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Hussein Pointed to Iranian Threat
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| HardTranceProd |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...ml?nav=hcmodule
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Hussein Pointed to Iranian Threat
Specter of Arms Allowed Him to Appear Strong, He Told U.S.
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Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews released yesterday. The former Iraqi president also denounced Osama bin Laden as "a zealot" and said he had no dealings with al-Qaeda.
Hussein, in fact, said he felt so vulnerable to the perceived threat from "fanatic" leaders in Tehran that he would have been prepared to seek a "security agreement with the United States to protect [Iraq] from threats in the region."
Former president George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq six years ago on the grounds that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to international security. Administration officials at the time also strongly suggested Iraq had significant links to al-Qaeda, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Hussein, who was often defiant and boastful during the interviews, at one point wistfully acknowledged that he should have permitted the United Nations to witness the destruction of Iraq's weapons stockpile after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The FBI summaries of the interviews -- 20 formal interrogations and five "casual conversations" in 2004 -- were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental research institute, and posted on its Web site yesterday. The detailed accounts of the interviews were released with few deletions, though one, a last formal interview on May 1, 2004, was completely redacted.
Thomas S. Blanton, director of the archive, said he could conceive of no national security reason to keep Hussein's conversations with the FBI secret. Paul Bresson, a bureau spokesman, said he could not explain the reason for the redactions.
The 20 formal interviews took place between Feb. 7 and May 1, followed by the casual conversations between May 10 and June 28. Hussein was later transferred to Iraqi custody, and he was hanged in December 2006.
The formal interviews covered Hussein's rise to power, the Kuwait invasion, and Hussein's crackdown on the Shiite uprising in extensive detail, while the subject of the weapons of mass destruction and al-Qaeda were raised in the casual conversations, after the formal interviews. Blanton said this suggests that the FBI received new orders from Washington to delve into topics of intense interest to Bush administration officials.
The FBI spokesman did not know why those subjects were raised in the later meetings. In an interview last year on CBS's "60 Minutes," George L. Piro, the agent who conducted the interviews, said he purposely put Hussein's back against the wall "psychologically to tell him that his back was against the wall," but he did not use coercive interrogation techniques, because "it's against FBI policy." The interviews released yesterday do not suggest any use of coercive techniques.
During the interviews, Piro, who conducted them in Arabic, often appeared to challenge Hussein's account of events, citing facts that contradicted his recollections. He even forced Hussein to watch a graphic British documentary on his treatment of the Shiites, though that did not appear to shake the former president.
At one point, Hussein dismissed as a fantasy the many intelligence reports that said he used a body double to elude assassination. "This is movie magic, not reality," he said with a laugh. Instead, he said, he had used a phone only twice since 1990 and rarely slept in the same location two days in a row.
Hussein's fear of Iran, which he said he considered a greater threat than the United States, featured prominently in the discussion about weapons of mass destruction. Iran and Iraq had fought a grinding eight-year war in the 1980s, and Hussein said he was convinced that Iran was trying to annex southern Iraq -- which is largely Shiite. "Hussein viewed the other countries in the Middle East as weak and could not defend themselves or Iraq from an attack from Iran," Piro recounted in his summary of a June 11, 2004, conversation.
"The threat from Iran was the major factor as to why he did not allow the return of UN inspectors," Piro wrote. "Hussein stated he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for his refusal to allow UN inspectors back into Iraq."
Hussein noted that Iran's weapons capabilities had increased dramatically while Iraq's weapons "had been eliminated by the UN sanctions," and that eventually Iraq would have to reconstitute its weapons to deal with that threat if it could not reach a security agreement with the United States.
Piro raised bin Laden in his last conversation with Hussein, on June 28, 2004, but the information he yielded conflicted with the Bush administration's many efforts to link Iraq with the terrorist group. Hussein replied that throughout history there had been conflicts between believers of Islam and political leaders. He said that "he was a believer in God but was not a zealot . . . that religion and government should not mix." Hussein said that he had never met bin Laden and that the two of them "did not have the same belief or vision."
When Piro noted that there were reasons why Hussein and al-Qaeda should have cooperated -- they had the same enemies in the United States and Saudi Arabia -- Hussein replied that the United States was not Iraq's enemy, and that he simply opposed its policies.
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| Magnetonium |
Well, aint it a predicable story? There's a reason why Iraq attacked Iran after the Islamic Revolution ... not because of the Iranian "threat", but because of Saddam's lunacy and fear of changes to its east. If anything, Iraq was a threat to everyone in the region, and now that Saddam is gone - Iran has been given carte blanche as the new superpower in the region. |
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| DJ Damerchi |
It was common knowledge amongst educated Iraqis that he was trying to create this illusion as to not appear weak. Even if this meant letting his people suffer under the sanctions, he still proceeded with this agenda. This is why it was very frustrating to hear intelligence reports that he had weapons of mass destruction, very few Iraqi's were fooled by this, but the west swallowed it up, and now Iraq is "free".
It was also common knowledge that he did not associate with Bin Laden. I really think investigations need to be done in order to determine who was responsible for any manipulation to deceive the public. The CIA and MI6 are very competent organizations, so I really have a hard time believing this was purely a result of an error of judgment.
