Jan. 27, 2008
Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions
Tells 60 Minutes Former Iraqi Dictator Didn't Expect U.S. Invasion
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Play CBS Video Video Saddam's Confessions Part 1 In his first television interview, FBI Agent George Piro tells Scott Pelley how he won the confidence of Saddam Hussein and got the truth out of him in a seven-month interrogation.
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Video Saddam's Confessions Part 2 In his first television interview, FBI Agent George Piro tells Scott Pelley how he won the confidence of Saddam Hussein and got the truth out of him in a seven-month interrogation.
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George Piro (CBS)
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Saddam Hussein, during his trial in Dec. 2006. (AP Photo/Chris Hondros)
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Interactive Saddam's Judgment Background on the former Iraqi leader's alleged crimes, his life and capture, plus video and photos.
"Oh, you couldn't imagine the excitement that I was feeling at that point," Piro remembers.
"And what did he tell you about how his weapons of mass destruction had been destroyed?" Pelley asks.
"He told me that most of the WMD had been destroyed by the U.N. inspectors in the '90s. And those that hadn't been destroyed by the inspectors were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq," Piro says.
"So why keep the secret? Why put your nation at risk, why put your own life at risk to maintain this charade?" Pelley asks.
"It was very important for him to project that because that was what kept him, in his mind, in power. That capability kept the Iranians away. It kept them from reinvading Iraq," Piro says.
Before his wars with America, Saddam had fought a ruinous eight year war with Iran and it was Iran he still feared the most.
"He believed that he couldn't survive without the perception that he had weapons of mass destruction?" Pelley asks.
"Absolutely," Piro says.
"As the U.S. marched toward war and we began massing troops on his border, why didn't he stop it then? And say, 'Look, I have no weapons of mass destruction.' I mean, how could he have wanted his country to be invaded?" Pelley asks.
"He didn't. But he told me he initially miscalculated President Bush. And President Bush's intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998 under Operation Desert Fox. Which was a four-day aerial attack. So you expected that initially," Piro says.
Piro says Saddam expected some kind of an air campaign and that he could he survive that. "He survived that once. And then he was willing to accept that type of attack. That type of damage," he says.
"Saddam didn't believe that the United States would invade," Pelley remarks.
"Not initially, no," Piro says.
"Once it was clear to him that there was going to be an invasion of the country. I mean, did he actually believe that his armies could win?" Pelley asks.
"No," Piro says. "What he had asked of his military leaders and senior government officials was to give him two weeks. And at that point it would go into what he called the secret war."
"The secret war. What did he mean?" Pelley asks.
"Going from a conventional to an unconventional war," Piro says.
"So the insurgency was part of his plan from the very beginning," Pelley remarks.
"Well, he would like to take credit for the insurgency," Piro says.
Central to that insurgency were Saddam’s sons, that is, before they were killed by U.S. forces.
Asked how Saddam reacted to the deaths of his two sons, Uday and Qusay, Piro says, "I was surprised. He didn't show any remorse. He told me that he was, of course, proud of his sons. They died believing, or fighting, for what they believed."
Piro asked Saddam about his son Uday, a notorious rapist and murderer. He pressed him until Saddam didn’t want to hear anymore. "He tells me to stop. Basically stop asking these questions. You don't get to pick your kids. You're kind of stuck with what you get," Piro recalls.
Among the most important questions for U.S. intelligence was whether Saddam was supporting al Qaeda, as had been claimed by some in the Bush administration.
What was Saddam's opinion of Osama Bin Laden?
"He considered him to be a fanatic. And as such was very wary of him. He told me, 'You can't really trust fanatics,'" Piro says.
"Didn't think of Bin Laden as an ally in his effort against the United States in this war against the United States?" Pelley asks.
"No. No. He didn't wanna be seen with Bin Laden. And didn't want to associate with Bin Laden," Piro explains.
Piro says Saddam thought that Bin Laden was a threat to him and his regime.
Produced By Henry Schuster
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 1054 Commentshahaha
you believe soros paid liars LOL
hahaha
AP Reports ''Bush Lied'' Study Funded by Ultra-leftist George Soros
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/01/23/ap-bush-lied-study-not-revealed-funded-george-soros
bush did tell the truth, choke on it bush haters hahaha
Top Secret: Bush Told the Truth About WMD
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=26457045-1E9E-4795-9D31-0E5B73E74EE9
Foreign Intel Had Identified WMD Sites
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/007528.php
Saddam, Nikita and Virtual Weapons of Mass Destruction:
A Question of Threat Perception and Intelligence Assessment
David B. Rivkin, Jr., and Lee A. Casey
http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Vol2Issue23/Vol2iss23RivkinCasey.html
THE SECURITY COUNCIL, 27 JANUARY 2003:
AN UPDATE ON INSPECTION
Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr. Hans Blix
http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/Bx27.htm
War was not illegal because it was authorized by Congress, therefore you lied.
