Russians Passed Sensitive Invasion Data to Iraq

This sort of thing makes the story of Russian/Iraqi transfers of WMD to Syria and Lebanon seem a good deal more plausible.

WASHINGTON -LA Times -- Russian diplomats passed detailed — though sometimes inaccurate — tactical information about American troop movements to senior Iraqi officials as U.S. troops closed in on Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to Iraqi intelligence documents captured by the American military that raise new questions about Moscow's role in Iraq.

One of the documents, which purports to be a summary of a letter sent to Saddam Hussein's office by a Russian official, claims that Moscow had "sources inside the American Central Command in Doha" — the U.S. military's headquarters during the war — which Russia used to convey AmericanRussia had well-known and extensive diplomatic and economic ties to Baghdad prior to the U.S.-led invasion and occasionally clashed with the Bush administration during the international debate over how to deal with Hussein's regime.

But the documents, made public in a study of the Iraqi military's decision-making during the war that was released by the Pentagon today, are the first to assert the passing of sensitive military intelligence to Baghdad during the war.

Analysts said the revelations could be some of the most damaging to bilateral relations since the end of the Cold War, and while they cautioned that Moscow may have an explanation for the disclosures, they noted that some of the details were so sensitive that they would be hard to justify. intentions and troop movements to Baghdad