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U.S. believes Russians aiding Iraq national |
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news report
 Monday March 24, 2003 21:21 by Evil Dave
 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 says.
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. |
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5Russia denies selling arms to Iraq
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has denied that it sold Iraq military equipment in breach of U.N. sanctions, but vowed to examine evidence provided by the United States.
Allegations that Russian firms have supplied Iraq with banned defence equipment are a fresh blow to ties between Moscow and Washington, already strained by Russia's open opposition to a five-day-old U.S.-led war.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia had supplied no military equipment to Iraq. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying that Moscow would look at any U.S. evidence and mount any necessary investigation.
"Russia rigorously observes all its international obligations and has not supplied Iraq with any equipment, including military, in breach of the sanctions regime," Ivanov said in response to U.S. news reports.
"The U.S. side has asked us several times about possible supplies of banned equipment to Iraq. Our experts have checked these meticulously and the last answer (by Russia to the U.S.) was made on March 18," he told journalists.
"No facts proving U.S. concerns have been found."
Shortly after Ivanov spoke, the White House said it had proof that Russian firms were selling anti-tank missiles, night vision goggles and other equipment to Iraq and demanded that the Russian government immediately step in to stop them.
"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 anti-tank guided missiles," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
"These actions are disturbing and we have made our concerns clear to the Russian government. We've asked the Russian government that any such ongoing assistance cease immediately."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would look into the evidence held by the U.S. authorities.
"If the United States has such evidence, then the appropriate Russian body will investigate it and, if the information is confirmed, the organisation against whom evidence is held will be investigated according to the law," a spokesman told Interfax news agency.
Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council has sided with France, Germany and China in opposing the U.S.-led campaign to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Russia has called for a Security Council session to discuss the Iraq conflict, but has vowed to block any future moves by the United States to seek U.N. backing for military action.
Somebody has to help the defenceless Iraqis, they are in a David against Goliath situation, they need all the help they can get.
in the pages of Janes Defence weekly
was the introduction of a Unix based War net.
This system provides field co-ordination between units and commands centre.
It is thought that this system went on line during February....not without hiccoughs.
readers may remember that commercial internet traffic slowed upon the first day of the Warnets operation.
So far over 5000 war related hack attacks on multi-national corporations profiteering from this war have been reported.
source: yesterday's el Mundo Madrid.
The Pentagon was quite proud of its "radiophonic" warplan with which it had intended to disrupt all radio and internet traffic into and out of Iraq.
Strangely though the system most affected so far by these new warfare techniques have been the telecommunication systems of Kuwait and Israel.
It is worth noting that the British would not have lost a waraircraft to Patriot fire if the Unix based warnet had been working properly.
there u go.
Kremlin hits back at Iraq arms sales allegations
online.ie 25 Mar 2003
The Kremlin went on a media offensive today, giving its own version of a conversation between the US and Russian presidents about American claims that Moscow illicitly sold military equipment to Iraq.
Russian officials hinted that Washington itself had sold sensitive equipment to other nations.
The White House said US President George Bush called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin yesterday to complain about alleged sales of anti-tank guided missiles, GPS jamming devices and night-vision goggles to Iraq, which could pose a danger to American troops.
But Kremlin spokesman Alexei Gromov said today that during the conversation, it was Putin who had brought up the allegations, denying them and telling Bush that Russia had provided "information on the absence of such supplies" on many occasions.
"The president of Russia also notes that the discussion concerns unproved, public declarations that can damage the relations between the two countries," Gromov said.
"Moreover, in reply, the American side was addressed with questions on analogous problems, which have not been answered yet."
The Kremlin press office, which usually issues its statements by fax or through the main Russian news agencies, took the unusual step of calling news organisations and dictating Gromov's statement over the phone.
He gave no more details on Putin's accusation. But later today at the Russian nuclear weapons centre Sarov, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov and Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev accused some of the America's "closest allies" of providing dangerous nuclear equipment to Iran – turning the tables on Washington, which has frequently accused Moscow of leaking nuclear and missile technologies to Tehran.
the strategic loss of fifteen Ukranian war telecommunication experts in this last year has seriously weakened defence co-operation between Iran and Ukraine.
Ukranian technology is based on former Soviet Red Army innovations.
if you want to get into the "iran" story, and it is a bit early my comrade hippy trippy anarkisty friends a good place to start would be the anomoly of 2002 July 5th.
see
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=190120
then learn about the missing suitcase bombs.
and read my pamphlet "how to smuggle plutonium over the German border".
when the US/K finish with Iraq I shall of course tell you more about Iran.
coz the French are up to their eyeballs there as well.