US to probe Russia on leaking intelligence to Iraq

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
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 US-led invasion of Iraq, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. Rice declined to speculate on whether Russia's actions, as detailed in a Pentagon report based on captured Iraqi documents, resulted in casualties among US troops or what Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about any possible Russian involvement. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service has dismissed the allegation that Moscow provided information to Saddam, whose government was toppled in the invasion. 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.