Iraq

Bush was told of an Iraq plot, says Putin

ASTANA, Kazakstan - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday his government warned Washington that Saddam Hussein's regime was preparing attacks in the United States and its interests abroad - an assertion that appears to bolster President Bush's contention that Iraq was a threat.

Putin emphasized that the intelligence didn't cause Russia to waver from its firm opposition to the U.S.-led war last year, but his statement was the second this month in which he has offered at least some support for Bush on Iraq.

"After Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services . . . received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Putin said.

He said Russia didn't have any information that Hussein's regime had been behind any terrorist acts.

"It's one thing to have information that Saddam's regime is preparing terrorist attacks, (but) we didn't have information that it was involved in any known terrorist attacks," he said.

Putin said Bush had thanked one of the leaders of Russia's intelligence agencies for the information but said he couldn't comment on how critical it was in the U.S. decision to invade Iraq. A U.S. official said Putin's information did not add to what the United States knew about Hussein's intentions.

In a coordinated public relations campaign Friday, Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice defended the administration's claims of close ties between Iraq and al-Qaida terrorists.

"There clearly was a relationship," Cheney said in an interview with CNBC that aired Friday on NBC's Today show. "The fact of the matter is, the evidence is overwhelming. The press is, with all due respect - there are exceptions - oftentimes lazy."

In Fort Lewis, Wash., Bush told Iraq veterans and other troops that he has had no second thoughts about the Iraq invasion.

"This is a regime that sheltered terrorist groups. This is a regime that hated America," he said. "I had a choice to make - either to trust the word of a madman, or defend America. Given that choice, I will defend America every time."

Also Friday, insurgents launched two deadly attacks in Baghdad, killing an American soldier and wounding a civilian contractor in a mortar barrage on a U.S. base, and injuring three U.S. troops in a coordinated ambush in another part of the capital.

A soldier from Central Florida was killed in Iraq Wednesday, just days before he planned to come home and surprise his dad for Father's Day, officials and family members said Friday.

Sgt. Arthur Stacey Mastrapa, 35, of Apopka died Wednesday in Balad when mortar rounds hit his camp. Two other soldiers also died in the attack.

Mastrapa was scheduled to return to the United States on Friday with his unit, the Army Reserve's 351st Military Police Company based in Ocala. He leaves behind a wife, Jennifer, daughter Marisa, 8, and 20-month-old son, Reece.

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