Russia 'Warning' on Saddam Puzzles U.S (State Dept says "huh?"

[UpInArms]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5460304

ASTANA (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks that Iraq's Saddam Hussein planned to hit targets on U.S. soil, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Putin's remarks looked certain to help President Bush, but officials at the State Department expressed bafflement, saying they knew of no such information from Russia.

Putin said Russian intelligence had been told on several occasions that Saddam's special forces were preparing to attack U.S. targets inside and outside the United States.

"After the events of September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services several times received information that the official services of the Saddam regime were preparing 'terrorist acts' on the United States and beyond its borders," he told reporters.

"This information was passed on to our American colleagues," he said. He added, however, that Russian intelligence had no proof that Saddam's agents had been involved in any particular attack.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters he did not know anything about the information that Putin said Russia passed on. No such information was communicated from Russia through the State Department, he said.

...more...

[charlyvi]

1. The State Dept

is out of the neocon loop--Rumsfeld has won the spook war so far.

[Dhalgren]

4. Or, what is more likely,

Russia never sent any warnings to the US regarding Iraq and the stae dept. won't go alomg with the sham. Putin's trying to give Bush cover for some reason, but State ain't palyin'.

[Must_B_Free]

23. There must have been a deal cut at G8

[goforit]

2. Well guys, why wouldn't Putin want these thugs for 04? The US is messed

up, Russia will soon surpass us, and our country will be devastated.

It all benefits Russia!!!!


Party on!!!!

[wroberts189]

8. You are 100% right.. And also the US gets played like a fiddle

by our (conventional) enemies with this idiot bush in charge.

The Iranians are still laughing at us:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4881157/

Intelligence: A Double Game
Has Chalabi given 'sensitive' information on U.S. interests to Iran? He denies it, but the White House is wary

[TheFarseer]

3. what do you suppose

Putin is getting for spreading this mis-information? loans? trade deals? cash? technology?

[SummerGrace]

12. Putin gets the last laugh

He's sitting back watching the US get quagmired in Iraq, just like Russia was in Afghanistan when Reagan/Bush 1 trained bin Laden.

[Sabriel]

5. Can you spell...

CYA?

Someone's trying to lay the blame, and the State Department wants no part of it.

[Union Thug]

6. This is too wierd...

Something not right here... I'm not rushing to judgement, but considering Russia's position on the Iraq war, this makes no sense.

[RedSock]

7. putin himself warned the united states BEFORE 9/11

of an al qaeda attack. he said this on msnbc about 9/15/01.

let's hear about that!

[Union Thug]

9. That's right...

and that's something we don't hear much about. Did israeli intelligence also speak to this affect?

So, if they had this evidence, that Putin warned of some quite bizarre Iraqi plans to attack the US, why wasn't it used to justify the war?

[Eloriel]

22. Yes. If I remember correctly, we had pre-9-11 intel from

Russia, Israel, France, UK, Germany, Phillipines, Egypt, Jordan "and probably Morocco," and I hope I'm not forgetting any. This is well-documented but unfortunately *I* no longer have those links.

In some cases the intel was quite specific (even a date range in early Sept.) and in the case of Putin, it was supposedly given at a very high level (if not Putin to Bush himself).

[CharlesGroce]

10. They're trying to help you lie idiot.

So evil, yet soooooooooo stupid.

[UpInArms]

11. related article: White House quiet on Putin Iraq claims

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/19/1087595766893.html?oneclick=true

The White House today did not corroborate Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that Moscow told Washington that Iraq planned attacks on the United States after the September 11, 2001, strikes.

''As you know, we have ongoing cooperation with the Russian government, including in matters of intelligence. And we don't discuss specific intelligence matters,'' spokeswoman Claire Buchan told reporters.

''We've declassified as much information as we can to talk about the threat that Saddam Hussein posed. And clearly, he was a threat to America, to the world,'' she said as Bush travelled here for a campaign stop.

Putin said earlier that Russian secret services had provided information to Washington following the September 11 attacks that Iraq was planning to stage strikes against the United States.

The Russian leader's surprise comments came just two days after a September 11 commission in Washington concluded there was no link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, a lynchpin of Bush's case for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

...more...

and then the article goes on to have a Putin disclaimer on how SH was associated with terrorists. <shrug>

[fearnobush]

13. I wouldn't trust the color of Russian shit with the credibility of

that countries government who creats it's own terror attacts, kills its own people to make it look like those attacks were carried out by the Chechians.

This is more of the same evil bull shit that gives the US and Russia a mutual pact to for go each nations atrocities. If this were really true - I'm sure the Republicans on the 911 commission would have been all over it. But, the commission only said that Iraq was not involved with Al Qaeda or 911. It made no mention of any seporate actions Iraq may have wanted to carry out independent on it's own. that I believe could be possible, but then again... Why wait so long?

[ben_thayer]

14. Why wouldn't the Russians try to

sucker the US into Iraq the same way we suckered them into Afghanistan? They must have known it wouldn't take much. So far, it doesn't seem to have hurt the US as much as it did Russia, but it's early...
:evilgrin:

[UpInArms]

16. I think that it is an interesting

"catch 22" for the WH - if they say "yes, Putin told us this", the the question becomes: Why did this information only now come out? Why wasn't it used in the run-up to war?

