FBI Notes: Iran Was Saddam's Biggest Fear

Hussein Told FBI He Lied About Weapons to Keep Iran at Bay; Also Dismissed Bin Laden As "Zealot"

(AP)  After his capture, Saddam Hussein told the FBI that he falsely allowed the world to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction because he feared revealing his weakness to Iran, the hostile neighbor he considered a bigger threat than the U.S.

Saddam also dismissed Osama bin Laden as a "zealot," said he had never personally met the al Qaeda leader and that the Iraqi government didn't cooperate with the terrorist group against the U.S., according to FBI interview notes made public by the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute.

The institute obtained the FBI summaries through a Freedom of Information Act request and posted them on its Web site Wednesday.

The former Iraqi leader was interviewed by the FBI after he was captured in December 2003, nine months after the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq. He was later transferred to Iraqi custody and was hanged in December 2006.

The FBI special agent who interviewed Saddam, George Piro, described their talks in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" last year. Saddam told him he had "miscalculated" former President George W. Bush's intentions and expected only a limited U.S. attack.

"Hussein stated Iraq could have absorbed another United States strike, for he viewed this as less of a threat than exposing themselves to Iran," according to a June 11, 2004, FBI interview report.

Saddam denied having unconventional weapons before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but refused to allow U.N. inspectors to search his country from 1998 until 2002. The inspectors returned to the weapons hunt in November 2002 but still complained that Iraq wasn't cooperating.

[pensacola8-2009]

We all heard the story about a man who saw his brother-in-law with another woman and told his own sister that her husband may be cheating on him. The next thing you know, she files for divorce. Just as it is progressing along, the same man learns that what he really saw wasn't cheating at all. When he learns the truth, he sees his angry sister and her children in the middle of strife and knows he could speak up and stop an unjust divorce and then face some pretty bad music with his own sister for at least a while. He knows it is the right thing to do, but chooses not to do it. The divorce goes through and he watches his sister's family suffering needlessly.

Well that is Bush and Cheney - about Sadaam Hussein. They could have stopped his execution and faced some pretty angry music, but they could have stopped Iraq and the USA from needless suffering. The two trillion dollar war nearly ended capitalism....just over bad judgement.

No intestinal fortitude existed in the White House at the critical time.

Sadaam may have killed his own brother, but Bush and Cheney were no better when they saw the justification for the invasion was not built on a complete truth.

A complete truth is essential to be an effective commander in chief.

History will not be nice to Cheney or Bush for this. It will spin around the world against beliefs that the USA is always a fair and effective world leader.

[Dgunner]

ALL YOU ARM CHAIR SOLDIERS MAKE ME LAUGH SO HARD FROM YOUR IGNORANCE. JUST BEFORE I THROW UP FROM YOUR STUPIDITY.

[pensacola8-2009]

This is not about performance of our military, it is about a foreign policy failure under GOP....and I agree, it made many people around the world throw up. Look a little higher than immediate chain of command. I know active duty persons can't say anything critical about their commander in chief, but civilians can...and they are saying that Bush and Cheney are spineless cowards for not doing the right thing. Look today and see that over 70% of this nation find disgust with the GOP. This is one of many reasons.

[pensacola8-2009]

This news article should be on the front page and thrown into the faces of the GOP and VP Cheney every week until our troops are home. I have long known this fact since reading about it a few months ago on this very web site, but the election was in full steam.

I can not believe President G.W. Bush or Vice President Cheney allowed Iraq to hang their former head of state after knowing this. This is by far the darkest deed of President Bush and Vice President Cheney and the damage to the United States will require many years to repair. This will serve as the cover page of GOP Foreign Policy Failure in the history books for many generations to come. They deserve all the distrust they get from it!

[tmittelstaed]

Saddam killed his own brother less than 1/2 of an hour after his brother got off the plane - after promising up, down & sideways that he had forgiven him, and was letting bygones be bygones. That, and many other reasons like that, is why the US allowed Saddam to be hung.

[gravyboat4000]

by itsjustathought July 2, 2009 9:55 AM PDT
That's because Saddam NEVER considered the possibility that the Supreme Court of the United States of America would SELECT two madman to run the country.


Get over it, for gawdssake.
____

Tell that to the more than 4000 families of lost American service people, Rowdy.

