Yea, I think someone has some ’splaining to do…

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/28/D8GKOD080.html

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked her Russian counterpart on Tuesday for a "serious investigation" into reports that Russian intelligence fed U.S. battle plans to Saddam Hussein, the State Department said.

Rice made the request in a telephone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. The call came four days after the Pentagon released a report citing captured Iraqi documents that described the information exchange.

"The point we’re making is, this is a report we take seriously and we are asking the Russians to look into it," Ereli said.

Even so, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld seemed to downplay the report. He said it may be worth looking into, but said he first heard about the allegations when the Pentagon issued the publication last Friday.

"It merits looking into," Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that U.S. officials "still don’t know if the translation is 100 percent accurate" or if the report contained "real information or disinformation."

According to the unclassified report, Russian intelligence had sources inside the American military that enabled it to feed information about U.S. troop movements to Saddam Hussein before the 2003 invasion that toppled him.

The unclassified report did not assess the value or accuracy of the information Saddam got or offer details on Russia’s information pipeline.

Russian officials have said the allegations are false.

Of course they are, and Russia has never helped Iraq behind our back before. 

(cough –>oil-for-food-payoffs<–cough)

The translation and review of the documents seized in Iraq continues with the allegation that Russia tipped Iraq off about the invasion in 2003

All through the Iraq/US debate and conflict Russia has been a force to be reckoned with.  They opposed the use of force, and at various times fought to lift sanctions.  They were also one of the bigger gainers in the oil for food scandal, and historically they accounted for about 57% of Iraq’s conventional weaponry.

Now it seems that Russia had an active role in Iraq on the eve of the war. 

Pentagon report says Russia gave Iraq intelligence

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia provided intelligence to Iraq’s government on U.S. military movements in the opening days of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, a Pentagon report released on Friday said.

The report said an April 2, 2003, document from the Iraqi minister of foreign affairs to President Saddam Hussein stated that Russian intelligence had reported information on American troops plans to the Iraqis through the Russian ambassador.

The intelligence, the document stated, was that the American forces were moving to cut off Baghdad from the south, east and north, that U.S. bombing would concentrate on Baghdad and that the assault on Baghdad would not begin before around April 15. In fact, Baghdad fell about a week before that date.

"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 stated.

The revelations were contained in a report by the U.S. military’s Joint Forces Command assessing the Iraqi view of events in the opening months of the war, from March to May 2003, based on interviews with senior Iraqi officials and captured documents.

Well gee thanks.  That was swell of you guys.

Then there is this:

Russia Spies Operated in Iraq Through 2003

Russia had a military intelligence unit operating in Iraq up through the 2003 U.S. invasion and fall of Baghdad, a Russian analyst said Friday. A Pentagon report said Russia provided Saddam Hussein with intelligence on U.S. military movements and plans.