German Intelligence Secretly Assisted US in Iraq Invasion
Jim Kouri, CPP
February 28, 2006
German intelligence officers working undercover in Baghdad obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein's battle plan to defend the Iraqi capital from the US-led invasion. A German official turned the plan over to American commanders a month prior to the March 2003 invasion, The New York Times reported Monday, citing a classified study by the US military.
The German role is not the only instance in which nations that publicly cautioned against the war privately facilitated it, according to the report. Some nations secretly assisted the US military while publicly condemning the invasion.
In providing the Iraqi document, German intelligence officials offered more significant assistance to the United States than their government has publicly acknowledged, the report said.
The plan gave the American military an extraordinary window into Iraq's top-level deliberations, including where and how Saddam Hussein planned to deploy his most loyal troops, the report said.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia provided more help than they have officially disclosed, with Egypt giving access for refueling planes and Saudi Arabia allowing American special operations forces to initiate attacks from its territory, U.S. military officials were quoted as saying.
The German government has said that it had intelligence agents in Baghdad during the war, but it has insisted it provided only limited help to the US-led coalition.
German officials said in a report released Thursday much of the assistance was restricted to identifying civilian sites so they would not be attacked by mistake, but the classified American military study, the Times report said, documents the more substantive help from German intelligence.
The German role is not the only instance in which nations that publicly cautioned against the war privately facilitated it, according to the report. Some nations secretly assisted the US military while publicly condemning the invasion.
In providing the Iraqi document, German intelligence officials offered more significant assistance to the United States than their government has publicly acknowledged, the report said.
The plan gave the American military an extraordinary window into Iraq's top-level deliberations, including where and how Saddam Hussein planned to deploy his most loyal troops, the report said.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia provided more help than they have officially disclosed, with Egypt giving access for refueling planes and Saudi Arabia allowing American special operations forces to initiate attacks from its territory, U.S. military officials were quoted as saying.
The German government has said that it had intelligence agents in Baghdad during the war, but it has insisted it provided only limited help to the US-led coalition.
German officials said in a report released Thursday much of the assistance was restricted to identifying civilian sites so they would not be attacked by mistake, but the classified American military study, the Times report said, documents the more substantive help from German intelligence.
Print
Email
