Washington – The Russian government collected intelligence from sources inside the American military command as the U.S. mounted the invasion of Iraq, and the Russians fed information to Saddam Hussein on troop movements and plans, according to Iraqi documents cited in a Pentagon report released Friday.
The Russians relayed information to Hussein during the opening days of the war in late March and early April 2003, including a crucial time before the ground assault on Baghdad, according to the documents.
The unclassified report does not assess the value of the information or provide details beyond citing two captured Iraqi documents that say the Russians collected information from sources “inside the American Central Command” and that battlefield intelligence was provided to Hussein through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad.
A classified version of the Pentagon report, titled “Iraqi Perspectives Project,” is not being made public.
In Moscow, a duty officer with Russia’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the report late Friday. No one answered the phones at the Defense Ministry.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Venable, referred inquiries seeking comment to Central Command. At Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla., officials did not immediately respond to a request.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli declined to comment.
In addition to citing the Iraqi documents on the matter of Russian intelligence, the report also directly asserted that an intelligence link existed.
“Significantly, the regime was also receiving intelligence from the Russians that fed suspicions that the attack out of Kuwait was merely a diversion,” the report’s authors wrote.
They cited as an example a document that was sent to Hussein on March 24, 2003, and captured by the U.S. military after Baghdad fell.
The report said the Iraqi document was titled “Letter from Russian official to presidential secretary concerning American intentions in Iraq.”
The lead author of the Pentagon report, Kevin Woods, told reporters at a briefing that he was surprised to learn the Russians had passed intelligence to Hussein, and he said he had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the Iraqi documents.
“But I don’t have any other knowledge of that topic,” Woods added, referring to the Russian link.
