Cold War, Take Two?

The New York Times today says Russia may have shared plans of the US invasion of Iraq with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad.

The information came from Iraqi documents captured by American forces after the invasion. Those documents, Pentagon officials said Friday, indicated that information obtained by a Russian source from the United States Central Command had been passed to Baghdad.

While some of the information proved accurate — including that American ground forces coming from Kuwait would pass through the Karbala area — a key fact was wrong. The incursion from Kuwait was not a diversionary force but the main focus of the attack.

It's possible this was a part of a disinformation campaign, but I fail to understand why US officials would allow this story to remain a subject of uncertainty, when, if proven false, it could only embarass and infuriate the Russians. Senator Edward Kennedy, for one, has already suggested a possible boycott of the upcoming G8 summit in St. Petersburg.

A Russian spokesmen rejected reports of the leak as "absolutely nonsense," saying the Pentagon only wants to get Russia "to press Iran more actively to curb its nuclear program."

In other news, 30 beheaded bodies were found in Iraq this weekend, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Fox News viewers that it was "entirely possible" that the US could bring home a significant number of troops within the year. She then pointed to the window and said, "Oh look, a bluebird! And right behind it? A pretty rainbow!"