RUSSIA SPIED ON BLAIR FOR SADDAM...

Drudge ^ | 04-12-03 | Unknown as yet

[Rocko]

RUSSIA SPIED ON BLAIR FOR SADDAM... // Top secret documents obtained by the Sunday Telegraph in Baghdad show that Russia provided Saddam Hussein's regime with wide-ranging assistance in the months leading up to the war, including intelligence on private conversations between Tony Blair and other Western leaders... MORE...

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Right now, the Russians are our only link to the Space Station.

Then just take the risk of sending up a shuttle with a minimal crew and no payload, retrieve our personnel, and kiss the ISS good bye. It is not worth it. We'll build our own. If our real friends, the Brits and Aussies, want to collaborate, fine.

[RusIvan]

There was nothing the US did then that was comparable to Russia's violation of UN sanctions ++++

You think so? But unauthorised war violates Un Chapters. It is much bigger violation then some allerged (not proved!) russian sells.

[Kay Soze]

I belive there wiil be new nations one called Kurdistan and another called Chechneya.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I sure hope that you won't allow the nutball element of Free Republic to hasten your departure. The snarling keyboard types are hardly representative, just very vocal.

[aristeides]

But unauthorised war violates Un Chapters.

I heard with my own ears the French ambassador to the U.S. say that Security Council Resolution 1441 is ambiguous on whether it permits military action against Iraq. Maybe it's unclear whether war against Iraq was authorized. But how can you flatly say that the war was "unauthorized" and "violated Un Chapters" without any qualification?

[PhiKapMom]

Paragraph #6 discusses the Russian denial of access to their bases. There are other articles out about this happening to GAO inspectors very recently.

Hurdles in Destroying Russian Missiles

March 4, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Russia-Missiles.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bush administration officials acknowledged frustrations Tuesday in a program to dismantle weapons held by the former Soviet Union, including the failure of two projects costing a total of $200 million.

But the benefits of the program in keeping weapons out of terrorists' hands far outweigh the problems, they told the House Armed Services Committee.

``The question isn't will we have setbacks, but how effectively we respond to this because in my view, the programs are too important to be allowed to fail,'' said Linton Brooks, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Over 12 years, the United States has spent $7 billion to help Russia and other former Soviet republics dismantle weapons of mass destruction and keep them from being used against Americans. The program, strongly backed by Democrats and Republicans, has eliminated 6,032 war heads, 847 ballistic missile launchers and 856 ballistic missiles, according to the Defense Department.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the committee chairman, said the program ``has accomplished a great deal.'' But he said it has expanded from a program specifically targeting nuclear weapons to include projects ``sometimes only tangentially related to the original purpose or to the principle of reducing direct military threats to the United States.''

A congressional auditor told the committee that Russia has also often denied U.S. officials access to nuclear and biological sites. Joseph A. Christoff of the General Accounting Office also said the Russian government has not always paid its share of program costs.

Hunter focused on the program's two ``white elephants'': One was a $106 million plant in Krasnoyarsk that the United States built to dispose of liquid missile fuel. When the plant was completed, U.S. officials were told that the fuel had been diverted to Russia's civilian space program.

More recently, U.S. officials spent $95 million for designing and testing a facility in Votkinsk to remove solid propellant from Russian rocket motors, only to have the project blocked by local officials because of pollution concerns.

``These are remarkable stories of massive waste of American taxpayer dollars,'' Hunter said. ``I think we are all troubled when we think about the amount of dismantlement that could have taken place with the hundreds of millions of dollars had they not been wasted.''

J.D. Crouch II, assistant defense secretary for international security policy, told Hunter the money wasted on the liquid fuel plant ``was a major wake-up call for us.''

It prompted the Defense Department to re-examine all projects in the program, begin semiannual reviews with Russian officials, and push for greater access to Russian nuclear weapons storage sites. It also began replacing informal agreements with signed contracts.

In the case of the Votkinsk plant, U.S. officials had been working with Russians who wrongly thought they would be able to get the permits needed for the project, Crouch said.

He said the administration would continue to pursue worthy projects ``though we will not be naive in the way we pursue them.''

Democrats on the committee were in the odd position of defending the Bush administration from Republican criticism.

``I'm very concerned that we're hypercritical of the programs right now,'' said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif.

Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., said ``I've seen these programs in place and I'm here to testify, they work.''

Hunter and the committee's vice chairman, Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., stressed their support for the program, but said they want to see it administered better and have the Russians more open and accountable.

