2006年VOA标准英语-Pentagon Says Russian Intelligence Contrib

By Al Pessin
Washington
24 March 2006

A report issued by the U.S. Department of Defense¹ Friday quotes an Iraqi document as saying Russia provided intelligence to Iraq during the decisive early weeks of the war in 2003. But the report says the information was false, and contributed to Iraqi leaders' misunderstanding of their situation and miscalculations about how to respond to the U.S.-led invasion. The report also says that even after the invasion Iraqi leaders continued to believe their regime would not fall, and that many senior officials did not know whether their country had weapons of mass destruction. Those are among the findings in the 210-page report, based on extensive interviews with former Iraqi officials and reviews of documents captured when Baghdad fell.

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Among the report's more dramatic revelations are Iraqi documents that say Russia was providing intelligence to the Iraqi government from sources at the U.S. command center in Bahrain. According to the documents Russia told Iraq about U.S. strategy, plans for troop movements and the timing² of the invasion. But the information was false, contributing, the report says, to Iraqi leaders' confusion. One U.S. official says the Russian information was only a small part of Saddam Hussein's calculations.

Officials say this is the first time since World War II that the U.S. military has been able to do such an extensive analysis of what enemy officials knew, what they were thinking and how they reacted to various U.S. diplomatic and military moves. The result, according to Brigadier General Anthony Cucolo, the head of the Pentagon's Joint³ Center for Operational Analysis, is a rare and valuable document.

"The value of this is you get to see their view, as absurd as it may seem to a western military thinker. But if you take it in the context of this closed regime, they make imminent⁴ sense to the Iraqis," he said.

General Cucolo says the longer, classified version of the report, which was completed several months ago, has resulted in information being passed to trainers and troops in the field, but he said he can not reveal that information. He did say that there is no one, easy conclusion from the report that will make future conflicts against closed regimes easier.

The report indicates Iraqi leaders made a series of miscalculations. It says Saddam Hussein was convinced the United States would not pursue the invasion into Baghdad and overthrow⁵ his regime; he was more concerned about internal dissent⁶ and a possible threat from Iran; and he refused to believe that his forces were crumbling⁷, issuing orders to units that were no longer functioning.

The report also says that the Iraqi information minister and other senior officials, including Saddam Hussein, believed their own declarations that they were winning the war, right up until U.S. forces entered Baghdad.

The report also indicates that U.S. officials were wrong about some things. It says Saddam was intentionally⁸ vague about whether he had weapons of mass destruction, but that years of Iraqi deception⁹ led U.S. officials to conclude that he did, based on what evidence they could find. Specifically it concludes that U.S. analysts¹⁰ badly misinterpreted an intercepted¹¹ conversation between two Iraqi commanders that was used by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell in a speech at the United Nations. Secretary Powell said the men were discussing how to hide evidence of nerve gas. The report concludes they were discussing how to make sure the gas was in fact destroyed in order to comply with United Nations' requirements.

Officials declined to discuss any U.S. mistakes or miscalculations. But pressed on the issue of weapons of mass destruction, which was one of the primary motivations for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the report's principal author, Kevin Woods, said senior Iraqi officials were as confused as the rest of the world.

"I never met an Iraqi general, never interviewed an Iraqi general, who ever said, 'I know of WMD.' They all were adamant¹². They personally had no knowledge of WMD. However, a significant number of them would offer, 'but it is possible that it exists and I (do) not know about it.' And they articulate it in various ways but one of them is the compartmented nature of the regime. And a third one that was offered, which I found almost too ironic¹³ to believe, was that 'it might be possible because the rest of the world seems to think it's so,'" he said.

The report also says U.S. officials were concerned that Saddam would burn the southern Iraqi oil fields, and diverted considerable resources to protecting them. According to the report, Saddam issued orders not to burn the fields, believing the Americans would retreat, leaving him in office, and that he would need oil revenue for the future. The report also says U.S. concerns that Saddam would have bridges destroyed to stop the advance on Baghdad were unfounded. It says Saddam ordered that the bridges be preserved so he could move his forces to deal with any domestic uprising.

On Thurday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described the report as fascinating. "I sat down and got the 40-minute briefing, or something, 45 minutes, and then asked for a couple more hours. I must say that having a chance to see the lessons learned from the U.S. side, and then looking at it from the Iraqi side, I found absolutely fascinating," he said.

The report's authors say the former Iraqi military and civilian¹⁴ officials they interviewed, many of whom are in custody¹⁵, were mostly eager to talk, wanting to get their side of the story into the public record. The authors say they did not try to interview Saddam Hussein himself.

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

4 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

5 overthrow   

v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆

参考例句：

• After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后，这个国家处于混乱中。
• The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。

6 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

7 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

8 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

9 deception   

n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计

参考例句：

• He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
• He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。

10 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

11 intercepted   

拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻

参考例句：

• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave the hotel. 他正要离开旅馆，记者们把他拦截住了。
• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave by the rear entrance. 他想从后门溜走，记者把他截住了。

12 adamant   

adj.坚硬的，固执的

参考例句：

• We are adamant on the building of a well-off society.在建设小康社会这一点上，我们是坚定不移的。
• Veronica was quite adamant that they should stay on.维罗妮卡坚信他们必须继续留下去。

13 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

14 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

15 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。