There ya' go, cyber five.
Posted on 04/19/2003 4:28:40 PM PDT by MadIvan
David Harrison in Baghdad uncovers the secret documents which expose the extent of Moscow's involvement
The full extent of the help given to Saddam Hussein by Russia's intelligence services is laid bare in secret documents uncovered by The Telegraph.
As well as spying on Tony Blair, Russian agents reported to Iraq that President George W. Bush hoped to justify war by provoking a conflict with the UN weapons inspectors.
The documents were obtained from the smoking ruins of the federal headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (Iris) in central Baghdad.
They show that, only months before war began, the Russian Federal Security Bureau briefed Saddam that the White House was pinning its hopes on Iraq obstructing the weapons inspection teams.
The information, which appears to draw on intelligence from Russian agents and diplomats around the world, is likely to have helped Saddam formulate his strategy of "hide and seek" with weapons inspectors, rather than obstruct them openly as he had done during previous inspections.
In a report dated November 13, 2002, the Russian security bureau informs its Iraqi counterpart that America had launched a two-month propaganda campaign to win public support for the war.
The Russians say in the report that Washington feels that two months would be long enough to cause a breakdown in relations between UN inspectors and Iraq, making it impossible for inspections to continue.
America believes that it would then be able to accuse Iraq of breaking agreements and so justify military action against Saddam, according to the report from Moscow.
The revelations about Russia's intelligence services follow The Telegraph's disclosure last weekend that they spied on Tony Blair during private meetings with Western leaders, including Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, to discuss the war.
According to Iraqi intelligence documents, this information was then passed on to Baghdad.
The papers also revealed how Moscow had given Saddam a list of assassins, details of Russian arms deals with countries in the Middle East, and Osama bin Laden's plans to fund camps to train Arab terrorists to fight in Chechnya.
The Russian report about President Bush is headed: "Propaganda to secure a United States military operation against Iraq". An Iraqi intelligence officer attached a note to the report saying: "We will pass this to M4 and take it to the President."
The report says: "The Bush administration has taken a decision to make a more active information and propaganda campaign to secure military action against Iraq.
"The White House has ordered the relevant departments to increase activities to acquire and make public any [including circumstantial and fabricated] 'proofs, testimonies and facts' which reveal direct links between Baghdad and international terrorists and its eagerness to possess weapons of mass destruction."
It adds that American embassies are already informing managers of mass media loyal to the US in different countries and says that Washington plans to organise "special seminars and round tables" to influence international public opinion. "In particular," the Russian report says, "the United State's foreign missions in Latin America are already taking active steps in this direction". The Moscow intelligence service tells the Iraqis that the Bush administration would continue the propaganda campaign for up to two months.
"In Washington they think that during this period they will manage to provoke a conflict between the UN inspectors and Iraqi authorities and to render the Unmovic work 'impossible', to accuse Iraq of breaking agreements and to open the way to a military operation against Baghdad."
I found the new documents after a second search, lasting many hours, among the rubble and burnt-out offices of the Iraqi intelligence headquarters, which are now being combed by looters, many armed.
"Before the fall of Baghdad we would have been shot for coming anywhere near the entrance to these buildings," said a 29-year-old looter called Mahmood, struggling with an armchair he had taken from the office of a senior intelligence officer.
They were joined, however, by Iraqis on a poignant but forlorn quest for clues about what had happened to relatives who had been arrested and taken to Saddam's dreaded intelligence headquarters, never to be seen again.
Right -- Hatfill's August press conference, the FBI's unscheduled return visit to AMI "to search for the anthrax letters," coincidentally scheduled to end on the anniversary of 9/11, two days before Bush's UN speech, the heads up to the LA Times that the administration was going to be "speaking more" about the Atta-al-Ani meeting, the build up to the Blair dossier on Saddam's WMD, Bush's cryptic "blackmail" remark at the ranch, etc. The stuff coordinated with our original efforts to get Saddam to take an exile deal, in other words.
If I was near where you are at, I would give you a high 5! Your reply is 100% correct IMHO!
There ya' go, cyber five.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.