Again, Clinton was cautious and did not take us into an illegal war.
BUSH DID! Get it?
If Bush had lied to get us into a war, why would he not have placed a WMD in Iraq to vindicate himself ?
And, guess what, Clinton made the same remarks BEFORE bush did. But it didn''t make it into Soros'' articles, did it. Gee, I WONDER why ?
As usual the typical republiCON will point their finger at someone else.
President Bush''s regime lied 935 times...and then they took us to an illegal war!
Not the Clintons, not any other politician mislead by their lies, the responsibility for this war lies directly on the Bush administration.
You know the 535 references to the Republicans carefully told ''false statements'' which then the far left translated to mean ''lies'' to get us into Iraq.
Funny thing is, Bill and Hillary Clinton weren''t listed as to how many times they said the same things. In FACT, no Democrat was listed. Does that mean they didn''t say these things - nope - it means they weren''t in the ''news''.
Gee, how did that happen.
A little bias reporting by those Soros Puppets maybe ?
It''s simple. We demanded, under threat of force, that the inspectors be let back in. Saddam allowed the inspectors back in. And then because we didn''t believe Saddam was being truthful or that the inspectors would find anything, we invaded. In other words, it was entirely the US''s decision to invade.
This doesn''t mean that Saddam was blameless...after all, if he had clearly complied with his obligations after the 1st Gulf War none of this would have happened. However, Scott Pelley is completely distorting and being dishonest what happened back in 2002/2003.
Scott Pelley has a history of being "creative" with the facts...meaning that you guys, CBS, really need a special Public Editor just to keep Scott Pelley in line. Otherwise his light grasp of the facts is going to really kick you in the bus someday.
I can see why Saddam Hussein was so taken with him.
I''ve read some of the comments that were made and how this was all propaganda put out by the Bush White House. I want to know one thing, were you in the room during the interrogating? Have you read George Tenete''s book about the CIA? If you think they are lying to cover up something, then why don''t you see if you can''t join up and maybe you can do a much better job than they can. I don''t agree with a lot of things that they do also, but to say that this gentleman is nothing but a Bush spokesman is carrying it a little too far. It didn''t take a rocket scientist is know that Saddem Hussein wouldn''t crawl into bed with Bin Ladden, but I guess there are a few in Washington that aren''t rocket scientists, and we know who they are.
Top Secret: Bush Told the Truth About WMD
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=26457045-1E9E-4795-9D31-0E5B73E74EE9
Foreign Intel Had Identified WMD Sites
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/007528.php
Saddam, Nikita and Virtual Weapons of Mass Destruction:
A Question of Threat Perception and Intelligence Assessment
David B. Rivkin, Jr., and Lee A. Casey
http://www.inthenationalinterest.com/Articles/Vol2Issue23/Vol2iss23RivkinCasey.html
THE SECURITY COUNCIL, 27 JANUARY 2003:
AN UPDATE ON INSPECTION
Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr. Hans Blix
http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/Bx27.htm
God Bless America!
Here''s a great dissection of CBS''s nonsense, from the award-winning, non-compromised journalist, Robert Parry:
CBS Falsifies Iraq War History
By Robert Parry
January 28, 2008
There%u2019s a cynical old saying that the victors write the history. CBS%u2019s %u201C60 Minutes%u201D demonstrated how that process works on Jan. 27 in airing Scott Pelley%u2019s interview with the FBI agent who de-briefed former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
In a world of objective reality, a reporter might say that the United States launched an unprovoked invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, under the false pretense that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, even after Iraq had repeatedly %u2013 and accurately %u2013 announced that its WMD had been destroyed in the 1990s.
On Dec. 7, 2002, Iraq even sent to the United Nations a 12,000-page declaration explaining how its WMD stockpiles had been eliminated. In fall 2002, Hussein%u2019s government also allowed teams of U.N. inspectors into Iraq and gave them free rein to examine any site of their choosing ...
See the rest of Robert Parry''s demolition of "60 Minutes" nonsense at: http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/012808.html
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I''m Charlotte, was once lonely and devasted due to herpes even all the
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THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. GEORGE W. BUSH DREW AMERICA TO INVADE IRAQ... THIS IS THE FREAKING LYING AMERICAN PRESS AT ITS FINEST. YOU BIG FREAKING LIEING SACKS OF $HIT AT CBS HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO INTEGRITY WHATSO''*** EVER AND NO PLACE IN OUR DEMOCRACY. AND THEY HAVE NO SHAME IN DOCUMENTING THIS FOR EVERYONE TO SEE.
We have approximately 160,000 soldiers that have covered that country from one piece of sand to another. They have not found one single shred of evidence that there were WMD''s, and maybe one place where they might possibly have been making biological weapons. Plus, don''t you think an Iraqi somewhere wouldn''t have come out by now and pointed to exactly where they were??? Our government would''ve paid MEGA bucks to anybody that could show them such evidence of WMD''s.
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