Reply #8: Things that puzzle me ... [View All]

about Vladimir "I've looked into his eyes and know this is a man I can trust" Pooty-poot Putin's recent revelation that the Russians passed information regarding Iraqi plans to carry out terrorist attacks in the US ...

1) Why are we only hearing about this now? And why first from Putin? If this intelligence were significant enough to have any bearing on the decision to go to war, one would think it would have been mantioned at some point before now. Doesn't the fact that it wasn't suggest that there is some lack of substance or credibility in these reports?

2) We are told that these plans were being made at some time during the period between 9/11 and the Iraq invasion, but are given no other context. I'm thinking here specifically about the fact that Iraq was making noises about retaliation and/or consequences if we invaded. So, were these plans that were being made independent of whether we invaded them, or were they being made as a possible response to our invasion? I'm not claiming that it's the latter, but if it was, then that puts a different light on the question of whether this information supported the invasion or not.

3) Why would Putin mention this and then go out of his way to emphsize that it doesn't change his position in opposition to the war?


I really don't know what to make of this - nothing quite fits. My feeling is that there's something about the nature or the quality or the context of this information which removes it from "smoking gun that made the invasion neccesary" status.