Lovely Germans - German spies offered help to Saddam in run-up to war
By David Harrison in Baghdad
(Filed: 20/04/2003)
Germany's intelligence services attempted to build closer links to Saddam's secret service during the build-up to war last year, documents from the bombed Iraqi intelligence HQ in Baghdad obtained by The Telegraph reveal.
Documents recovered from Iraqi intelligence HQ in Baghdad They show that an agent named as Johannes William Hoffner, described as a "new German representative in Iraq" who had entered the country under diplomatic cover, attended a meeting with Lt Gen Taher Jalil Haboosh, the director of Iraq's intelligence service.
During the meeting, on January 29, 2002, Lt Gen Haboosh says that the Iraqis are keen to have a relationship with Germany's intelligence agency "under diplomatic cover", adding that he hopes to develop that relationship through Mr Hoffner.
The German replies: "My organisation wants to develop its relationship with your organisation."
In return, the Iraqis offered to give lucrative contracts to German companies if the Berlin government helped prevent an American invasion of the country.
The revelations come a week after The Telegraph reported that Russia had spied for the Iraqis, passing them intelligence about a meeting between Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister. Both the British and Italian governments have launched investigations.
The meeting between the Iraqi and German agents took place some six months before Chancellor Schröder's Social Democrat-led government began its policy of direct opposition to the idea of an American/British-led war against Iraq. The policy was adopted in the heat of last year's German general election campaign, at a time when the Social Democrats were widely predicted to lose the contest. Mr Schröder was re-elected as Chancellor last September, largely because of the popularity of his government's outspoken opposition to the war against Iraq. The apparently verbatim account of the meeting between Lt Gen Haboosh and Mr Hoffner was among documents recovered by The Telegraph in the rubble of the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad, which was heavily bombed.
During the meeting, Lt Gen Haboosh tells the German agent that Iraq has "big problems" with Britain and the United States. "We have problems with Britain because it occupied Iraq for 60 years and with America because of its aggression for 11 years," he says.
He adds, however, that Iraq has no problems with Germany and suggests that Germany will be rewarded with lucrative contracts if it offers international support to Iraq. "When the American conspiracy is finished, we will make a calculation for each state that helps Iraq in its crisis."
He also urges Mr Hoffner to lobby the German government to raise its diplomatic mission in Baghdad to full ambassadorial level. Mr Hoffner says that it would be a decision for the German foreign ministry, but Germany's diplomatic presence in the Iraqi capital made it easier for him to enter Iraq because he was able to use diplomatic cover.
Last night, a spokesman for the German government said it was "well known" that it had been offered lucrative contracts by Baghdad providing it maintained an anti-Iraq war stance. "Iraq made these kinds of promises before the war and praised Germany for its position," he said.
Iraqi police handed Saddam Hussein's finance minister to American forces after capturing him in Baghdad, raising hopes of tracing billions of dollars the ousted dictator may have spirited away. Hikmat Ibrahim al-Azzawi, who was also a deputy prime minister, is number 45 on America's list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.
telegraph.co.uk
'Russian spies told Saddam how Bush would justify war'
(Filed: 20/04/2003)
David Harrison in Baghdad uncovers the secret documents which expose the extent of Moscow's involvement
The full extent of the help given to Saddam Hussein by Russia's intelligence services is laid bare in secret documents uncovered by The Telegraph.
As well as spying on Tony Blair, Russian agents reported to Iraq that President George W. Bush hoped to justify war by provoking a conflict with the UN weapons inspectors.
The documents were obtained from the smoking ruins of the federal headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (Iris) in central Baghdad.
They show that, only months before war began, the Russian Federal Security Bureau briefed Saddam that the White House was pinning its hopes on Iraq obstructing the weapons inspection teams.
The information, which appears to draw on intelligence from Russian agents and diplomats around the world, is likely to have helped Saddam formulate his strategy of "hide and seek" with weapons inspectors, rather than obstruct them openly as he had done during previous inspections.
In a report dated November 13, 2002, the Russian security bureau informs its Iraqi counterpart that America had launched a two-month propaganda campaign to win public support for the war.
The Russians say in the report that Washington feels that two months would be long enough to cause a breakdown in relations between UN inspectors and Iraq, making it impossible for inspections to continue.
America believes that it would then be able to accuse Iraq of breaking agreements and so justify military action against Saddam, according to the report from Moscow.
The revelations about Russia's intelligence services follow The Telegraph's disclosure last weekend that they spied on Tony Blair during private meetings with Western leaders, including Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, to discuss the war.
According to Iraqi intelligence documents, this information was then passed on to Baghdad.
The papers also revealed how Moscow had given Saddam a list of assassins, details of Russian arms deals with countries in the Middle East, and Osama bin Laden's plans to fund camps to train Arab terrorists to fight in Chechnya.
The Russian report about President Bush is headed: "Propaganda to secure a United States military operation against Iraq". An Iraqi intelligence officer attached a note to the report saying: "We will pass this to M4 and take it to the President."
The report says: "The Bush administration has taken a decision to make a more active information and propaganda campaign to secure military action against Iraq.
"The White House has ordered the relevant departments to increase activities to acquire and make public any [including circumstantial and fabricated] 'proofs, testimonies and facts' which reveal direct links between Baghdad and international terrorists and its eagerness to possess weapons of mass destruction."
It adds that American embassies are already informing managers of mass media loyal to the US in different countries and says that Washington plans to organise "special seminars and round tables" to influence international public opinion. "In particular," the Russian report says, "the United State's foreign missions in Latin America are already taking active steps in this direction". The Moscow intelligence service tells the Iraqis that the Bush administration would continue the propaganda campaign for up to two months.
"In Washington they think that during this period they will manage to provoke a conflict between the UN inspectors and Iraqi authorities and to render the Unmovic work 'impossible', to accuse Iraq of breaking agreements and to open the way to a military operation against Baghdad."
I found the new documents after a second search, lasting many hours, among the rubble and burnt-out offices of the Iraqi intelligence headquarters, which are now being combed by looters, many armed.
"Before the fall of Baghdad we would have been shot for coming anywhere near the entrance to these buildings," said a 29-year-old looter called Mahmood, struggling with an armchair he had taken from the office of a senior intelligence officer.
They were joined, however, by Iraqis on a poignant but forlorn quest for clues about what had happened to relatives who had been arrested and taken to Saddam's dreaded intelligence headquarters, never to be seen again. |
