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Strategies & Market Trends : World Outlook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (1678)	4/9/2003 11:39:14 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49058

NG: Diplomats were taking Iraqi secret files WORLD/CIS » :: Apr 09, 2003 Posted: 16:36 Moscow time (12:36 GMT) MOSCOW - A Russian diplomatic convoy that came under fire as it evacuated Baghdad might have been carrying secret Iraqi files that U.S. intelligence officers wanted to seize, a Russian newspaper reported Wednesday. The report by the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta was quickly denied by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), a KGB successor. "It's sheer nonsense," SVR spokesman Boris Labusov said in a telephone interview. Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, has accused American troops of intentionally firing Sunday on his convoy outside of Baghdad, but U.S. officials have insisted it was still unclear who was responsible for the shooting, in which Moscow said at least four people in the convoy were wounded. Russian media have reported that there were two cars with Iraqis in front of the column, and that several of their occupants were killed in the firing. U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow told Echo of Moscow radio on Tuesday that the Russian convoy had apparently changed its itinerary without informing U.S. officials. Nezavisimaya Gazeta claimed Wednesday that U.S. forces opened fire on the convoy in an attempt to seize classified materials it was taking out of Iraq - the outcome "of a dangerous game involving the SVR and the CIA." "One was taking out classified Iraqi archives, and the other was trying to hamper it by force," the newspaper said. It said that the firing on the Russian convoy appeared intended to incapacitate the vehicles but spare the diplomats, explaining why just one person had received a serious wound. "They expected that the diplomats wouldn't carry the cargo on their backs and it would be possible to seize it," the newspaper said, adding that the alleged plan had apparently failed because of the Iraqis who fired on the Americans. Nezavisimaya Gazeta had reported earlier that Russian intelligence agents had been sent to Baghdad to gather archives of the Iraqi secret service in case Saddam Hussein's regime fell. Moscow has maintained close ties with Baghdad for years, and the United States has accused Russian companies of shipping military equipment to Iraq, charges Russia denies. The newspaper speculated that the archives could be highly valuable to Russia in three major areas: in protecting Russian interests in a postwar Iraq; in determining to what extent the Saddam regime may have financed Russian political parties and movements; and in providing Russia access to intelligence that Iraqi agents conducted in other countries. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a nationalist lawmaker who has visited Iraq several times, said he does not believe the diplomats were carrying any Iraqi documents. The Interfax news agency quoted Zhirinovsky as saying "the Iraqis have already destroyed everything that had to be destroyed and have hidden the rest." Most of the diplomats returned to Moscow on Tuesday, but Titorenko stayed behind and brought his driver, who had undergone surgery at a hospital in Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, out of Iraq. /The Associated Press/