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TIME Exclusive: Notes from Saddam in Custody
TIME ^ | Dec. 14, 2003 | BRIAN BENNETT

Posted on 12/14/2003 11:52:51 AM PST by 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?”


TOPICS: Breaking News; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: agitprop; aoltimelifewarnercnn; baghdadbob; bigmedia; gulfwar2; gulfwarii; interrogation; iraq; lyingliars; mediabias; mriraq; nationalsecurity; propaganda; reddawn; regimechange; saddam; saddamcaptured; saddamhussein; saddamincustody; saddaminterrogation; saddamites; securityleaks; time; topplesaddam; viceclosed
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To: FairOpinion
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?"

LOL!

What a nut! "Bondage! My people...in bondage! Girls, in bondage! Naughty girls. Bad, baaaad girls in Bondage!"

61 posted on 12/14/2003 12:28:14 PM PST by SkyPilot
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To: Pukin Dog
The interrogators also asked Saddam if he knew about the location of Captain Scott Speicher

YES!!!!

62 posted on 12/14/2003 12:28:59 PM PST by arasina (What will YOU do when Howard Dean or Hillary Clinton is president?)
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To: FairOpinion
Who better to spread planned disinformation than Time? Saddam will tell all.

I noticed in the film shown of him at the press conference that his chin lifted defiantly for a second, then sank again and his chest hollowed back. He's really defeated, inside and out. Our virtuoso interrogation experts will play him like a violin.
63 posted on 12/14/2003 12:30:34 PM PST by PoisedWoman (Rat candidates: "What a sorry lot!" says Barbara Bush)
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To: WVNan
Uh oh....there's the new spin. Bush has kept Saddam buried in a hole for months

They've been spinning that on DU since early this morning. "Bush Knew!"

According to them (and their Palestinian soul brothers), Saddam was captured several weeks (months?) ago, and was brought out today to trump the new Halliburton "scandal."

Neil Armstrong never walked on the moon, either.

64 posted on 12/14/2003 12:31:31 PM PST by angkor
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To: angkor; LadyDoc
FWIW, while chatting with my MD some time ago, we got onto the topic of "truth serum". He stated that drugs like sodium pentothal are of limited usefulness. Might ask LadyDoc about for perhaps some medical comment on this, so I am pinging her...
65 posted on 12/14/2003 12:33:47 PM PST by Fury
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To: Smogger
He'll tell us whatever we want to know if we spare him the death penalty

So, we promise him we won't kill him if he talks, then get all the info that he will part with---Then kill him. No problem.

66 posted on 12/14/2003 12:34:50 PM PST by Holly_P (It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose.)
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To: undergroundwarrior
"Too bad, we can't bring in Lt. Col. West (God Bless Him)."

I agree!
67 posted on 12/14/2003 12:36:40 PM PST by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub (Lt. Col. West is a HERO!)
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To: Fury
Well, it can remove your inhibitions against talking - The problem is, however, you can be led to say just about anything desired.


68 posted on 12/14/2003 12:37:15 PM PST by Chad Fairbanks (I don't hear voices. I AM the voices...)
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To: edwin hubble
"...Does it appear from this story that Time has a reporter on the Saddam interrogation team? "

Perhaps TIME magazine hired Jayson Blair!!!

69 posted on 12/14/2003 12:37:55 PM PST by albee
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To: All
If you ever left a message on an answering machine you can do this!
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You can leave one or more new messages each day.


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70 posted on 12/14/2003 12:38:24 PM PST by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub (Have you said Thank You to a service man or woman today?)
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To: FairOpinion
Oh no the Saddam interrogation is in a quagmire!


I clicked your link to make sure this wasn't a clever parody of Time LOL!
What an idiotic audience they target.

71 posted on 12/14/2003 12:39:25 PM PST by mrsmith
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To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
Soldiers Radio ~ Bump!
72 posted on 12/14/2003 12:42:48 PM PST by blackie
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To: Chad Fairbanks
Remember all those audio tapes done on a 60's tape player.....now we know why they sounded like Saddam is hiding in a hole while making them..
73 posted on 12/14/2003 12:43:13 PM PST by Dog (First question to Saddam..........Where is Scott Speicher??)
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To: Cultural Jihad
Who's going to be feeding Time this sort of info unless it were a psy-war campaign of some kind?

Maybe the politico's in the Bush administration so that the naive nine keep up their assault on the lack of WMD's. After there is a clear RAT nominee, the administration can then release the WMD information. BTW, Asad better keep his head down, and his powder dry. He's next.

74 posted on 12/14/2003 12:43:55 PM PST by Go Gordon (The older I get, the better I used to be.)
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To: angkor
Since this story is (a) from Time, (b) too fast...

It isn't too fast. Apparently, Saddam was captured some 28 hours ago, but the news was not released until the DNA tests came back. So, Saddam has had time to rest, relax, and to be interrogated. And for a reporter to interview an official close to the investigation.

75 posted on 12/14/2003 12:48:15 PM PST by Plutarch
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To: Dog
Agreed ...Saddam will talk.

If he stays on type he'll feel that he was betrayed by all his "friends."

He'll rat everyone out. Everyone. Chirac is in for some unleasant days, IMHO. So are Assad and Arafat.

We got about 4 inches of snow in Toronto today. I hate snow. I hate cold. Normally I'd be in a lousy mood right now. But nope, I've been smiling and jigging since 7am this morning.

Well done, America. Thank you and may G-d bless you always.

76 posted on 12/14/2003 12:49:20 PM PST by mitchbert (Facts are Stubborn Things)
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“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?” Saddam said.

Suit yourself droopy, wet your pants.
77 posted on 12/14/2003 12:50:13 PM PST by Darksheare (For the crimes of Heresy of thought, Heresy of word, and Heresy of deed, this tagline shall burn!)
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To: Dog
Excellent point LOL
78 posted on 12/14/2003 12:51:28 PM PST by Chad Fairbanks (I don't hear voices. I AM the voices...)
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To: Cvengr
I found it interesting that during the press conference this a.m. they were questioning where the $750,000 is..
79 posted on 12/14/2003 1:05:55 PM PST by Zipporah
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To: FairOpinion
“Have we actually cut the head of the snake or is he just an idiot hiding in a hole?”

More misguided spin.

What will it take to convince these anti-American zealots that through the leadership of Dubya' we are making headway in the war against terrorism?

80 posted on 12/14/2003 1:06:09 PM PST by EGPWS
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