London: A leading British daily on April 13 claimed that Russia provided Saddam
Hussein's regime with wide ranging assistance in the months leading up to the war,
including intelligence on private conversations between Prime Minister Tony Blair
and other Western leaders.
According to some documents obtained on April 12 from the heavily bombed
headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad, Moscow gave the toppled
Iraqi regime the lists of assassins available for "hits" in the West and details of
arms deals to neighbouring countries, the 'Sunday Telegraph' said.
The two countries also signed agreements to share intelligence, help each other
to "obtain" visas for agents to go to other countries and to exchange information on
the activities of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
The sprawling complex, from where the documents detailing the extent of the links
between Russia and Saddam were recovered, has been the target of looters and Iraqis
searching for information about relatives who disappeared during Saddam's rule.
The documents, in Arabic, are mostly intelligence reports provided by anonymous
agents and by the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow, the daily reported.
Blair is referred to in a report dated March 5, 2002 and marked "Subject – Secret".
In the letter, an Iraqi intelligence official explains that a Russian colleague had
passed him details of a private conversation between Blair and Italian Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a meeting held on February 15 last year in Rome.
PTI
