Russia offered Saddam services of top assassins

RUSSIA offered the services of top assassins to Saddam Hussein’s regime for potential ‘hits’ in the West.

It also passed on sensitive intelligence reports to Iraq on private conversations between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other European leaders, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Top secret documents revealing Russian assistance in the run-up to the war were found at the weekend in the bombed headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service in Baghdad.

In addition to providing a list of trained killers, Moscow also disclosed to Baghdad details of various arms deals.

The two countries also signed agreements to share intelligence, help each other to obtain visas for agents to go to other countries and to exchange information on the activities of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader.

The documents, in Arabic, were mostly intelligence reports from anonymous agents and from the Iraqi embassy in Moscow.

Mr Blair was referred to in a year-old document marked: Subject - Secret.

In the letter, an Iraqi intelligence official explained that a Russian colleague passed him details of a private conversation in Rome in February, 2002, between Mr Blair and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The document stated that Mr Blair referred to the ‘negative things’ decided by the United States over Baghdad.

It noted his refusal to engage in any military action in Iraq at that time because British forces were still in Afghanistan and nothing could be done until after the new Kabul government was set up.

It is not known how the Russians obtained such potentially sensitive information, but the revelation that Moscow passed it on to Baghdad is likely to have a devastating effect on relations between Britain and Russia.

In October, 2001, Mr Blair declared a new era in relations with Mr Putin when they met in Moscow after of the World Trade Centre attacks.

In spite of warnings by the British intelligence and security services of increasing Russian espionage in the West, Mr Blair fostered closer relations with Mr Putin, visiting his family dacha near Moscow, supporting the Russians in their war in Chechnya and arranging for Mr Putin to have tea with the Queen.

The list of assassins was referred to in a paper dated November 27, 2000, when an Iraqi agent disclosed Russians had passed on a detailed list of killers.