Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Putin's warning

Washington Times Editorial:

While political foes cast aspersions on his decision to oust Saddam Hussein, President Bush yesterday received support from an unlikely party: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yesterday, Mr. Putin casually delivered a political bombshell, saying that prior to the war, he warned that Saddam's cohorts might be planning a terrorist attack against the United States.
"After September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services — the intelligence service — 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," Mr. Putin said during a visit to Kazakhstan. He added that Mr. Bush personally thanked a Russian intelligence official for the information. Mr. Putin did not provide any details of the plot or say whether al Qaeda or any other terrorist group was involved. But his remarks serve to strengthen the case for Mr. Bush's decision to go to war to drive Saddam from power.

The Russian leader's comments are particularly significant given Moscow's close, longstanding relationship with Saddam and its staunch opposition to the war. From the early 1970s until the U.S.-led invasion last year, Russia was one of the Ba'athist regime's leading arms suppliers, and Russian and Iraqi intelligence worked closely together. As a former head of the KGB, Mr. Putin doubtless has extensive experience working closely with senior Iraqi intelligence officials.

Such warnings strenthen the case for preemption, which makes it all the more curious that Putin still says he opposed the US liberation of Iraq.