Putin’s boost to Bush

Moscow

President Vladimir Putin surprised diplomats across the world this week when he said that Russian intelligence had determined after 9/11 that Iraq was planning a terrorist attack on the U.S. Putin said that after the 9/11 attacks, Russia gave U.S. authorities information “that official organs of Saddam’s regime were preparing terrorist acts on the territory of the U.S.” State Department officials said this week that they weren’t sure what Putin was referring to. “Everyone’s scratching their heads,” one official said. Some Russian newspapers suggested that Putin was trying to boost Bush’s re-election chances, since Bush has been “quiet” about human rights abuses in Chechnya.

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