Saddam's Spying Reached Everywhere

(CBS)  Documents recovered by CBS News from the Iraqi Intelligence Agency show that Russian agents told Baghdad when the American military preparations were complete and that the bombing would start in mid-March.

And that's not all, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer.

Miles of Iraqi Secret Police files reveal everything from high espionage to Hollywood spying.

One memo -- circulated to Iraqi Embassies abroad -- asked agents to get hold of up-to-date spy movies -- apparently to give them new espionage ideas.

The agents reported that "The Tailor of Panama" and "Spy Games" were particular hits.

Saddam's spying setup was right out of the movies.

One house in a Baghdad suburb was an electronic eavesdropping center in disguise with armies of spies manning tape recorders or riding around in a minivan parked outside -- listening to the residents on telephone intercepts.

Saddam even spied on his own family.

Intelligence operatives monitoring Uday, his younger son, wrote to "My Master, My Leader, the President" -- to report on Uday's relationship with a woman -- and her friend, Majed.

Saddam signed the report himself - and added "Majed's telephone, house and office should be bugged."

But forces beyond Saddam's obsessive control frightened him most.

It took twenty pages of security clearance and checks to get permission for one government employee to surf the Internet.

The documents will be crucial in reconstructing the history and habits of a grotesque regime and when order is made of the chaos, justice will be served.