WASHINGTON, 7 April 2006 — The United States is still investigating Pentagon assertions that Russia gave intelligence on US military movements to Iraq shortly after the 2003 invasion, despite Russia’s denial, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.
“Of course we will continue to look into the matter,” Rice told a congressional hearing. “We are looking, of course, at the document itself and trying to ascertain really how reliable it is,” she said, adding that Washington would take “very seriously” any suggestion that a foreign government had passed on information that might have endangered US troops.
A report released last month by the military’s joint forces command cited an April 2, 2003, document from the Iraqi minister of foreign affairs to President Saddam Hussein as stating the Russian ambassador to Baghdad had given intelligence on US troop movements to Saddam’s government.
Another Iraqi document cited in the report, dated March 24, 2003, referred to Russian sources inside the US military’s Central Command headquarters in Qatar. The report’s author, Kevin Woods, said there was no reason to doubt the documents.
Russia has denied the allegations.
Rice told the House of Representatives International Relations Committee that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov passed her a letter stating that Russia did not believe the contacts took place.
“They have talked to the ambassador at the time,” Rice said.
Rice said Lavrov told her “any such contacts would have been highly inappropriate for an ambassador of Russia to have engaged in with Iraq.” Democratic Rep.
Tom Lantos of California said Russia’s explanation would be key to lawmakers’ deciding whether to urge the administration and other major industrialized governments to meet without Russia in advance of this year’s G-8 summit.
Russia, this year’s G-8 chairman, is to host the summit in St. Petersburg but Lantos said a meeting beforehand excluding Russia would bring together “the true democracies” in the G-8 grouping.