The two have been in an unusual public dispute with another influential Republican chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar of the Foreign Relations Committee. Lugar, of Indiana, and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., were the founders of the program to dismantle Soviet weapons.

Hunter and Weldon maintain they were unfairly criticized last fall by Sen. Richard Lugar, now chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who said at a public hearing they were blocking funding for the program.

Without mentioning Lugar, by name, Weldon said his comments were ``categorically, absolutely and outrageously false.''

After Crouch told him that conditions set by the committee to make Russia more accountable have proven to be helpful, Hunter said, ``Would you send that message to Sen. Lugar's staff? I think he needs to have that.''

[RusIvan]

It is not worth it. We'll build our own. +++

DO you know how much it will cost? Today ISS costs like $100 bln and includes many russian vital modules.

If US goes alone she needs to develop those modules from scratch. I think it will up overall costs to 200-300 blns.
It is huge indeed.

[a_Turk]

>> Well that explains the hostility to America.

I am not hostile toward America. I do have my differences here and now with how the game is played, but thie country and its people have been very good to me, as I have been good to you in return.

I see our partnership blundered away by both administrations, and I have become bitter about that. Equally bitter, however, also mildly.

You people are so similar, whether Turkish or American. In all ways good and bad...

[FairOpinion]

"But unauthorised war violates Un Chapters."

---

War IS authorized in case of self defense.

And what about all of Saddam's violations? We were enforcing 17 prior resolutions and it was only a cease fire with Saddam, the conditions of which he violated and continued to do so for years, while the UN did nothing.

We just resumed the war started and authorized by the UN.

[PhiKapMom]

I am with you on Blair when other things start to come out! This could be very interesting. Wonder if the Russians picked up on the Blair/Clinton connection?

[ErnBatavia]

I hope Bush bitchslaps the McCauley Culkin lookalike next time he comes to Texas...

[aristeides]

Your country, sadly, is going the way of the Romans.

Yes, we are going the way of the Romans. I regret that, because I don't see how we can preserve a republic if we do. But Rome had her reasons for doing what she did, and so do we. Your language seems to imply that you believe Rome was clearly wrong. Do you believe that?

[southland]

RE post 38:\
I like your idea of the economic front with the nations you mention. We don't have as many friends as we thought.
No wonder they all were oposed to the war.... I hope we are wise in our approach to the new government of Iraq and with the disposition of all that oil. At this time we are in the drivers seat...
NOW move the UN to Iraq!!!!

[Reagan Man]

>>>It's not "just" spying. Highly recommend reading the entire article."

I read the entire article. The main thrust of the article is about Russia giving covert information, as in secret information to Saddam Hussein's regime. In this case, these Russian covert activities are the equivilant of spying. If Russia gave covert information to an Iraqi intelligence agency, about the movements and whereabouts of Tony Blair, I consider that to be spying, plain and simple.

If I comment on a particular part of the article and not another, that's my choice. And besides, we don't know how much truth there is in this article. Now do we? Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions.

[EaglesUpForever]

"Unauthorized war" is the way the majority of wars (i.e. Chechnya) have been waged throughout all of human history. Besides, even in the brief period that the USA aided Saddam, Russia was coddling Iraq far more than we were. Virtually all of their arms, obviously, are Russian.

The UN, thank God, never reached the authority of an "international government" as Russia and others have never followed it as an authority. Rather, when convenient, Russians engage in the fantasy that there is an international government that only the US has to obey.

[a_Turk]

>> This is an act of agression. It's not a cause for military conflict, but it's a clear sign to all that the Cold War never really ended. The charade is over.

Which was obvious 12 years ago..

I have a feeling we will need the UN from keeping those nukes from flying. That's why it was invented anyway, and it worked very well for that purpose.

[RusIvan]

Paragraph #6 discusses the Russian denial of access to their bases.+++

Yes As I said you before they denied access.
And there no treaty to allow US representatives to go on those bases.
You tell me WHY they have to allow those visits?

[TheLion]

Bump

[PhiKapMom]

Can you imagine if one country is able to control it? They can blackmail the entire world. And I bet that is what Russia's aim was. Thank God we pulled the rug out from under them.

That is a scarey thought! I had a really bad feeling when all these Russian diplomats kept going into and out of Baghdad in the few weeks leading up to the War. It looks to be that it was all about OIL, but not for the United States.