Bill Faith e-mails more on the Russia – Al Qaqaa connection, pointing out an op-ed penned by the former head of the Romanian intelligence service, who claimed in March 2004 that helped Iraq vanish its weapons:
The Soviet bloc not only sold Saddam its WMDs, but it showed them how to make them “disappear.” Russia is still at it. [Gen. Yevgeny] Primakov was in Baghdad from December until a couple of days before the war, along with a team of Russian military experts led by two of Russia’s topnotch “retired” generals, Vladislav Achalov, a former deputy defense minister, and Igor Maltsev, a former air defense chief of staff. … “I did not fly to Baghdad to drink coffee,” was what Gen. Achalov told the media afterward. They were there orchestrating Iraq’s “Sarindar” plan.
As we say in the biz, read the whole thing.