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Russia and Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq controversy
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It has been alleged that the Russian GRU agency helped Saddam Hussein to destroy, hide, or transfer his chemical weapons prior to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The Iraq Survey Group did not find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were present in the country earlier. Former Romanian intelligence official Ion Mihai Pacepa stated that an operation for the removal of chemical weapons ("Operation Sarindar") was prepared by the Soviet Union for Libya and that such a plan existed and had been implemented in Iraq.
Statements by John A. Shaw
Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw, a "top Pentagon official who was responsible for tracking Saddam Hussein's weapons programs before and after the 2003 liberation of Iraq," stated in , , and again in that it was the Russians who helped Saddam Hussein to "clean up" his weapons of mass destruction stockpiles "to prevent the United States from discovering them.":
*In December 2002, former Russian intelligence chief Yevgeni Primakov came to Iraq to supervise the execution of operation Sarindar conducted by Russian GRU service and Iraqi military. The purpose of the operation was to remove all chemical weapons and technical documentation from Iraq, so that country would be announced "WMD free."
*In addition to the trucks, which transported Iraqi WMD to Syria and Lebanon in February and March 2003, "two Russian ships set sail from the (Iraqi) port of Umm Qasr headed for the Indian Ocean ," where Shaw believes they "deep-sixed" additional stockpiles of Iraqi WMD from flooded bunkers in southern Iraq that were later found by U.S. military forces.
*The "clean-up" operation was conducted by GRU and Spetsnaz troops and other Russian military and civilian personnel in Iraq "under the command of two experienced ex-Soviet generals, Colonel-General Vladislav Achatov and Colonel-General Igor Maltsev", both posing as civilians (they were officially retired). Achatov and Maltsev received medals from Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed in early March 2003. When asked what for they received these medals, one of the generals replied: "We didn't fly to Baghdad to drink coffee"
*Shaw claimed that U.S. intelligence knows "the identity and strength of the various Spetsnaz units, their dates of entry and exit in Iraq, and the fact that the effort (to clean up Iraq's WMD stockpiles) with a planning conference in Baku from which they flew to Baghdad.
Statements by Ion Mihai Pacepa
Former Romanian Securitate General Ion Mihai Pacepa supported the story of John A. Shaw. He said: "As a former Romanian spy chief who used to take orders from the Soviet KGB, it is perfectly obvious to me that Russia is behind the evanescence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. After all, Russia helped Saddam get his hands on them in the first place." described the visit of Yevgeniy Primakov to Baghdad on February 22 2003 as a special representative of President Vladimir Putin. The Primakov initiative, endorsed by Putin, suggested that Saddam must hand over all Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations, among other things. Senior Defense Department officials reportedly told the Washington Post that Shaw's claims regarding the Al Qa'qaa facility had "no basis in fact."
Earlier (in 2004), Shaw said he made the accusations sooner rather than later to help George W. Bush. Thus "getting the truth out instantly was more important than process", he said .
Response by Russian government
The Russian government also denied that it was involved in the removal of the materials." The London Financial Times reported that "Mr Shaw, who heads the Pentagon's international armament and technology trade directorate, has not provided evidence for his claims and the Pentagon distanced itself from his remarks." Former Russian foreign inyelligence director Evgeny Primakov denied this story:
Other comments
In reply to DiRitta denials, Shaw claimed that the Bush administration had made efforts to cover up the intelligence data that he had revealed. "Larry DiRita made sure that this story would never grow legs," he said. "He whispered sotto voce to journalists that there was no substance to my information and that it was the product of an unbalanced mind.". He told NewsMax that "With Iran moving faster than anyone thought in its nuclear programs, the administration needed the Russians, the Chinese and the French, and was not interested in information that would make them look bad." McInerney claimed that there was "clear evidence" that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
Ariel Cohen from the Heritage Foundation said that claims by Shaw "are based on classified information and have yet to be further substantiated." According to Cohen, "Today, the U.S. views with suspicion the Kremlin's weapons sales and robust diplomatic and nuclear technology assistance to Iran, growing economic ties with the regime of the ayatollahs, embrace of Hamas, and blatant attempts to return to the Soviet policy of competing with the U.S. in the Middle East — especially in the military and intelligence arenas".
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