[xalen54]

So why did we hang him then??? xD

[ToolMangler1]

The Iraqis wanted him to get a "Long stretch" and thats the way shrubbie interpreted it.

[mcintoshlou]

That's because Saddam NEVER considered the possibility that the Supreme Court of the United States of America would SELECT two madman to run the country.
GREAT POST;

right on, the united states was always the biggest threat to world peace,

a rich country owned and operated by a few greed driven wealthy pigs,

AMERICAN DO NOT DESERVE FREEDOM, THEY ARE NOT INTELLIGENT ENOUGH TO HANDLE IT

[xalen54]

Someone most certainly thinks their country could be any better than ours.

[Newster1]

by Questionews July 2, 2009 8:06 AM PDT
Must have been a real good lair, we bought it hook, line & sinker.
'

No, we just had a couple of imbeciles in power with an agenda and connections to crooked banks and oil companies who were so stupid as to believe he had WMD's

The shame of it all is, all of this for the last 6 YEARS, and 5,500 dead us troops, and $10 billion a month wasted was for NOTHING but a dog and pony show. As a result sadumb was hanged, his country in shambles, civil war erupted and some 100,000 or more dead because of US.
The guy was never a threat to us at all and this proves it.

The fact he killed his own people is not our problem, if the people in a foreign country don't like their Govt they can do something about it. Anyone with a gun could have taken Sadumb OUT at any time there IF they wanted, but the fact was many many adored the nut, he kept Alquaida OUT because he hated them and Osama bin laden.

[ReallyMeanIt]

Saddam lied about WMD and the feeble minded libs still think that Bush did.
Practically the whole world believes saddam has WMD. He even demonstrated by killing hundreds of thousands of his own countrymen.
But as a typical libs, if the fact doesn't fit their story then just ignored it.

[antoniof123]

I am so glad we have removed the neonuts from power next blood bath for them is in 2010 where we will make it that they don't have to work with the Democrats.

We should have listened to our parents they kept the Republcians out of power for 40 years a generation. Looks like they were smarter than we though them to be.

Of course I for one will fix that problem from now on.

[ibsteve2u]

Me, I'm getting tired of righties saying that Obama wants to "redistrubute the wealth."

What do you call jacking executive pay up to over 400 times worker pay, or shifting jobs offshore because wages are cheaper over their and so your cut as CEO or shareholder gets far bigger, or cutting medical and retirement plans, again to increase what the CEO and shareholders get?

What the hell is that, if not "wealth redistribution"?

[Questionews]

And this relates to the story how??

[Questionews]

Let's see if I got this right. They tortured him & torture results in false confessions. He confessed under torture that he didn't have WMD & was afraid of Iran. But it's a false confession, so it must be concluded that he does have WMD & that he's not afraid of Iran!?? But he didn't have WMD so that must mean that we was telling the truth while being tortured, but torture results in false confessions, so that must mean .......................Is it too early for straight shots of Bacardi???

[ToolMangler1]

Fortunately. blah blah blah. Unfortuately, blah blah blah. fortuately blah blah blah. Unfortuately blah blah blah. fortuately .............LOLOL

[ToolMangler1]

can't believe my spell checker didn't catch that..

[mjvwsr]

no mention of the fact that he killed 250,000 of his own people with chemical weapons which by definition are a weapon of mass destruction

[zonkzilla]

This is a repeat of a very old story.
Since Obama has become President, there just aren't enough "end of the world WW3 is coming doomsday is here" news stories to fill the pages or air time.
And yet another reason why the wealthy hate Obama. They control our media and it was reported that the nightly news viewership on all four networks is at an all time historical low so President OBama has really hurt that portion of their billions in profits they don't pay taxes on.

[Kuei1248]

If nobody hears it the first time you might have to say it again until americans finally get it.

[talcoolone]

I agree, it does seem like things have calmed down significantly.

