TIME Exclusive: Notes from Saddam in Custody

TIME ^ | Dec. 14, 2003 | BRIAN BENNETT

[FairOpinion]

Saddam is talking, but he isn't cooperative. New details on his capture and his first interrogation

Saddam Hussein was captured on Sunday without a fight. But since then, according to a U.S. intelligence official in Iraq, the fallen dictator has been defiant. “He’s not been very cooperative,” said the official, who read the transcript of the initial interrogation report taken during the first questioning session.

After his capture, Saddam was taken to a holding cell at the Baghdad Airport. He didn’t answer any of the initial questions directly, the official said, and at times seemed less than fully coherent. The transcript was full of “Saddam rhetoric type stuff,” said the official who paraphrased Saddam’s answers to some of the questions. When asked “How are you?” said the official, Saddam responded, “I am sad because my people are in bondage.” When offered a glass of water by his interrogators, Saddam replied, “If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom and how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage?”

The interrogators also asked Saddam if he knew about the location of Captain Scott Speicher, a U.S. pilot who went missing during the first Gulf War. “No,” replied the former Iraqi president, “we have never kept any prisoners. I have never known what happened.”

Saddam was also asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. “No, of course not,” he replied, according to the official, “the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us.” The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: “if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?” Saddam’s reply: “We didn’t want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy.”

The official is doubtful that the U.S. will get a significant amount of intelligence from Saddam’s interrogations. “I would be surprised if he gave any info,” he said. Other high-ranking regime members, he said, have by and large remained mum. “Tariq Aziz [former deputy prime minister] hasn’t really spoken,” he said, “and Abid Mahmoud [Saddam’s former personal secretary] hasn’t really given any information.”

The raid on the farm in al-Dawr, a village 15 miles from his hometown of Tikrit, initially came up empty, the official said. There was no Saddam Hussein in sight. Then one man on the property, apparently realizing the game was up, pointed out a bricked-in wall inside the basement of a small house on the property. Saddam is in there, he told the special forces operators from Task Force 121, who took down the farm with the aid of soldiers from the 1st Brigade of the Fourth Infantry Division. Saddam was bricked into his hiding place, he added. “They couldn’t get him out at first and had to dig, from either side of the hole,” said the official. The soldiers finally made a large enough passageway to drag him out. When he came out, he looked bedraggled, said the official: “He looked like a homeless man at the bus station.”

Along with the $750,000 in cash, two AK 47 machine guns and pistol found with Saddam, the U.S. intelligence official confirmed that operatives found a briefcase with Saddam that contained a letter from a Baghdad resistance leader. Contained in the message, the official said, were the minutes from a meeting of a number of resistance leaders who came together in the capital. The official said the names found on this piece of paper will be valuable and could lead to the capture of insurgency leaders around the Sunni Triangle.

The official said it may soon be clear how much command and control over the insurgency Saddam actually had while he was in hiding. “We can now determine,” he said, “if he is the mastermind of everything or not.” The official elaborated: “Have we actually cut the head of the snake or is he just an idiot hiding in a hole?”

[Burlem]

I wonder if the following will get any air time:


Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 10:36 pm Post subject:

Mohammad Atta TRAINED IN IRAQ!!!!!!
London Telegraph

Terrorist Behind September 11 Strike was Trained by Saddam
The Telegraph ^ | December 14, 2003 | Con Coughlin


Iraq's coalition government claims that it has uncovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the US, was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

The handwritten memo, a copy of which has been obtained exclusively by the Telegraph, is dated July 1, 2001 and provides a short resume of a three-day "work programme" Atta had undertaken at Abu Nidal's base in Baghdad.

In the memo, Habbush reports that Atta "displayed extraordinary effort" and demonstrated his ability to lead the team that would be "responsible for attacking the targets that we have agreed to destroy".

The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment — believed to be uranium — that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.

"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he said. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."
_________________

[JustPiper]

Your right he was captured at least 12 hours before the public even got the news..there is rattle they knew for a week where he was...so most likely if the President knew, they've had him, moved him before we even found out

[yonif]

[Grampa Dave]

As usual Slime fabricates and spins with an unknown source. The grim reality for their buddy $oddomite is shown below in a picture taken in Tikrit last week. The owners of Time Warner spiked this picture.

[ladyinred]

The liars at Time are not to be trusted. But if this is a first, and they are on the up and up, a hint of the coming spin might be in these lines.

Saddam was also asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. “No, of course not,” he replied, according to the official, “the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us.” The interrogator continued along this line, said the official, asking: “if you had no weapons of mass destruction then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?” Saddam’s reply: “We didn’t want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy.”

The left may use this, and say those are perfectly reasonable statements !

[FairOpinion]

UNfortunately most media is adamantly ignoring the evidence of close link between Saddam and AQ.

I am glad at least the UK Telegraph published the article, but others were not picking it up.

It was posted here, at least:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1039898/posts

[FairOpinion]

Naturally, the left is willing to take Saddam's word, against any evidence.

Typical.

[Maria S]

"And tomorrow morning, oh my ... hatie no-brains kouric will "hopefully" be weeping openly about how sadam never made it to Syria. Boo hoo ..."


Ohmigosh!!! I'd completely forgotten about the perkster and how she'll handle this. Whaddya want to bet she's 'on assignment' and not even on the show?

[mylife]

Im sure the Wmds are similarly hidden, minus the telltale airshafts. Were gonna find that stuff as well.

[Thane_Banquo]

Interrogation has just started. The psychological methods used, particularly sleep deprivation, take time to have effect.

[PeyersPatches]

Saddam truly is narcissism personified. No wonder the liberals love him so.

[FreedomCalls]

It all happened just hours ago.

Not true. He was captured at about noon on the 13th. It's been over 30 hours since it happened.

[mylife]

"sleep deprivation" will turn any man into a babbling idiot.
They will get plenty of info. The trick will be to weed out the goofy stuff.

[FreedomCalls]

Then one man on the property, apparently realizing the game was up, pointed out a bricked-in wall inside the basement of a small house on the property. Saddam is in there, he told the special forces operators from Task Force 121

Isn't that the $25 million answer? Time to pay up.

[mylife]

"Saddam truly is narcissism personified. No wonder the liberals love him so."

Man! that was on the mark!

[ppaul]

They're in mourning today.....

[Zipporah]

I wonder since his capture if it is revealed where the rest of the $$ are.. what secret accounts there are and where.

[xJones]

Re #34: The source is Debka ndications Saddam Was Not in Hiding But a Captive.

If anyone ever needed proof that Debka is out to lunch, read that article.

[steveegg]

When offered a glass of water by his interrogators, Saddam replied, “If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom and how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage?”

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?

[xJones]

I should have pinged you all also in #158. Debka wrote that piece, which says that the U.S. Army is lying its' heads off, along with the rest of the U.S. government. And Debka is an Israeli group, thanks a lot you guys.... Just curious, how does Debka think we could ever let Saddam testify in Iraq; for instance, he might spill the beans about his captivity/not capture and expose the giant American Army fraud to the world! They'll probably suggest we'll have to kill him first.< /sarcasm>

I'm saving this thread as the classic Debka article, in case some innocent newbie comes along taking Debka seriously.