Pressa

Spy agencies compete to find Saddam secrets.

The Guardian(England), 18:01, 13 April 2003.

US forces in Baghdad have secured the Iraqi interior ministry for the CIA in the hope of finding documents on the ousted regime's human rights abuses and the development of weapons of mass destruction, according to intelligence sources.

The development comes amid reports that Russian agents have been scouring Baghdad, as the scramble by foreign governments to secure the prized archives of the Iraqi intelligence agencies and Saddam's regime gathers pace.

Russian newspapers have cited anonymous intelligence sources saying that a unit of the Sluzhba Vneshni Razvyedki (SVR) - the Russian foreign intelligence service and equivalent of MI6 - has been sent to Baghdad to secure the Russian embassy compound, and hoard there the invaluable archives of Saddam's regime. The reports were immediately rubbished by the SVR.

The reports said Russian agents could move relatively freely in the Iraqi capital because of Moscow's historic entente with Baghdad. This gave them a huge advantage over their British and American colleagues, they added, who had to work covertly to recover the treasure trove of arms contracts, and details of foreign Iraqi agents and financiers abroad.

Many interpreted the hunt as a sign that Moscow was concerned to prevent evidence of collusion between Russia and its allied states with Baghdad from falling into coalition hands. Whitehall sources yesterday denied any knowledge of Russia's attempts to seize the documents.

Russian intelligence sources have told the Guardian that the SVR reactivated a special unit in the late 1990s to protect Russian government facilities abroad.

The existence of this unit was more probable when it emerged that 12 Russian "diplomats" had remained in Baghdad after the Russian ambassador, other diplomats, and over a dozen journalists evacuated the capital on Sunday morning, and fled to Syria.

But Washington appears to be in no rush to begin going through the archives, now that the interior ministry has been secured.

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