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| Russia |
| Russians reportedly gave missile aid to Iraq |
| 2004-03-05 |
| as RBers know, the threat was real A group of Russian engineers secretly aided Saddam Hussein’s long-range ballistic missile program, providing technical assistance for prohibited Iraqi weapons projects even in the years just before the war that ousted him from power, American government officials say. Iraqis who were involved in the missile work told American investigators that the technicians had not been working for the Russian government, but for a private company. But any such work on Iraq’s banned missiles would have violated United Nations sanctions, even as the Security Council sought to enforce them. Although Iraq ultimately failed to develop and produce long-range ballistic missiles and though even its permitted short-range missile projects were fraught with problems, its missile program is now seen as the main prohibited weapons effort that Iraq continued right up until the war was imminent. After the first Persian Gulf war in 1991, Iraq was allowed only to keep crude missiles that could travel up to 150 kilometers, or about 90 miles, but the Russian engineers were aiding Baghdad’s secret efforts illegally to develop longer-range missiles, according to the American officials. Since the invasion last March, American investigators have discovered that the Russian engineers had worked on the Iraqi program both in Moscow and in Baghdad, and that some of them were in the Iraqi capital as recently as 2001, according to people familiar with the intelligence on the matter. Because some of the Russian experts were said to have formerly worked for one of Russia’s aerospace design centers, which remains closely associated with the state, their work for Iraq has raised questions in Washington about whether Russian government officials knew of their involvement in forbidden missile programs. "Did the Russians really not know what they were doing?" asked one person familiar with the United States intelligence reports. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington denied any knowledge of the allegations of recent Russian technical support for Iraq’s missile effort. "The U.S. has not presented any evidence of Russian involvement," said Yevgeny Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy. Russia and the former Soviet Union were among Iraq’s main suppliers of arms for decades before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, leading to the first gulf war. The Bush administration has previously said it had uncovered evidence that Iraq had unsuccessfully sought help from North Korea for its missile program, but had not disclosed the evidence that Iraq had also received Russian technical support. C.I.A. and White House officials refused to comment on the matter, and people familiar with the intelligence say they believe that the administration has been reluctant to reveal what it knows about Moscow’s involvement in order to avoid harming relations with President Vladimir V. Putin. "They are hyper-cautious about confronting Putin on this," complained one intelligence source. In his public testimony last week about the worldwide threats facing the United States, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, restated Washington’s longstanding concerns about Russia’s controls over its missile and weapons technology, without mentioning the evidence of missile support for the Hussein government. "We remain alert to the vulnerability of Russian W.M.D. materials and technology to theft or diversion," Mr. Tenet said. "We are also concerned by the continued eagerness of Russia’s cash-strapped defense, biotechnology, chemical, aerospace and nuclear industries to raise funds via exports and transfers — which makes Russian expertise an attractive target for countries and groups seeking W.M.D. and missile-related assistance." add in the competition between parts of the security apparatus vs. the military .... The Iraq Survey Group, the United States team that has hunted for evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, also found indications that Baghdad had received assistance from sources in Ukraine, Belarus and Serbia, according to American officials. |
| Posted by:rkb |
| #4 Gee, y'mean we can't trust the Russkies? What a surprise... |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-3-5 1:40:11 PM |
| #3 I wonder whether we have discovered anything on that since the war. Yep. Lots of shiny, new (ca. 2002) French stuff too. I wish Fred had the bandwidth/disk space to put up some pictures we took of some pretty incriminating stuff. I wonder if that's why the frogs/Sov's/Germans didn't want us to invade?? |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2004-3-5 12:18:12 PM |
| #2 Just before the war Sadaam destroyed a large number of "long-range" missiles. At the time I heard or read speculation that the missiles that were being crushed were not long-range anymore as the Iraqis had swapped them back to an older style engine prior to destruction. I wonder whether we have discovered anything on that since the war. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-3-5 8:19:50 AM |
| #1 Sorry about the missing "Russians" in the title - I shouldn't post BC (before caffeine). |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-3-5 8:13:59 AM |