Report: Germans Allegedly Gave Iraq's Defense Plan to US
February 27, 2006
"Two German intelligence agents in Baghdad obtained a copy of Saddam Hussein's plan to defend the Iraqi capital, which a German official passed on to American commanders a month before the invasion," The New York Times reported Sunday citing "a classified study by the United States military."
The paper wrote on its Web site that "in providing the Iraqi document, German intelligence officials offered more significant assistance to the United States than their government has publicly acknowledged. The plan gave the American military an extraordinary window into Iraq's top-level deliberations, including where and how Mr. Hussein planned to deploy his most loyal troops."
An account of the German role in acquiring a copy of Hussein's plan is contained in an American military study, which focuses on Iraq's military strategy and was prepared in 2005 by the US Joint Forces Command, the daily wrote.
Support despite public opposition?
After the agents received the Iraqi plan, they passed it on to their superiors, the study reportedly said. In February 2003, a German intelligence officer in Qatar gave a copy to an official from the US Defense Intelligence Agency who worked at the wartime headquarters of Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the overall commander, according to the study.
German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm denied the allegations in Berlin on Monday. He said it was not true that Federal Intelligence Service (BND) agents had handed over such a plan to the US a month before the invasion.
The German government was a loud critic of the Bush administration's decision to use military force to topple Hussein. While the German government has said that it had intelligence agents in Baghdad during the war, it has insisted it provided only limited help to the US-led coalition.
The report also said Germany was not the sole case of a nation which publicly opposed the war while it "privately facilitated it," citing Egypt and Saudi Arabia as other examples.
"Egypt gave access for refueling planes, while Saudi Arabia allowed American special operations forces to initiate attacks from its territory, United States military officials say."