Vlad Putin announced today that Russian intelligence told Bush before the war that Iraq was going to attack the U.S. Why hasn’t Dubya shared this with us before? It sure would have bolstered his thin case for invading and saved him a lot of trouble in the time since. And why does the State Dept. sound so surprised to hear this? Must be a problem with interoffice mail in the White House.
As for the quality of Russian intelligence, I give you this excerpt from a Sept. 14, 2001, interview with a Russian intelligence bigshot:
- Kosyakov: But I want to repeat: the fact, that the terrorists are not claiming responsibility [for the Sept. 11 attacks], indicates that they will strike again and again. Until the second stage is reached—the stage of global conflict. This is the goal of all these actions. At that point they will reveal their authorship, in order to obtain a mobilization reserve.
Q: And who is it? Bin Laden?
Kosyakov: Hardly. Sure, some conversation of his was intercepted, where someone reported about hitting two targets. That would indirectly support his involvement. But he is not the ideologue. He is too visible. Those who could organize all this are too clever, to be so visible. (emphasis mine)
Yep, sounds like they’re really on the ball in Moscow.