Intels Sales

The U.S. military's Central Command said yesterday it has not opened an investigation into whether sources inside the command leaked details of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq to Russian officials, and distanced itself from captured Iraqi documents that contain the allegations. A U.S. military study released Friday quoted two Iraqi documents that described how Russian officials, drawing on "their sources inside the American Central Command in Doha" provided intelligence on U.S. troop movements and war plans to Saddam Hussein as U.S. forces attacked in March and April 2003. A Central Command official said the command takes "all matters of operational security seriously" but was not probing the allegations. "Centcom has not opened an investigation at this time," said Capt. Chris Augustine, a spokesman for the Tampa based command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and other areas. In statements in response to questions, Centcom cast doubt upon the validity of the captured Iraqi documents: "It's important to remember that the information came from an Iraqi intelligence report."