U.S. Believes Russians in Baghdad Aiding Iraq

[nitewriter]

This just in:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States believes Russian company technicians are in Baghdad helping the Iraqis operate electronic jamming systems that could impair the U.S.-led war against Iraq, a U.S. official said on Monday.

http://www.reuters.com/

[Coriolis]

Unfortunately I can't get to the story from my browser at work, but I will say this:

Getting on bad with the Russians, to me, is way more threatening to national security than any threat Saddam might have posed. I truly hope this is a "free enterprise" issue on behalf of these Russian companies, and not government sanctioned efforts to foil US plans for victory in Iraq. I do not want to be at war with Russia next! That is a scary prospect.

[Fiona]

That's what I was talking about earlier, Ethics... I heard it on this mornings radio programs...

[mikepd]

Can't get to the Reuters site. Not surprising as traffic must be bringing servers to their knees all over the place.

[Fiona]

U.S. Believes Russians in Baghdad Aiding Iraq
Mon March 24, 2003 02:12 PM ET
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States believes Russian company technicians are in Baghdad helping the Iraqis operate electronic jamming systems that could impair the U.S.-led war against Iraq, a U.S. official said on Monday.

President Bush telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to protest against alleged Russian sales of night-vision goggles, antitank missiles and global positioning system (GPS) jamming systems to Iraq, the White House said. U.S. officials said such sales would violate U.N. sanctions.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of Russia, which along with France strongly opposed the U.S.-led war against Iraq, denied Russia had supplied Iraq with any military equipment in breach of U.N. sanctions.

But U.S. officials said Washington had been worried about the alleged sales by Russian companies for months and had protested to Moscow at increasingly senior levels, culminating in Bush's telephone call to Putin on Monday.

"The two also discussed United States' concerns, which President Bush discussed, involving prohibited hardware that has been transferred from Russian companies to Iraq," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said at his daily briefing.

Asked if Washington had evidence the items were being used by Iraq as it seeks to fend off the U.S. and British bombing campaign and ground forces marching on Baghdad, he said: "They were not provided for the purpose of sitting on shelves."

The spokesman added: "We do have concerns that some aspects of this may be ongoing. those concerns were raised in the phone call today."

U.S. officials believe the alleged sales have been carried out by private Russian firms and they want greater oversight by Russian authorities to stop them.

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Fleischer said: "The United States has credible evidence that Russian companies have provided assistance and prohibited hardware to the Iraqi regime, things such as night vision goggles, GPS jammers and antitank guided missiles."

A U.S. official who asked not to be named said Washington made its accusations public late last week when it discovered Russian technicians in Baghdad aiding the Iraqis with the GPS jamming system after the start of the U.S.-led war.

"They are there in Baghdad ... trying to make the system work, the jamming system," said the U.S. official.

"It was the discovery that there are ... Russian technicians helping to make this GPS jamming work in Baghdad that prompted the internal debate in the U.S. government about what to do and (whether) to go public," the official added.

Allegations of such alleged Russian military sales surfaced on Sunday in the Washington Post, which reported that the United States had protested against the sales late last week.

The newspaper reported that U.S. officials, citing intelligence sources, believe the jamming devices were initially imported to counter U.S. and British jets patrolling the "no-fly" zones of northern and southern Iraq and were deployed last week when U.S. forces began their attack.

[cdw]

Washington made its accusations public late last week when it discovered Russian technicians in Baghdad aiding the Iraqis with the GPS jamming system after the start of the U.S.-led war.

Boy...this is getting thicker and thicker! We really ARE in the fight for our position in the world. I knew we were going to find out things about sales, etc., but to have people technicians there helping them while we are in the thick of it is really way over the top. Jesus.
I was listening to a couple of military guys speaking early this morning... they were saying the GPS jamming systems and the missiles really don't bother them... It's the night vision. What they were saying was that part of the advantage of the larger countries (our supposed allies) was that there was an understanding about "owning the night". The technology as it improved was not to shared.

Guess this is going to be a longer road than I thought.

[IamZed]

I can’t understand why you would want to fire up a GPS scrambler during precision bombing, unless it was to make us look bad. The bombs will still fall, but on civilians as well. Is the sacrifice of random bombing in an urban environment worth it? Is this just more insanity?

[Misu]

Slowly but surely, the real reason for opposition comes out.

[mikepd]

Zed, I think you hit it. It makes us look bad, causes the intended target to not suffer maximum damage, and complicates the situation. Now, I'm still not convinced the official Russian government was involved until more proof has been established. But I would not put it past individual companies and corrupt individuals without official sanction to do this. If the Russian government is behind this, it goes to a whole different level, and who knows where that may lead.

[rockotman]

Perhaps it is time for the EMP weapon - that should fry the scramblers, as well as all their other tools of propoganda.

Of course, why play one of your trump cards unless you really need to. ;)

[IamZed]

What do you do with a smart bomb in the field of a GPS jammer?
You reprogram it to home onn the jamming signal itself.
By By Jammers! (http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030325_833.html)

[cdw]

From what I understand, the equipment that the Russians sold the Iraqi's was crap. Someone just makin' money...not supplying really good product. Aww, gee.