[udontnoitall]

You've got to be kidding. Since when has the media not been on Obama's side? As far as the wealthy hating him??? I'm not wealthy by any means and I've got enough sense to know that socialism is not the way to go. Isn't he already going back on what he said about not over taxing anyone who makes less than 250k per year? If we "redistrubute the wealth.", his words, then eventually what will be the incentive for anyone to have a lucrative career such as a doctor? To make alot of money? Why, to take care of everyone else? Then everyone who shouts all hail Obama is gonna wonder where their piece of the pie is because no one's willing to work hard to give it to them. I can hear it now, "dang it, where is my free money, that's the problem with this country now, no one will work hard enough anymore to give it to me!" I have a friend whose parents moved here from England 50 or so years ago. The reason? Her father, a top-notch engineer in his field made less than the families garbage man. She is now a dentist and probably would not have made the same choice had her family still lived in Englan.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."--Margaret Thatcher.

[pensacola8-2009]

No one should forget this. President Bush and Vice President Cheney made a monumental mistake that our country will not recover from very easily. The Republican Party is not to be trusted or given any power in our country. No one should forget this!!

The USA has a policy that we never go for a head of state, as a military target, but Republicans captured the head of state of Iraq and knew he wasn't the enemy to the USA as they believed and allowed his country to hang him. What a bunch of spineless cowards!! Bush and Cheney should have stopped the lynching and corrected their error in a more appropriate way.

[iam4honesty]

December, 2003... Still Cheney spews his lies. If you think he wasn't briefed on these interviews you are a fool.

Also, this proves, beyond any doubt, that the story is true... the torture was done for the purpose of getting false confessions. Cheney wanted desperately for an al Quaeda member to imply a connection with Iraq and the 9/11 attack.

The monster you people voted into office tortured people to make them say things that weren't true, just to cover his fat, miserable a*ss.

Bush, Cheney, Rove, Pearle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfield and the rest should be tried, convicted and executed for treason, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[docpeter1953]

How bout we just go down to Texas for the weekend, drink a few beers, eat some BBQ, and bake in the 100+ degree temps instead.

[Questionews]

Dude, stress & anxiety is one of the leading causes of high blood pressure. Ya need to vent some of that anger & hatred. Relax!
Shmoke and a pancake?
Flapjack and a cigarette?
Cigar and a waffle?
Pipe and a crepe?
Bong and a blintz?

If not then there's no pleasing you!!

[Kuei1248]

iam4honesty well said!

[pensacola8-2009]

You are totally correct! I don't know if we will ever see our government thrown our former heads of state under the bus without a revolution first. The USA, unlike Nazi-Germany, or Iraq, can change political leaders in more civil ways.

I recall the Post Nazi-Germany where the winners broadcasted to the Germans that they elected their leaders who brought their country into destruction and they need to face the limitations of their failed political system when the time comes to replace it. The Germans did very well and and even paid financial restitution. The same process needs to be imposed on the GOP.

The GOP nearly destroyed capitalism!! They invaded a country and cost us two trillion dollars, 4,000 lives and collapsed our banking system almost to the brink of ending capitalism.

[Questionews]

Must have been a real good lair, we bought it hook, line & sinker.

[docpeter1953]

What you mean by "we" white boy?

Not all of us bought into his and GWBs lies

[Kuei1248]

"Must have been a real good lair, we bought it hook, line & sinker."

We? Who is we? You got another dumb@$$ in your pocket? I saw right through bush from day one and tried to alert everyone! You had to be completely stupid, drunk or on drugs not to see what bush was up to. And the thanks I got? A visit from the FBI accusing me of being a spy. Welcome to america!

[udontnoitall]

After his capture, Saddam Hussein told the FBI that he falsely allowed the world to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction because he feared revealing his weakness to Iran, the hostile neighbor he considered a bigger threat than the U.S.


Hmmm..If he really said this, then why does everyone dog Bush for believing it enough to act on it? And when we went there and looked for them and found none, weren't there also reports that said there was evidence that they had been moved? Russia and whoever else supplied them just took them back for awhile. Or is this impossible to believe?

[comfortmd1]

doesn't surprise me

[talcoolone]

Wow, kind of makes you feel sorry for ole grandpa Saddam, eh?

[docpeter1953]

No.

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive"

"Marmion, A Tale of Flodden Field" -Sir Walter Scott- 1808

He got what he deserved.

[ToolMangler1]

"by bannednancy July 2, 2009 8:11 AM PDT
That's because Saddam NEVER considered the possibility that the Supreme Court of the United States of America would SELECT two madman to run the country"



Nah!!! that's one madman 'twice', The others were just criminals...