If they deny it, then they have to say "oops! we didn't have any information tying SH to terrorism but our wetdreams."

[Wednesdays]

17. Hahaha, I was about to say the same thing

It looks like Putin is not in Shrub's pocket, as was widely thought here this morning...he's as clever as they get.

Remember some time ago someone posted that the Russians approach diplomacy like a game of chess, of which they are masters? The clueless monkey has just now been put in "check."

[Eloriel]

27. Yes, it is early. Afghanistan took years

Seven, wasn't it?

[Redleg]

15. Ha ha ha ha ha! What is this, the friggin' Keystone Kops?

Nobody in this administration knows shit about anything.

[struggle4progress]

18. Some nice political poker being played here?

:kick:

[BrotherBuzz]

24. I think it's a board game being played

Unfortunately, while Putin plays a fine game of chess, Bush* is struggling with a mediocre game of checkers.

[struggle4progress]

26. But what's the gambit? And why is the US dodging?

Consider this scenario, for example: Russia had good Iraq intel, which showed not only (1) Saddam really was "making terrorist plans" but also (2) Saddam was losing touch with reality and his "plans" posed absolutely no threat to anyone. Thus Putin happily smirks "Remember, we told you Saddam was making plans" -- but the Administration really doesn't want anybody poking into the story too deeply. So there's a stony silence, followed by "Nobody here remembers that," followed by a dismissive "Oh yeah, now I remember: it was that vague useless sh*t."

[nodehopper]

19. I am so confused by this story

Usually I can figure out or at least infer the subtext.
But this is just weird.

[mallard]

20. Any chance Putin might want to to ....

... give his sources on this pre-911 lethal attack warning (that the State Department is just learning about from the press)?

Just a thought, but it would be great to hear more about the exact origin of this 'forewarning'. Don't imagine, tho, either the WH or the 911 Commission will be pushing Mr Putin too hard on this for quite some time.

The slime-buckets who baked up a Saddam connection with foreknowledge of such an event ought to be rounded up!

[nodehopper]

21. I get why Putin would cover Bush's ass

But the reaction of the State Department makes no sense...unless it's another indication of the battle between State/CIA and PNAC/OSP. That kind of makes sense, I'm just surprised they don't want to cover their own asses. But maybe I underestimated them.

[struggle4progress]

25. More WTF!

Putin's Iraq claim startles US officials

<snip>
Putin said Russia's intelligence services received and passed along the information after the Sept. 11 attacks and before the US-led invasion of Iraq in March last year. He gave no details of the nature of the intelligence or the type of attacks reportedly being prepared.
<snip>

Putin added, however, that Russia had no information that anyone in Iraq carried out the plans for attacks. And he emphasized that the intelligence did not change Russia's opposition to Bush's decision to go to war, in part because of administration assertions of Iraq's support for terrorism. Putin said the criteria for resorting to military force were clearly defined and "were not observed" in the US-led war to overthrow Saddam.

"It is one thing to have information that Saddam's regime is preparing terrorist attacks, but we did not have information that it was involved in any terrorist acts," Putin said in remarks from Kazakhstan that were carried by official news agencies and broadcast on state television.
<snip>

"Everybody's scratching their heads," another State Department official said.
<snip>

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2004/06/20/2003175786



AMERICAN OFFICIAL SAYS INFORMATION OF LITTLE HELP

<snip>
In Washington, a U.S. official said Putin's information did not add to what the United States already knew about Hussein's intentions.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said the Russian tip did not specify a time or a place where an attack might happen.

The Bush administration justified the invasion of Iraq in part by saying Hussein had links to terror groups, including al-Qaida. The U.S. commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said this week there was no evidence of any collaboration between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's terror network.

Putin said Russia didn't have any indication that Hussein's regime was actually behind any terrorist acts.
<snip>

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/world/8965665.htm

[pinto]

28. Saddam's "special forces"? Seems all I can recall hearing about were

a group of Ba'athist thugs who made lethal after hours house calls on Iraqi dissidents out-of-country. The Bush administration has adroitly escalated a fading dictator and his henchmen into a world class sophisticated terror player...red herring x2.

bin Laden never needed Saddam's help, nor his money.

[daleo]

29. There has to be more to this

The White House and State Department ought to be jumping all over this, but they are going "huh?". This doesn't make sense. I think Putin is daring them to verify this story, because it will lead to something worse being revealed. A few possibilities:

- as another poster speculated perhaps the full story would show just how weak Saddam was, and how laughable his plans were, thus undermining the justification for the war.

- perhaps Saddam's nebulous plans included the cooperation of some other country that the U.S. now considers an ally, and doesn't want to have its possible duplicity revealed (Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Israel, Libya, come to mind, all for their own particular reasons - it may not be the governments, but some important factions within these or some other country).

- perhaps verifying Putin's story would compromise or reveal some other aspect of U.S. security - spy satellites, human intel, signals interception, etc.

Of course Putin could just be blowing smoke for Bush, for his own good reasons.