Inconvenient Facts: Russian Government Tipped Off Hussein To U.S. War Plan

[kpete]

Pentagon report says Russia gave Iraq intelligence
Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:00 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-03-24T200007Z_01_N24241162_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA-RUSSIA.xml

and

Inconvenient Facts: Russian Government Tipped Off Hussein To U.S. War Plans
President Bush, 9/16/05:

We’ve got a strong ally in Russia in fighting the war on terror….we understand we have a duty to protect our citizens, and to work together and to do everything we can to stop the killing.

AP, 3/24/06:

The Russian government provided Saddam Hussein with intelligence on U.S. military movements and plans during the opening days of the war in 2003, according to a Pentagon report released Friday.

Saddam’s regime never had any meaningful relationship with al-Qaeda, despite repeated suggestions to the contrary by President Bush and others. The same can’t be said, apparently, about Saddam’s relationship to the Russian government.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/24/inconvenient-facts/