This Russian deal is going to have major repercussions I believe. Not only can we never trust them to do the right thing in the UN but now we have to look at their dealings with Iran:
MOSCOW – Russia had a military intelligence unit operating in Iraq up through the 2003 U.S. invasion and fall of Baghdad, a Russian analyst said Friday as the Pentagon reported Moscow fed Saddam Hussein’s government with intelligence on the American military.
Iraqi documents released as part of the Pentagon report asserted that the Russians relayed information to Saddam through their ambassador in Baghdad during the opening days of the war in late March and early April 2003, including a crucial time before the ground assault on Baghdad.
Pavel Felgenhauer, a respected independent Moscow-based military analyst, told The Associated Press the report was “quite plausible.”
He said a unit affiliated with the Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Department, known by its abbreviation GRU, was actively working in Iraq at the time of the U.S. invasion. The unit apparently was shut down after the fall of Baghdad.
Felgenhauer said at that time, there was an Internet site in Russian called “The Ramzay Files” that caused a stir in Moscow’s military and diplomatic community. The site, which also shut down after the invasion, posted striking insights, predictions and analysis into U.S. military activities as well Iraqi military and intelligence activities.
He said former GRU officials told him the type of information that was being posted ? both on the Iraqis and on the Americans ? appeared to be the kind of that only highly placed Russian intelligence officials in Iraq would have.
Ed Morrissey has come to the same conclusion as myself:
And that brings us to Iran. After finding out that Putin has a habit of supplying tyrannical enemies of the Western nations with military intelligence to use against us, the last country we should trust with Iran’s nuclear program is Russia. We can also kiss off the UN; as long as Russia has its veto, that route will lead nowhere. Russia has revealed itself to be a major part of the problem in the Middle East, and we should stop pretending that they are part of the solution.
Imagine for a minute the damage that could have been done to our troops if Saddam had been a professional leader and had this knowledge the Russians gave him. We cannot look at this with a present-day mindset, knowing that we kicked the crap out of his army already, but on what COULD of happened…..just imagine.
I am just wondering when and where the documents are that show the Russians moving Iraq’s WMD’s.
I think it’s starting to get mighty cold once again.
UPDATE
Ray Robison has found another nugget in the documents:
A team of the IAEA did a SURPRISE (translator’s emphasis) visit today, on the 15th of December 2002, to
1) Oumm Al Maarek Company (Mother of all battles Company)
2) Al Qadessia Company
3) Badr Company[…]When we visited Badr company there were Turkish and Russian experts at the site and they had to hide away from the inspectors. We demand your (General Director of the Office of National Supervision: translator?s note) instructions for what to do in case there is a face to face between the agency?s inspectors and the experts.
[…]Note this is within four months of the start of the war and “poor Saddam” (who the AP reported as frustrated because he was so honest about having no weapons) has Russian experts hiding from U.N. teams. Nice job AP, that is some cutting edge reporting. How is it a clown like me and a dedicated volunteer linguist can find this stuff and the media can’t?
Ray also found a article written in 2002 that interviewed a Iraqi who stated the best way to stop Saddam’s WMD program was to get rid of the Russian help:
In 1994, Khidhir Hamza, an American-trained senior Iraqi nuclear scientist, left Iraq having grown disenchanted with the regime there.
He eventually made it to America, where he revealed valuable details on Iraqi attempts to hide its weapons programmes.
In 2000, Mr Hamza wrote Saddam’s Bomb Maker – an autobiographical account outlining his role in the Iraqi weapons programme.
In the book, Mr Hamza concluded that the best way to ensure that Saddam Hussein was blocked from developing WMD was to stop Russian scientists entering Iraq and help Iraqi scientists escape.
It’s only been a week since the release of the documents, I can only imagine what’s next.
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