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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (137094)	6/19/2004 8:18:53 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Story last updated at 7:11 a.m. Saturday, June 19, 2004 Bush, Putin have common enemy There should be no mystery surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to come to the defense of President Bush by revealing that Russian intelligence knew and told Washington several times after the Sept. 11, 2001, atrocities that Saddam Hussein was planning terrorist attacks on the United States. They have an enemy in common: terrorism, particularly terrorism that is linked to al-Qaida. According to The Associated Press, Mr. Putin said: "After Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services ... received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests." Reuters news agency quoted a State Department official as saying, "Everybody's scratching their heads" about the Putin revelation. The AP reported a U.S. official confirming Mr. Putin's remarks while explaining that at the time the Russian reports did not add anything to what the United States already knew. Mr. Putin also doubtless had an underlying motive in substantiating President Bush's contention that Saddam had links to terrorism. Mr. Putin insists that he is fighting terrorism in Chechnya. He wants Mr. Bush to back his policies toward Chechnya and cease U.S. criticism of heavy-handed Russian repression. While Mr. Putin did not directly link Saddam to al-Qaida, his remarks tend to bolster President Bush's contention, reiterated on Thursday, that Saddam had "numerous contacts" with al-Qaida and that Iraqi agents met Osama bin Laden, in Sudan. Most important of all, we know that Saddam would not have had any scruples about linking up with al-Qaida to strike against the United States. That may well be what President Putin was hinting at. What is most important is that all U.S. allies, regardless of their differences about the war in Iraq or other issues, see eye to eye on fighting the world's common enemy, the fanatical terrorism espoused by Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.