Putin's warning

Both of these articles are from The Washington Times. The first is an editorial on Putin's revelation that Russian intelligence had warned America about saddam's plans. The second is the actual article detailing what Putin revealed. - Sailor

Putin's warning
Published June 19, 2004

While political foes cast aspersions on his decision to oust Saddam Hussein, President Bush yesterday received support from an unlikely party: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yesterday, Mr. Putin casually delivered a political bombshell, saying that prior to the war, he warned that Saddam's cohorts might be planning a terrorist attack against the United States.
"After September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services -- the intelligence service -- received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Mr. Putin said during a visit to Kazakhstan. He added that Mr. Bush personally thanked a Russian intelligence official for the information. Mr. Putin did not provide any details of the plot or say whether al Qaeda or any other terrorist group was involved. But his remarks serve to strengthen the case for Mr. Bush's decision to go to war to drive Saddam from power.
The Russian leader's comments are particularly significant given Moscow's close, longstanding relationship with Saddam and its staunch opposition to the war. From the early 1970s until the U.S.-led invasion last year, Russia was one of the Ba'athist regime's leading arms suppliers, and Russian and Iraqi intelligence worked closely together. As a former head of the KGB, Mr. Putin doubtless has extensive experience working closely with senior Iraqi intelligence officials.
Mr. Putin's comments are but the latest evidence of Saddam's involvement in harboring and supporting terrorists. Abul Abbas, who murdered American vacationer Leon Klinghoffer during a hijacking in the mid-1980s, was captured by coalition forces in Iraq (and died several months ago). Abu Musab al Zarqawi, an al Qaeda-linked terrorist wanted for his involvement in directing the insurgency in Iraq, received medical treatment in Baghdad after he was injured in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan in early 2002. Saddam's stipends of $25,000 each to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers are well-known.
Moreover, Saddam had no moral compunctions about terrorism against Americans. In 1993, for example, he attempted to assassinate the first President Bush during a visit to Kuwait. His regime played host to Abdul Yasin, a fugitive wanted in connection with the February 1993 World Trade Center attack, which killed six persons and wounded nearly 1,000.
We look forward to learning more from Mr. Putin about Saddam's terrorist plots against America prior to the war. For now, Mr. Putin's statement strengthens Mr. Bush's case that allowing Saddam to remain in power would have posed a danger to the United States.




Putin Says Russia Gave U.S. Intel on Iraq

By BAGILA BUKHARBAYEVA
Associated Press Writer
Jun 19, 2:00 AM EDT

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday his government warned Washington that Saddam Hussein's regime was preparing attacks in the United States and its interests abroad - an assertion that appears to bolster President Bush's contention that Iraq was a threat.

Putin emphasized that the intelligence didn't cause Russia to waver from its firm opposition to the U.S.-led war last year, but his statement was the second this month in which he has offered at least some support for Bush on Iraq.

"After Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services ... received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Putin said.

"Despite that information ... Russia's position on Iraq remains unchanged," he said in the Kazakh capital, Astana, after regional economic and security summits. He said Russia didn't have any information that Saddam's regime had actually been behind any terrorist acts.

"It's one thing to have information that Saddam's regime is preparing terrorist attacks, (but) we didn't have information that it was involved in any known terrorist attacks," he said.

Putin didn't elaborate on any details of the alleged plots or mention whether they were tied to al-Qaida. He said Bush had personally thanked one of the leaders of Russia's intelligence agencies for the information but that he couldn't comment on how critical it was in the U.S. decision to invade Iraq.

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


The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Putin's tip didn't give a time or place for a possible attack.

Bush alleged Thursday that Saddam had "numerous contacts" with al-Qaida and said Iraqi agents had met with the terror network's leader, Osama bin Laden, in Sudan.

Saddam "was a threat because he had terrorist connections - not only al-Qaida connections, but other connections to terrorist organizations," Bush said.

However, a commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reported this week that while there were contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq, they did not appear to have produced "a collaborative relationship."

Also Thursday, a top Russian diplomat called for international inspectors to resolve conclusively the question of whether Iraq had any weapons of mass destruction.

"This problem must be resolved ... because to a great extent it became the pretext for the start of the war against Iraq," the Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov as saying. He said such a finding would allow the U.N. Security Council to "finally close the dossier on Iraqi weapons."

In the wake of the invasion of Iraq, Putin sharply rebuked the United States for going to war despite opposition within the U.N. Security Council and said the threat posed to international security by the war was greater than that posed by Saddam.

But Putin's relationship with Bush is warm by the accounts of both leaders, and last week he said he has no patience for those who criticize Bush on Iraq.

"I don't pay attention to such publications," Putin said of media criticism of Bush at the end of the Group of Eight summit in the United States, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Putin said opponents who criticize Bush on Iraq "don't have any kind of moral right. ... They conducted exactly the same kind of policy in Yugoslavia."

Russia vehemently opposed the NATO bombing attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999, which the United States pushed for under President Clinton.