Posted on 03/26/2006 11:26:59 AM PST by Proctor
The Times March 25, 2006
Mole may have been fed false information
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
THE revelation that a mole inside US Central Command was sending to the Russians secret operational material about the coalition plan to invade Iraq in March 2003 is the most extraordinary development to emerge since Saddam Hussein was found in a hole in the ground. However, the moles 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 It is conceivable that the material was either deliberately skewed to confuse the Baghdad regime or was out of date by the time that Saddam and his war planners were given the details.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.
There can never have been any doubt in Saddams mind that the Americans and British planned to advance from Kuwait, since all the coalition forces were assembled in the desert areas south of the Kuwaiti/Iraqi border.
The document passed to Baghdad states that the Americans also planned to attack from the north and the east. In fact, US Marines and special forces attacked from the west, and the plan to mount an offensive from the north was abandoned when Turkey refused to allow coalition forces to invade from Turkish territory.
The original British operation was to have been exclusively from the north, but after the decision by the Turkish parliament to prohibit the use of Turkish bases, Britain had to switch all its troop deployments and armour to Kuwait for an attack from the south.
The document revealed that the mole in Central Command tipped off the Russians that the Americans had decided against occupying major Iraqi cities en route to Baghdad. This was accurate. Apart from the British mission to seize and occupy Basra and create a safe route for logistics movements from Kuwait to Baghdad, the plan was for US divisions to sweep past the other cities on the way to the Sunni triangle in central Iraq to reach Baghdad as rapidly as possible. US forces advanced past Najaf and Nasariyah so quickly that they were on the outskirts of Baghdad before Iraqs Revolutionary Guard divisions were able to put up a proper fight.
With or without intelligence tip-offs from the Russians, Saddam was incapable of mounting a defence of his capital city or of deploying his supposedly elite Revolutionary Guards to protect his regime.
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 - and what kind of regime would replace him.
Welcome to the real world - its very grey and complicated.
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.
Maybe a sly tip o' the hat to Russia is called for?
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.
fyi
fyi
This is my theory.
I hope someone in Gitmo is still playing whack-a-mole with that traitor.
Since the info he gave was false, the "Mole" could have been a double agent. Part of a classic disinformation campaign?
Now they need to out the mole and try him/her for treason.
"The times indicaates the Russian mole was fed disinfo"
Hahahaha--let's see the big bear whine about how it is an "ally" of the US over that one.
If the mole was US Military, there is a firing squad waiting at Ft Leavenworth, Kan. If not, there are other means.
If your Russian spy buddy was fed disinformation by the US, how does this call for "a tip o' the hat" to the Russians for spying on us? We just used their own spy against them.
Plus, as I have said in a different thread on this topic, just because someone tells you he has "inside sources" doesn't make it true.
I vote for a rogue Russian (though how "rogue" remains to be seen) trying to puff himself up to Saddam for a cut of the oil-for-food money by exagerating the "value" of his information.
Anyone with satellite imagery of the impending battleground could have suggested the tactics that would be used.
The fact that Saddam did NOT act on the information suggested that he did not take it very seriously.
The MSM will fall all over themselves to excuse Russian perfidy.
Interesting....
The Pentagon said no investigations are planned or called for - what does that tell you? Wink-wink.
And like you failed to read I stated as follows:
The problem with that theory that my Russian spy buddy was fed disinformation by the US 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.
To dumb it down the Russians could easily figure out if it was disinfo or not based on easily found out (for them) troop movements and the like.
Since they ain't doing that maybe you need to reevaluate what's what.
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