Posted on 01/24/2008 12:42:30 PM PST by james500
Saddam Hussein initially didn't think the U.S. would invade Iraq to destroy weapons of mass destruction, so he kept the fact that he had none a secret to prevent an Iranian invasion he believed could happen. The Iraqi dictator revealed this thinking to George Piro, the FBI agent assigned to interrogate him after his capture.
Piro, in his first television interview, relays this and other revelations to 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley this Sunday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Piro spent almost seven months debriefing Saddam in a plan based on winning his confidence by convincing him that Piro was an important envoy who answered to President Bush. This and being Saddam's sole provider of items like writing materials and toiletries made the toppled Iraqi president open up to Piro, a Lebanese-American and one of the few FBI agents who spoke Arabic. "He told me he initially miscalculated... President Bush’s intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998...a four-day aerial attack," says Piro. "He survived that one and he was willing to accept that type of attack." "He didn't believe the U.S. would invade?" asks Pelley, "No, not initially," answers Piro.
Once the invasion was certain, says Piro, Saddam asked his generals if they could hold the invaders for two weeks. "And at that point, it would go into what he called the secret war," Piro tells Pelley. But Piro isn’t convinced that the insurgency was Saddam's plan. "Well, he would like to take credit for the insurgency," says Piro.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The photo of you standing by Saddam’s reviewing stand in Baghdad with the gun in your hand is awesome. Did you ever think you’d find yourself standing there getting your picture taken?
***Confusing Bush with Clinton is perhaps the greatest miscalculation one can make.***
Exactly! Confusing all Americans with the anti-American Clintons was the end of Saddam. And since Hillary claims she helped make all the decisions during Bubba’s term, she’s just as guilty for Bubba’s mistakes.
“Isn’t the best time to take him out BEFORE he has stockpiles of WMD ready for use?”
In a vacuum, yes.
In the context of the type of government that will replace him, how much influence Iran might have over it, and how many years it will tie up the bulk of terrestrial conventional forces, what OTHER major mission might be performed with said forces instead in the same time period, and WHETHER THE US WILL GET LONG-TERM UNRESTRICTED USE OF AIRFIELDS IN IRAQ OUT OF THIS, the picture becomes more complex.
“He chose poorly.”
OF COURSE HIS people said they’d been destroyed, the fact is you can’t trust ANY of them no farther than you can throw them, either way!
It wouldn’t surprise me if some were destroyed before the war, some after and some transported to Syria or even Iran. Hell they even flew the best part of their Air Force to Iran!
And having an unloaded gun pointed at the head of a hostage in a bank robbery and Saddam getting killed is what I equate Bush’s actions to...
After all Saddam put a cap in plenty of these hostages during prior hold ups.
I agree with you. An agent just comes out and gives an interview with Saddam? Me smell a Dan Rather in the background...along with a Wilson.
Saddam regime opted to produce all the Precursors (or base Materials) required to build Chemical Weapons rather than building the final chemical weapon products. Once the Precursors are available it would be very easy and quick to build the final chemical weapons, in most cases it only take weeks if not days to build it. There are two main reasons why Saddam regime chose to build the Precursors for the chemical weapons rather than the final product. The first one is that those Precursors are classified under what is called "dual use materials" where it can be used both in civilian and WMD industries, and Saddam regime can always claim that these precursors were produced for civilian industry. The second reason is that the Precursors have longer shelf life than the final chemical weapons program which means it can be stored for a much longer of time than the final product. I will take only few weeks and in some cases few days to build the final Chemical Weapon products once the Precursors are ready.
I prefer to call it the "Oil for Palaces" program.
It’s not really that complex.
A Saddam supporting terrorists with weapons of mass destruction IS the worst alternative, and is worse than a “messy” post-Saddam chaos. I guess for some people, it would take a WMD attack upon Americans with massive casualties to understand that.
Good info you got there.
Actually shame on W and his folks for being so pathetic in defending their actions.
>>>>>>>Quite frankly it just doesn’t matter. People actually think 9-11 was remote control aircraft flown by Dick Cheney! Or Rummy ordered a rocket attack into the pentagon, nevemind where did the plane and people on it go...I guess Kucinich or Paul could answer that one!
They think Cheney still has a secret raygun on a sub under the water that creates hurricanes like Katrina to hurt poor blacks.
Had millions (more) died in an attack by Saddam with nukes, chemicals and so forth stockpiled for those 13 years, Shrillary’s crowd would whine ‘vast right wing conspiracy’ anyway!
The left is wholly invested in defeat, blaming America first and destroying this country on the basis that a world super power only brings us and the entire world harm, never any good!
bump
Your Weekly Reader is a better source than CBS.
But I thought Bush “made it all up.” The AP’s “non biased” study told them so yesterday.
I can’t wait for the book. And then the movie. And then the run for office. And then the trial for corruption. And then the...
But, seriously, I hope as much of this that can be released is published.
No. When I think about it, it still boggles my mind. As somewhat of a news junkie, I had kept an eye on events since the Kuwait invasion in '90. I happened to be up in the wee hours (Houston time) the day our troops entered Baghdad and saw it all live on TV in April of '03.
If someone had told me then where I'd be less than a year later, I'd have told them they were crazy, stoned, delusional, out of their mind and looney. ;-)
In fact, when a friend casually suggested it a couple of months after the '03 invasion because of my international work background, I said "Good grief. You've got to be out of your mind. I'm not going to that place." LOL
I thought his WMDs went to Syria. Those convoys of semis lined up at the border???? His chemical weapons that he used to gas thousands of people???? What’s this no WMDs claptrap?
This article is from CBS News.
Need I say more?
I can't, anyway.
How can this be? I thought he telephoned George Bush and told him that he had no WMDs, and offered to open any and all sites for inspection by State Department inspectors, but Bush lied and invaded anyway?
Hmm? Someone didn't read the talking points paper, did they? :)
No surprise here. France and Russia were assuring Saddam that the USA wouldn’t pull the trigger. They hoped the UN stonewalling would preclude it and, above all else, wanted to preserve the status quo.
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