Condi Asks Russians To Probe Iraq Reports.

Source: AP via Breitbart.com

Did she ask nicely?

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked her Russian counterpart on Tuesday for a "serious investigation" into reports that Russian intelligence fed U.S. battle plans to Saddam Hussein, the State Department said.

Rice made the request in a telephone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. The call came four days after the Pentagon released a report citing captured Iraqi documents that described the information exchange.

Obviously, Rummy and Pace are somewhat intelligent enough to know that you shouldn't screw with Putin uneasy about the reports, so they're downplaying the importance of the findings.

Even so, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld seemed to downplay the report. He said it may be worth looking into, but said he first heard about the allegations when the Pentagon issued the publication last Friday.

"It merits looking into," Rumsfeld told Pentagon reporters.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that U.S. officials "still don't know if the translation is 100 percent accurate" or if the report contained "real information or disinformation."

Tags: [Condi Rice], [Donald Rumsfeld], [Peter Pace], [Russia], [Russian reports show that Russia gave Saddam information about planned attacks back in 2003]