"But I don't have any other knowledge of that topic," Woods added, referring to the Russian link.
A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Venable, referred inquiries seeking comment to Central Command. At Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, officials did not immediately respond to a request.
It is standard procedure for Russia and other countries not part of a US coalition to try to gain inside information on US military plans. It's certainly not surprising in the case of Iraq, a country which had such long-standing economic and military ties to Moscow. But until now the Pentagon had not indicated that the Russians might have succeeded.
Pavel Felgenhauer, a respected independent Moscow-based military analyst, said on Friday that a Russian military intelligence unit, known only by its abbreviation GRU, was actively working in Iraq at the time of the US invasion.
The information about a Russian intelligence link to Baghdad was a small part of a much broader report by Joint Forces Command that attempts to explain the forces and their motivations behind Iraqi military decision-making in the months leading up to the invasion and in the first few weeks after the capital Baghdad fell in April.
The report paints a picture of an Iraqi regime that was largely blind to the threat it faced, hampered by Saddam's inept military leadership, preoccupied by the prospect of a Shiite uprising and deceived by its own propaganda.
"The largest contributing factor to the complete defeat of Iraq's military forces was the continued interference by Saddam," the report said.
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