Ten years after Saddam execution, CIA officer says that everything the US thought it knew was WRONG

UK Daily Mail ^ | 12/17/2016 | John Nixon

[AC Beach Patrol]

[full title]:The Saddam interrogation: Ten years after the tyrant's execution, the CIA agent who grilled him reveals the shattering truth... that everything the US thought it knew was WRONG

CIA analyst John Nixon grilled the ruthless dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein

In the course of interrogations, Saddam 'turned our assumptions upside down'

In his 2010 memoir, Bush wrote: ‘I decided I would not criticise the hardworking patriots of the CIA for the faulty intelligence on Iraq.’ But that is exactly what he did. He blamed the agency for everything that went wrong and called its analysis ‘guesswork’ while hearing only what he wanted to hear.

I do not wish to imply that Saddam was innocent. He was a ruthless dictator who plunged his region into chaos and bloodshed. But in hindsight, the thought of having an ageing and disengaged Saddam in power seems almost comforting in comparison with the wasted effort of our brave men and women in uniform and the rise of Islamic State, not to mention the £2.5 trillion spent to build a new Iraq.

[AC Beach Patrol]

Whether evil is done through incompetence or malice its results are equaling devastating. When evil is done out of incompetence and malice it is doubly devastating. When evil is done by an incompetent and malicious rogue agency it is gravely dangerous to America and must be considered an enemy within. This certainly isn't the CIA of W. F. Buckley, Jr. and E. Howard Hunt and other Yalies, back when the CIA entrance exam included questions on sailing and golf courses at exclusive clubs.

[AC Beach Patrol]

Sorry, the two paragraphs posted were the last two of the article. They should have followed a [...].

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

The 2003 war destroyed Iraq’s Christian minority.

[Arm_Bears]

So a lot of fine US youth lost their lives because of a doofus president and a corrupt CIA.

[Skywise]

Ehh... I dono’t buy this guy’s story that makes Hussein a misunderstood saint and W a “asshole”

[GraceG]

So a lot of fine US youth lost their lives because of a doofus president and a corrupt CIA.

Spook-y

[Alberta's Child]

I don't believe the CIA made any mistakes about the intelligence in Iraq. Some of us right here on FreeRepublic stated clearly that the U.S. had no justification for invading Iraq, predicted that Iraq would be a complete disaster when all was said and done ... and the CIA has people who know a lot more about these things than me, I would assume.

Those were not "mistakes." They were deliberate acts of deception to support a propaganda campaign aimed at conning the American people.

[plain talk]

It was a mistake to take out Hussein given we did not have a clue regarding how to replace him and keep Iraq under secular control.

But it was not just the CIA that thought Iraq had WMDs. Intelligence agencies around the world thought he had them. Certainly Iraq had at least chemical WMDs since they had used them. We still don’t really know what other WMDs they had or did not have. Lots of stuff was moved out of Iraq before the war into Syria and there is lots of sand in the area to bury them.

[ClearCase_guy]

Shah of Iran
Saddam Hussein
Mubarek
Gaddahafi
Assad

The US keeps helping (sometimes through inactivity) to get these secular Middle East leaders overthrown. These are not nice guys. But in every case, the secular guy has been better than the fundamentalists who followed, or (as in Syria) who tried to follow.

Perhaps there is a lesson here.

[Just mythoughts]

Bush let the A.N.S.W.E.R communists rants of ‘No blood for oil’, be his Iraqi policy. Bush should have taken control of Iraq's oil and Brack’s ISIS would have never formed. Now look at the rivers of blood spilled over ‘oil’ with the A.N.S.W.E.R communists in control.

[marktwain]

Obviously written by a leftist. The CIA is infested with leftists, and always has been.

This is a hit piece against George “Dubya” Bush.

You can tell by the way he characterizes President Bush.

The author writes this:

“But in late 2007, I was summoned to give a detailed presentation to George W. Bush at the Oval Office. What kind of a man had Saddam been, he asked me?

I told him that he was disarming at first and used self-deprecating wit to put you at ease.

The President looked as if he was going to lose his cool. I quickly explained that the real Saddam was sarcastic, arrogant and sadistic, which seemed to calm Bush down.”

Notice that he uses purely subjective emotional terms to discredit President Bush.

This is a hit piece, nothing more.

[MNJohnnie]

Of course. BJ Clinton needed an excuse to bomb the hell out of Iraq during his Impeachment in 1998. The CIA manufactured the “intelligence” for Clinton and corrupted everything the West thought they knew about Iraq and Saddam

[mj1234]

one of the first paragraphs:

“The myth – and it was a myth – that Saddam maintained multiple lookalikes was a source of wry amusement to those of us who worked in intelligence, but I decided silence was the better part of valour and started compiling a list of questions only the dictator could answer.”

TOTAL LIE!- they have found AND interviewed the body doubles!- (I believe 1 of his son’s also had a double-
The one that was almost assassinated)

This is CIA B.S.- Sadam used various weapons of mass
destruction on HIS OWN PEOPLE!!

In Tommy Franks book- are OWN troops came under chemical attack!- (it was weak ONLY because we had destroyed their capability to deploy it)

This is back to...Bush’s fault ALL republicans are evil
save are skin - because Trump plans to CAN the CIA
Communists- NEVER forget THE CIA DIRECTOR VOTED FOR
the communist party USA!!! drain the swamp

[MortMan]

ISIS came to be because, in large part, Obama turned his back on the elected government of Iraq.

The sophistry of the CIA guy who wrote this does not change any of that history.

[Tucker39]

That’s quite an admission of stupidity, especially at the very moment they’re trying to sell us another load of horse hockey, about the Ruskies subverting our election. Thanks for the tipoff, CIA.

[MNJohnnie]

course. BJ Clinton needed an excuse to bomb the hell out of Iraq during his Impeachment in 1998. The CIA manufactured the “WMD intelligence” for Clinton and corrupted everything the West thought they knew about Iraq and Saddam

Hold the real corrupt President accountable.

[PGR88]

Saddam was quick, too, to deny involvement in 9/11. ‘Look at who was involved,’ he said. ‘What countries did they come from? Saudi Arabia.

Well, Saddam was right about that.

[MNJohnnie]

Just more CIA disinformation.

BJ Clinton needed an excuse to bomb the hell out of Iraq during his Impeachment in 1998. The CIA manufactured the “WMD intelligence” for Clinton and corrupted everything the West thought they knew about Iraq and Saddam

But of course this DNC propaganda bot cannot hold the real corrupt President accountable

[TakebackGOP]

No matter what happened with intelligence or the post-war, GWB was not a leader during the war.

[LS]

This guy is a turd.

1) Remember, not just the CIA, but every single intel agency in the world said Saddam had WMDs: Br., Fr., Israel, Russia, China, the UN, and both Mubarak of Egypt and Hussein of Jordan all said he had WMDs. There were others.

2) An intel agent should have had some idea of the questions he would be asked and not come up with a smart-ass answer. Bush had every right to be pissed.

3) While things did not turn out well, given Tenet’s “slam dunk” briefing, I maintain that ANY president (including Trump) in the aftermath of 9/11 who did not act would have been irresponsible.

4) Ultimately Saddam only had to open up, be honest with inspectors, and nothing would have happened.