Rumsfeld discounts report of Russian assistance

By The Associated Press

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

John Shaw, the deputy U.S. undersecretary of defense for international technology security, suggested to The Washington Times in an interview this week that the Russians may have been involved, prompting an angry denial from Moscow.

Rumsfeld said, "I have no information on that at all, and cannot validate that even slightly."

Rumsfeld also said the removal of munitions from the Al-Qaqaa compound probably took place before U.S. forces arrived, saying any large effort to loot the material afterward would have been detected.

At issue is whether the weapons were moved before or after U.S. forces occupied that region of the country in early April. No one has been able to provide conclusive evidence either way, although Iraqi officials blamed it on poor U.S. security after Saddam Hussein fell.

"Well, I guess the first thing to say about it is that first reports are almost always wrong," Rumsfeld said. "People who use hair-trigger judgment to come to conclusions about things that are fast-moving frequently make mistakes that are awkward and embarrassing."

Also yesterday, a band of masked men appearing in a video claimed that insurgents had acquired "a large quantity of explosives" from Al-Qaqaa and threatened to use them against foreign troops.

A group calling itself Al-Islam's Army Brigades, Al-Karar Brigade, said it had coordinated with officers and soldiers of "the American intelligence" to obtain the explosives.

The claim couldn't be independently verified. The speaker was surrounded by masked, armed men standing in front of a black banner with the group's name on it in the tape obtained by Associated Press Television News.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More nation & world headlines...