided helpful information in the war on terrorism, but that he was "not aware of any specific threat information we were told" about Iraqi activities before the March 2003 invasion. Putin's statement came as Bush, Vice President Cheney and other administration officials are defending their statements -- made before the war and as recently as this week -- that Hussein's government had a relationship with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization. Earlier this week, the staff of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks said there were contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda, "but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship.
Two years ago, in an interview with British documentary makers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Putin said he had personally warned Bush a day or two before the assaults that some kind of terrorist operation seemed to be in the works
posted
what's ODD is that if you go back to '02? you find this: No grounds for Iraq attack: Putin
September 8, 2002 Posted: 9:34 PM EDT (0134 GMT)
LONDON, England -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has told British Prime Minister Tony Blair Friday that he doubts there are any grounds for using force against Iraq.
Putin's comments come as U.S. President Bush launches a concerted effort to push his case internationally for toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, with strong backing from Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/06/blair.iraq/index.html
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Although I do remember before going int Iraq all these countries that gave US data pointing towards WMDs. Russia was one and the Brits as well as the Aussies and I think maybe even the Spanish French and Italians as well
-------------------- "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Posts: 4005 | From: Shaolin | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
the French definitely said our intel was bad...
they control most of the uranium mining in northern Africa, which also made them suspect in terms of having something to hide, but it also puts them in a position know exactly who's been buying what...
the Germans were ignored when they said don't invade cuz they had built bunkers for Sadam (see Karl Esser) so they were suspected of other "value added" military engineering too..
i'm most interested in how the exKGB people could be behind the mis-intelligence...
even tho Tenet has been quoted on the "slam-dunk" statement? the presidents intel report makes it sound like the CIA was not really behind the bad intel on Sadam... it sounds like the DIA was behind most of it.... and? the Russians did warn Sadam about our attack plans, but sadam was ALSO mis-informed by the Russkies..
not too many people were asking how the Russkies got the invasion plans... i assumed (at the time) that we gave them bad intel knowing they would pass it along...
ultimately? i don't think osambinalivetoolong has a damn thing to do with what's going on in Iraq. and there's damn few people who have a positive interest in keeping US tied up there... especially terrorists... the sooner we leave? the sooner they can go back to plotting whatever they have in mind....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Evgeny Primakov:They even accused me of selling Saddam nuclear weapons for $800,000 when I was foreign minister! First of all, the head of the foreign ministry can't sell those types of things. Second, the sum is altogether unlikely.
when the commies went capitalist? they did it in a big way huh?
maybe 800million$ not 800thousand$ huh?
one of the other things that's been buggung me is that usually when somebody screws up at these levels? you only hear about a small portion of the real screwup....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by glassman: Evgeny Primakov:They even accused me of selling Saddam nuclear weapons for $800,000 when I was foreign minister! First of all, the head of the foreign ministry can't sell those types of things. Second, the sum is altogether unlikely.
when the commies went capitalist? they did it in a big way huh?
maybe 800million$ not 800thousand$ huh?
one of the other things that's been buggung me is that usually when somebody screws up at these levels? you only hear about a small portion of the real screwup....
World: Middle East
Primakov 'bribed by Iraq'(1999) By Middle East Specialist Roger Hardy
quote:A leading US investigative journalist has alleged that the Russian Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, received a payment of US$800,000 from the Iraqi government.
In a report published in the New Yorker magazine, Seymour Hersh also alleges that Mr Primakov hindered efforts by the United Nations to monitor Iraq's weapons programmes.
Mr Primakov has close ties with the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, which date from the 1960s, when he was the Middle East correspondent for the Moscow newspaper Pravda.
Seymour Hersh alleges that, towards the end of 1997, when Mr Primakov was the Russian foreign minister, he received US$800,000 from Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz.
Some interesting tid-bits at the end of the article... Note who was the US National Security Advisor at the time....
Also, another article, regarding the same subject...
Russia's Primakov and Iraq's Hussein: the World's Most Dangerous Political Partnership (1999) BY Andrew Campbell
quote:Dr. Yevgenni Primakov, until May 1999 Prime Minister of Russia, and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein probably constitute the world's most dangerous political partnership over recent years. This assessment is based on Primakov's personal and operational and political support for Saddam Hussein of Iraq (who is increasingly regarded by many intelligence analysts as the world's most dangerous man) for over thirty years.
Since emerging as an international political identity during the Gulf crisis in 1991 during which he attempted to undermine United States and Western strategic interests in favour of Saddam, Primakov has enjoyed relatively uncritical media attention in the west.
Primakov presents as an urbane and sophisticated cosmopolitan imbued with liberal tolerance. However, he has spent his life engaged in journalism, propaganda, disinformation, active measures and influence operations and intelligence management and organisation, as a communist party apparatchik.
Primakov's involvement in clandestine intelligence operations and activities has merged into his career path, as was undoubtedly intended. It is therefore virtually impossible to delineate his respective roles. A life long member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (C.P.S.U.) from 1929-1991 he ceased membership only after the 1991 coup, a characteristic and wily career move. Fluent in Arabic and Hebrew, Primakov also speaks English but adopts tactical language difficulties (as in using an English interpreter) in response to difficult questioning.
Primakov's operational history began in the Middle East where he was deputy editor and Middle East correspondent attached to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's weekly newspaper, Pravda, from 1962 to 1970. It was during this period that Primakov first met Saddam Hussein.
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
