The Russian ambassador told Saddam that the main attack on Baghdad would not begin until the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division arrived around April 15, the report said. This information bolstered an impression that U.S. commanders were attempting to create to catch Iraqi forces by surprise. In fact, the attack on Baghdad was under way well before the 4th Infantry arrived.
The Pentagon report said the Russians told the Iraqis that U.S. forces planned to focus on bombing in and around Baghdad, cutting the road to Syria and Jordan, and sowing confusion to force residents of Baghdad to flee.
The report, which was designed to help U.S. officials better understand how Saddam and his military commanders prepared for and fought the war, portrays the Saddam regime as being blind to the U.S. invasion threat due to inept military leadership by Saddam as well being deceived by its own propaganda. The report concluded that the largest contributing factor to the complete defeat of the Iraqi military forces "was the continued interference by Saddam." The report also revealed that while captured Iraqi documents indicated plans were made by Iraqis at the regional or local level to destroy the northern and southern oil wells in Iraq, as was done by retreating Iraqi forces in Kuwait in 1991, Saddam had expressly forbidden such a scorched-earth policy. (end) rm.