Russia Gave Saddam Our War Plans
Really, this ABC series on the documents is fascinating stuff, and ABC deserves a lot of credit for the work they are putting into it. Look at this latest beaut:
Document written sometime before March 5, 2003
The first document (CMPC-2003-001950) is a handwritten account of a meeting with the Russian ambassador that details his description of the composition, size, location and type of U.S. military forces arrayed in the Gulf and Jordan. The document includes the exact numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, different types of aircraft, missiles, helicopters, aircraft carriers, and other forces, and also includes their exact locations. The ambassador also described the positions of two Special Forces units.
Document dated March 25, 2003
The second document (CMPC-2004-001117) is a typed account, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hammam Abdel Khaleq, that states that the Russian ambassador has told the Iraqis that the United States was planning to deploy its force into Iraq from Basra in the South and up the Euphrates, and would avoid entering major cities on the way to Baghdad, which is, in fact what happened. The documents also state “Americans are also planning on taking control of the oil fields in Kirkuk.” The information was obtained by the Russians from “sources at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar,” according to the document.
Sadly, I don’t think anyone is too shocked by this, given how far the Russians, and especially this ambassador, were up Saddams tail pipe:
(Editor’s Note: The Russian ambassador in March 2003 was Vladimir Teterenko. Teterenko appears in documents released by the Volker Commission, which investigated the Oil for Food scandal, as receiving allocations of 3 million barrels of oil — worth roughly $1.5 million. )
I really hope an effort is made to find these moles. I guess the real surprise is that the info didn’t come from the French.
The rest of the ABC article has documents concerning interaction between Iraq and some guy named Osama Biin Laden. Nothing of interest to the MSM there…
World Stuff | Mr. Bingley | 
March 24, 2006 8:45 am
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The important question is not if the Russians gave the Iraqis this information. Of course they would. The important question is how the heck did the Russians get this information?
Sounds like some heads need to roll at CentCom.
The leak might not have been moles……that could have been crappy operational security.
But, yeah, heads need to roll.
“could have been crappy operational security”
I dunno, the Russians have sattellites, too.
The Russian do, John, and doubtless the sats were used extensively.
But satellite imagery is only one aspect of intelligence collection. Human intelligence (aka HUMINT) is valuable for operational details and corroboration…the later being critical in the intelligence community.
From the description of the intelligence provided by the Russians, they had inside sources at CENTCOM. Moles are one possibility. Signal intelligence is another. But yet another is someone failed to properly dispose of working documents — that’s crappy OPSEC. It’s amazing what you can find in the trash. That’s why I have a shredder at the house.
Plans at that level, with the amount of detail mentioned in these reports, are not tossed around freely. Either we briefed the Russians, or we briefed another nation that gave it to the Russians. Or there’s a spy in our midst.
Mike, I speak from professional experience, not guesswork. Not that my opinion matters on this one way or the other, of course.
But the fact is, security was breached in a serious fasion. Focusing on a mole this early is self-defeating. There are many ways to get those data, including the first two you mentioned.
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