U.S. Will Ask Russia About Iraq Intel

DOUGLASS K. DANIEL / AP | March 26 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration will ask Russia about a report that Moscow turned over information on American troop movements and other military plans to Saddam Hussein during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

"Any implication that there were those from a foreign government who may have been passing information to the Iraqis prior to the invasion would be, of course, very worrying," Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Rice declined to speculate on whether Russia's actions, as detailed in a Pentagon report based on captured Iraqi documents, resulted in casualties among U.S. troops or what Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about any possible Russian involvement.

"We will certainly raise it with the Russian government. We want to take a real hard look at the documents and then raise it with the Russian government," Rice said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has dismissed the allegation that Moscow provided information to Saddam, whose government was toppled in the invasion.

The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said "anything is possible in the area of intelligence." Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said if the report proved true, "it would be obviously plenty discouraging as well as disgusting" and the U.S. should find ways to let the Russians know "that kind of conduct is not going to be acceptable to us."

A Pentagon report released last week said that two captured Iraqi documents indicate that Russia obtained information from sources "inside the American Central Command" in Qatar. Russia passed battlefield intelligence to Saddam through the former Russian ambassador in Baghdad, Vladimir Titorenko, according to the Pentagon report.

"I will tell you that we take very seriously any suggestion that a foreign government may have passed information to the Iraqis prior to the American invasion that might have put our troops in danger," Rice told "Fox News Sunday."

"I do think we owe it to everyone to take a hard look at the reports and to really understand what's there."

Rice, who was President Bush's national security adviser at the time of the invasion, said she knew nothing of these reports back then.

"I would not jump to the conclusion that this _ if, indeed, the reports are true _ that it had to be Moscow-directed," Rice said.

Calls to the Russian Foreign Minister on Sunday went unanswered. A statement posted on the ministry's Web site noted that Rice and the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, spoke by telephone Friday about Iran and "a series of international problems," but did not mention the newly released Pentagon report.

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