Using Colin Powell as a Scape Goat is not going to fix the underlying issues. |
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| Krypton |
| I really wish Bush administration officials would be held to account for their lies to go to war. While Nazis are executed for engaging in a war of aggression, the Bush Administration gets off scot-free. |
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| CHRles |
Krypton, please stop comparing the Bush administration to the Nazis.
However faulty our former administration was on some issues I don't think this warrants a valid comparison to one of the most monstrous political factions of all time.
You may not get it but in some way you're implying that all the Americans who voted for Bush are nazis.
People seem to use the term nazi all too loosely nowadays with no regards to the severity of it all. |
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| DJ Damerchi |
| quote: | Originally posted by CHRles
People seem to use the term nazi all too loosely nowadays with no regards to the severity of it all. |
People also tend to throw around the word "fascist" where it clearly doesn't belong, particularly with labeling islamic regimes.
EDIT I am inclined to believe you have made this error yourself.
authoritarian theocratic regimes do not equate to fascism. "fascist" has a shock value attached to it, so networks like Fox often abuse the out of this term and mislead the public. |
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| Krypton |
| quote: | Originally posted by CHRles
Krypton, please stop comparing the Bush administration to the Nazis.
However faulty our former administration was on some issues I don't think this warrants a valid comparison to one of the most monstrous political factions of all time.
You may not get it but in some way you're implying that all the Americans who voted for Bush are nazis.
People seem to use the term nazi all too loosely nowadays with no regards to the severity of it all. |
A war of aggression is a war of aggression, whether conducted by Nazis, Americans, British, Iraqis, or anyone else. I am using the Nuremberg trials as an example because many of the highest government officials in the Nazi government were executed for the war crime of a war of aggression, while the Bush Administration gets what? A slap on the wrist? Millions of lives were destroyed by the 2003 invasion based on lies and someone has to pay. Did Bush set up death camps? No. And that's not what I'm saying, but don't try to justify Bush's war just because he wasn't as bad as Hitler. And don't assume I'm comparing Bush to Hitler. Bush is Bush, and Bush should be responsible for what Bush did. Why you think he should get off scott-free for his blunders, I don't know...
"To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." -Nuremburg Trials
Article 39 of the UN Charter states..."The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security."
Clearly, the invasion of Iraq is a war crime. |
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| Krypton |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Damerchi
People also tend to throw around the word "fascist" where it clearly doesn't belong, particularly with labeling islamic regimes.
EDIT I am inclined to believe you have made this error yourself.
authoritarian theocratic regimes do not equate to fascism. "fascist" has a shock value attached to it, so networks like Fox often abuse the out of this term and mislead the public. |
Exactly... every time I hear a conservative throw out "Islamofascist", I chuckle at their stupidity... |
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| DJ Damerchi |
| quote: | Originally posted by Krypton
Exactly... every time I hear a conservative throw out "Islamofascist", I chuckle at their stupidity... |
"whats that? Far left ultra conservatives are in power in the middle east? I cannot compute that on my one dimensional scale of politics!
IT! WE'LL DO IT LIVE!"
-B.O.R. |
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| Krypton |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Damerchi
"whats that? Far left ultra conservatives are in power in the middle east? I cannot compute that on my one dimensional scale of politics!
IT! WE'LL DO IT LIVE!"
-B.O.R. |
Iran is one of the most socialized countries in the world. That is not fascism! LOL... |
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| CHRles |
Great, so let's ignore the fact that Iraq was under severe sanctions with much of the free world, not just the US, prior to 2003. Let's ignore what Saddam did to his own people, and to Kuwait. Let's ignore his behavior after 9/11, regardless of whether he had anything to do with that or not. Clearly Sadam should have been taken out either by his own people or by some foreign government ages ago.
What happened followingSadam's surrender is that different factions of the Iraqi population vied for power. An inner political struggle began and the responsibility of restoring the peace to the country fell on the United States. Due to to the fact that some of those vying for power were leaders who were just as bad as Sadam I am GLAD that our troops and our government didn't just pack things up and leave.
You keep ignoring the fact that MOST of the deaths occuring in Iraq are between Iraqis killing other Iraqis. Had the US not been there does not mean that this could have been prevented.
Did you even follow the news at all a couple of years ago with the way some Iraqis burned other Irauis alive, out in public? And in relatiation other Iraqis were hanged? What about the suicide bombings?
So please, don't quote me the Nuremberg trials. I'm well aware of those trials, and know at least as much as you do about World War II.
Bush made a lot of mistakes with regards to the way he handled the situation in Iraq, and the way he handled the economy. It's still a long way off from being a Nazi criminal.
The Nazis, and the Soviets for that matter, didnt just invade Poland, they committed atrocious acts against humanity there. It wasn't an inner struggle among Poles that killed people, and it wasnt like Poland wasnt cooperating with the West prior to the invasion.
From there on the story gets more and more twisted and cruel, ultimately resulting in the death of 40 million people around the world. Poland was just the first casualty.
How many people in Iraq have died in the past 6 years? How many Iraqis died previously under Sadam? How many people were affected by Sadam's actions in neighboring countries during his reign?
There are several "leaders" in Africa that the pathetic international court in Hague hasn't gotten around to dealing with. Yet you want them to waste their time on the former Bush administration???? |
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