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To: elmatador who wrote (31201)	4/9/2003 10:09:52 PM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Yes, here is the story on Saddam statue. Moscow Times just happened to take picture while USA flag adourned on statue. themoscowtimes.com On another MT story. tut tut, bad CIA guys being very naughty again! themoscowtimes.com Paper: Convoy Carried Iraqi Files Combined Reports Dima Korotayev / Reuters Diplomat Ilya Morgunov sitting in an ambulance after arriving from Iraq. He was injured when his convoy was attacked. The 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, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Wednesday. The report was quickly denied by the Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR. "It's sheer nonsense," SVR spokesman Boris Labusov said. Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, has accused U.S. troops of intentionally firing Sunday on his convoy outside Baghdad, but U.S. officials have insisted that it was still unclear who was responsible for the shooting. 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 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. 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 Hussein regime may have financed Russian political parties and movements; and in providing Russia access to intelligence that Iraqi agents conducted in other countries. Deputy State Duma Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has visited Iraq several times, said Wednesday that he does not believe the diplomats were carrying any Iraqi documents. "The Iraqis have already destroyed everything that had to be destroyed and have hidden the rest," he said. U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow told Ekho Moskvy on Tuesday that the convoy had changed its itinerary without informing U.S. officials. Members of the convoy are confirming a last-minute change in the route, Gazeta reported Wednesday. "We turned away from the route that we had discussed in detail with the Americans and the Iraqis," Roman Yudanov, who worked in the Russian Embassy in Baghdad, told the newspaper. "We drove in the direction we were told, and there was a fight there." TV Center cameraman Alexander Terentyev, who was traveling in the convoy, said the vehicles were redirected by the Iraqis. "The highway we went along was blocked. The Iraqis redirected us. We went to the right," he told Gazeta. "Civilian cars were stuck in a traffic jam there, and then shells began to explode in a broken tank on the side of the road." Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov, however, told the newspaper: "If there was any change at all [in the route], it was unsubstantial." Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Russia is still awaiting a report on the findings of an investigation by the U.S.-led coalition into the convoy incident, saying the issue "is not closed." Yakovenko said Russia reserves the right to seek compensation for "moral and material damage" suffered in the shooting.