Russ Recidivism

By now we've all had a full serving of France-bashing. Syria's unhelpful role in World War IV has been deservedly and widely noted. And Iran and North Korea already have places on the Axis of Evil. Less well appreciated, by the public and no doubt by some senior members of the Bush administration, has been the role played by Russia.

A devastating dispatch in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle reports on documents the Chronicle reporters discovered late last week in a Baghdad office of the Iraqi Mukhabarat. The Mukhabarat were Saddam's secret police force that also operated outside Iraq. According to the Chronicle report, the documents show that at least five Mukhabarat officials were trained in Moscow as recently as September 2002.

In addition, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has reported from the Iraqi city of Najaf that American troops were surprised to be confronted in Iraq by the AT-14 Kornet, a wire-guided surface-tosurface missile made in Russia. On March 24, President Bush called President Putin to complain that Russia was selling Iraq night-vision goggles, GPSjammers, and the missiles.

Russia has publicly acknowledged helping another Axis nation, Iran, build its nuclear reactor, which everyone understands is part of the Islamic Republic's effort to build a nuclear weapon.

The Washington Post's Jim Hoagland reported yesterday that Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, a Russia specialist, has been pushing the postwar policy formula of "Punish France, ignore Germany, and forgive Russia."

Before Russia is forgiven, the American people deserve an honest accounting of what Moscow has been up to in the Middle East. Russia is a vast country, and there may be some rogue free-lance operators within its defense sector. It would be important to know who was behind the training for the Mukhabarat, who was behind the Kornets.

The answers are going to be of more than historical importance. Iraq is defeated. But the tottering regime in Tehran still poses a grave nuclear threat. Also, Russia is one of the four members of the "quartet" that has been pushing the "road map" for a problematic re-do of the "peace process" between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. On that topic, we commend the article in the adjacent columns by the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Fox man. Then there are the connections between Moscow and Damascus.

Given the problems Moscow has had with its own Islamic terrorists, in Chechnya, one might think that Mr. Putin would take a longer view of where Russia's true interests lie. On November 7, 2001, Mr. Bush said, "You are with us, or with the terrorists. And if you are with the terrorists, you will face the consequences." If Russia was with the terrorists and there are no consequences, Ms. Rice may wish to forgive it, but the rest of the world is unlikely to.