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?”

[ducks1944]

I think they should put him in a bullet proof glass cage and take him to every city in Iraq, like we do our Vietnam War wall. Let everyone who wants to hit him with the shoes, spit on him (just the glass because if they could really get to him they kill him). Then put him on trail in Iraq and let them judge him and give him there justice.

[ducks1944]

I think they should put him in a bullet proof glass cage and take him to every city in Iraq, like we do our Vietnam War wall. Let everyone who wants to hit him with the shoes, spit on him (just the glass because if they could really get to him they kill him). Then put him on trail in Iraq and let them judge him and give him there justice.

[Centurion2000]

The official is doubtful that the U.S. will get a significant amount of intelligence from Saddam’s interrogations.

That's ok ... we'll just bring in the Mossad to talk to him ... he'll live ... but not much else.

[Optimist]

why does a prisoner need $750K in cash?

Let's see, 100 bills(100x$100=$10,000) is about an inch thick. That means that he had about 75 inches (6+ ft) of bills...... or he was using them for a bed.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

According to analysts, these seven anomalies point to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein was not in hiding; he was a prisoner. . .

Very interesting, no hint of this on the News Channels!

[BOBTHENAILER]

Interesting indeed. This is gonna be fun watching this story unfold.

[chilepepper]

Time Magazine is just another leftist magazine foisting its socialist BS onto the stupid sheep who actually pay money to be brainwashed.

Everything they publish is suspect IMHO, it is meant to advance the causes of the left, and they cannot be trusted.

Their recent issue playing up the Iraqi insurgents is a perfect case in point: the issue was carefully crafted to undermine support for our troops in Iraq.

[Fabozz]

"There were no immediate reports of communication equipment or even a cell phone in the small underground hole he was hiding in."

Well of course not—Saddam knows full well that we can track any communication. How many times have we or Israel bombed terrorists by targeting their cellular traffic? And radio traffic is even easier to pinpoint. Even something as innocent as a simple radio receiver—no broadcasting ability at all—can be detected and targeted with the right equipment.

Saddam didn't live in that hole 24/7. He probably didn't even use just that one hole to hide in. Instead, he went from safehouse to safehouse in Tikrit, living in relative comfort, communicating with his followers well away from his boltholes, until US troops came through on one of their raids. Then he would make for one of the holes, taking with him the cash (so that none of his henchmen would get any bright ideas) and documents (so that they weren't left lying around to discover), but leaving behind the traceable radio equipment.

[Squantos]

The "block-door " in the hide/hole/shelter was styrofoam.........yep that is what makes prisons escape proof.......styrofoam. As to no communication "devices" that is the singular reason he's been able to evade the high tech search IMO. UBL and Saddass Insane learned no doubt from reading such as "Killing Pablo" (Escabar) that if ya use electronics, they emit a tracebale signal. Ya call on a cell then NSA toys will find you.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the info.

These guys probably don't even wear battery driven watches incase they emit their own signal.

[Travis McGee]

I think his hides were quite well done and sophisticated on many levels to escape high tech detection.

/1/ The 4' X 4' X 6"thick block of styrofoam is inset flush with the ground into a lip around the entry. This foam block is strong enough to carry a layer of dirt to resemble the ground around. It's insulated to provide no IR signature. It's light to lift out or push out easily.

/2/ The ventilation exhausted remotely, probably into a hut to disperse the heat or chem signature.

/3/ The entire hole could be dug by about two men in less than a day. This means only your most trusted confederates need to know where you are, unlike Uday and Qusay in the mansion.

/4/ One taxi cab for road travel, and skiffs on the river for dual methods of supply, movement or rapid escape.

I'm betting he had at least ten holes just like this one, down the the fans and foam blocks.

As far as comms, no doubt he avoided electronics for good reason! The plus side of this is if he had to keep track of messages, we may have scooped a valuable bundle of paper intell with the names, numbers to call etc.

[T Minus Four]

We didn’t want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy.”

Why does this sound familiar? Oh yeah, remember this? "WE ARE THE PRESIDENT!"

[StillProud2BeFree]

I was kinda thinking along the lines of letting Geraldo do the questioning - lock the two of them together in a cell and tell Saddam he can come out if he wants to tell us where our pilot is, the locations of the WMD, and Osama's private cellular or sat phone number.

[Benrand]

when saddam was asked about his awful BO he asked "What odor? I smell nothing!"

[StillProud2BeFree]

/sarcasm on
Yep this is clearly a photo op - a ploy to strengthen Bush's reelection chances. Why, the next thing they'll do is stabilize Iraq, and maybe even capture Bin Laden. Yep, sounds politically motivated to me.
/sarcasm off

Hey - the president went to Baghdad, had a talk with our troops, and the next thing you know we've got Idiot Number One in custody. Hillary went to Afghanistan at the same time - looks like all she brought back was a lousy t-shirt.

[harpseal]

As far as comms, no doubt he avoided electronics for good reason! The plus side of this is if he had to keep track of messages, we may have scooped a valuable bundle of paper intell with the names, numbers to call etc.

Reports are already coming in about apprehensions of high level baathists still at large due to the papers with Saddam.

[r9etb]

I'm not believing anything until its posted by Newsmax.com.

LOL!!! Of course, NewsMax does almost nothing in the way of original reporting. All they do is quote other news organizations, like Time.

[laurav]

Brian Bennett (reporter) has been in close contact with resistance leaders while he's been stationed in Iraq (article a few weeks ago in which he was blindfolded and taken to meet with several). It's possible one of those folks is feeding him this. Though I have to think Bennett would ask why they would know -- unless the resistance folks have a mole in the security forces/interrogation people surrounding Saddam right now.

[macrahanish #1]

Exactly! If Time did get "classified" info, it was only
released to allow us time to get to those Saddam has
fingered.

[river rat]

I guess it's different strokes for different folks....

In a spider hole, such as we've had explained to us..
He could NOT know if anyone was near.
He could NOT know if it was okay to come out.
He could NOT defend himself is someone noticed the Styrofoam - and fired through it before lifting to inspect.
He could NOT attack and kill a couple of transgressors - because he wouldn't know he had the advantage.

He would be totally dependent upon others to tell him when to go in and when to come out...

This all begins to sound like he was really a PRISONER of his "Keepers"..

I suspect the bastard was losing his mind - and couldn't be trusted any longer...
They were bleeding him dry, and keeping the "faith" alive Armonk's the lunatics by keeping him barely alive and have him seen from time to time, or making a tape from time to time..

A blind hole is NOT a warrior's or leader's position...
As "technologically advanced" as it may have been, it was a rat or a prisoner's cell...

Just one old man's opinion...

Semper Fi