Putin: We gave data on attacks

Despite the information, Russia remained opposed to the war, the leader said.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Russia gave the Bush administration intelligence that suggested Saddam Hussein's regime was preparing attacks against the United States and its interests abroad before the Iraq war, President Vladimir Putin said today.
Putin said he couldn't comment on how critical the Russians' information was in the U.S. decision to invade Iraq. However, he said the intelligence didn't cause Russia to waver from its firm opposition to the war.
"Indeed, after Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services ... 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," Putin said.
"Despite that information about terrorist attacks being prepared by Saddam's regime, Russia's position on Iraq remains unchanged," Putin said.
Putin said Russia didn't have any information that Saddam's regime had actually been behind any terrorist acts.
Bush's insistence
Disputing the findings of the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks, President Bush continues to insist there was a link between Saddam and Al-Qaida.
"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and Al-Qaida," Bush said Thursday after meeting with his Cabinet at the White House.
"We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaida. For example, Iraqi intelligence officers met with [Osama] bin Laden, the head of Al-Qaida, in the Sudan. There's numerous contacts between the two," he said.
Saddam's reported link with terrorists was a central justification the Bush administration had for toppling the former Iraqi regime.
Searching for suspects
Meanwhile, Iraq's defense minister promised a "house-to-house" search for suspects who planned a suicide car bombing near a recruitment center in Baghdad that killed at least 35 Iraqis hoping to join the military.
U.S. forces clashed with insurgents for a second day northeast of Baghdad today, a U.S. military official said on condition of anonymity.
A U.S. Army 1st Infantry patrol came under fire at about 7:45 a.m. in the town of Buhriz, near Baqouba, 35 miles north of Baghdad. Troops returned fire, killing two of the insurgents, said Maj. Neal O'Brien.
U.S. helicopters hovered over buildings and cars gutted by fire. Masked gunmen held up rifles and rocket propelled grenades as they danced for the cameras. Women wailed in the streets.
Baqouba, a largely Sunni Muslim area that has formed a core of support for Saddam's former regime, has been the scene of frequent skirmishes between coalition forces and insurgents.
Other car bomb
Another car bomb exploded Thursday afternoon in a village near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing six Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members and wounding four others, the U.S. military said. The defense corps is the main internal security force, created by U.S. administrators to battle insurgents.
Defense Minister Hazem al-Shalan promised tough action against those behind the Thursday attacks.
"We will cut off the hands of those people, we will slit their throats if it is necessary to do so," he told reporters. "For those people who want to join the new Iraqi army, we will protect them and we will find them a safe location so they can submit their applications."
Asked if the new government would impose martial law if security continues to deteriorate, interim Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib said: "If we need to do it, yes, we'll do it, we won't hesitate. This is the security of our country ... the security and the life of our people."
A decision to impose martial law would be up to the prime minister, al-Shalan said.
The explosion near the recruitment center in Baghdad scattered bodies, blood and debris across a four-lane highway. The attack was the deadliest single blast since a car bombing at the same base in February.
In the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, an explosion overnight wounded four Iraqi police, two seriously, an Italian commander said on condition of anonymity. He had no other details.