CIA Agent Tells Al Arabiya Details of Saddam Hussein Interrogation

The CIA analyst who interrogated Saddam Hussein has told Al Arabiya he had no doubt the person captured and whom he later grilled, was the former Iraqi leader.

“I was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was him when I first set eyes on him”, John Nixon told Al Arabiya.

Nixon was the agent chosen to interrogate Saddam when the ex-Iraqi president was captured by American troops in December 2003.

“My prime responsibility was to amass as much as possible intelligence about Saddam Hussein. When he was captured by the US forces, I had prepared a list of 30 to 40 questions, which I believed no one could answer except Saddam himself.”

Nixon, has authored “Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein” about his experience as an agent assigned by CIA to question Saddam Hussein.

“The one or two core concerns for the Americans was to identify whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction after being the grounds for why we invaded Iraq, and the locations of where they were hidden,” Nixon said.

Nixon has gone on record saying he believed the US “got it wrong” on that front.

“I believe this was embarrassing because what they were looking for wasn’t existent, but just a pretext. They were looking for whatever they could to sustain their arguments, ignoring and ditching whatever contravened it”.

Nixon said Hussein was very cooperative during interrogation and believed most of what he said to be true.

On invading Kuwait being a ‘headache’ As for the secrets and motives behind his invasion of Kuwait, Nixon stated: “Saddam admitted it was a mistake even though he was not a type of person who would concede he was in the wrong... When we started discussing the issue, he held his head in his hands saying: ‘I suffer from a severe headache as a result of this issue’”.

Nixon told Al Arabiya that he believed Washington was in total bewilderment with George Bush’s administration lack of interest on Middle East issues, which applied to Iraq and Kuwait.

“If he (Saddam) knew the US would send 50,000 to confront his army, and form an international coalition to kick him out of Kuwait and adopt a Security Council resolution denouncing Iraq, and impose sanctions on him, I’m confident, he would not have opted to invade in the first place. A path he said as taken to teach Kuwait a lesson,” Nixon said.

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein kisses the Holy Koran moments after addressing the court during his trial in Baghdad, 06 December, 2005. (AFP)

Concerning the attack on Halabja, inhabited by majority of Iraqi Kurds, Nixon noted: “This topic drew ire from Saddam, which enraged him and he lost his temper and litreally frightened me. He said Halaja’s decisions was not at his behest and he requested that I direct this question to Nizar al-Khazraji, who was the field commander in charge of the Anfal military operation at the time.”

Nixon called it a “grave mistake” when asked his opinion regarding the United States handing over Saddam to his opponents who formed a government following the invasion.

“I believe it was a grave mistake, I felt extreme humiliation by the way he was treated. We are all aware that Saddam’s trial, after his arrest, would likely end up with a death sentence. He, more than anyone else, was conscious of this fact. I believe, his trial and execution would have been an indication for Iraqis for the rule of law and the way their country would move forward,” Nixon said.

The Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein were both bulwarks again Islamic extremism. Stupid Jimmy Carter knocked off the Shah. Then stupid George Bush II knocked off Saddam.

So now we have ISIS. And now we have Islamic extremism worldwide.

The only question left is who did more damage, Carter or Bush II? I vote for Bush II, without any hesitation. Bush II did more than just remove an obstacle to the caliphate. He got a lot of people killed in the process.

I will now retreat to my underground bunker while the Bush apologists post about how Saddam had all those WMDs, WMDs that the Bush administration could did not find.

And no, pictures or rumors don’t count. If we had really found WMDs, Bush and Cheney would have called a news conference to brag about it. But there was no news conference.

The Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein were both bulwarks again Islamic extremism.

The Shah of Iran was, Saddam Hussein most certainly was NOT.

Saddam's red-headed general al Dhouri was the guy who cultivated islamic extremists on behalf of the regime, bringing them in and directing Saddam to act to appeal to them, including adopting shariah law...before 9/11.

The regime funded and armed Mullah Krekar's Ansar group as a means of attacking the Kurds in the north. Ansar's group was later absorbed by Jordanian terrorist Zarqawi's organization. According to regime documents from the Harmony database, the regime had a relationship with islamic extremists based in London.

Stupid Jimmy Carter knocked off the Shah.

Carter's stupidity did undermine the Shah, but he was not the one who ultimately did the toppling. That honor goes to the USSR and to Saddam Hussein who supported the communists who joined with islamists to overthrow him.

Then stupid George Bush II knocked off Saddam.

Nothing wrong with that- Saddam Hussein was harboring Abu Nidal and his terrorist group; Saddam was also harboring the guy behind the cell that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. And, Saddam was harboring both of the future cofounders of ISIS - Zarqawi and his end-times islamicist General al Dhouri. Zarqawi had at least two cells in Iraq before the US led invasion, one based directly in Baghdad that consisted mostly of Egyptians... the other near the border with Iran in the north that was associated with the European network of al Qaeda that operated out of Milan...the same bunch, as I recall, that was recorded by Italy joking before 9/11 about getting airliner parts as souvenirs...and the same bunch which was harbored by Syria as Syria [supported no doubt by allies Russia and Iran] attempted to keep the insurgency in Iraq alive in advance of the surge by importing recruits from Europe. Saddam was also funding Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines at the time they were having a field day abducting and decapitating tourists there, including Americans.

So now we have ISIS.

ISIS was there all along, just under another name. It was driven out in the Anbar awakening, only to return because the Obama admin practically invited them back in by withdrawing our troops prematurely.

And now we have Islamic extremism worldwide.

We've had islamic and arabic extremism worldwide since 1979. Nicaraguan Sandinsta terrorists and the PLO even hijacked an airliner together. Cuba trained Libyan, Algerian and Palestinian terrorists for years and years [in addition to the nonislamic IRA] and the Russians imported islamic and assorted revolutionaries for training at their Patrice Lumumba U for ages.

Strange that you don't mention Clinton or Obama, the former for his inaction against rising terrorism such as the 1998 US embassy bombings ...and cowardice in Somalia... which bin Laden cited - along with Reagan's withdrawal from Lebanon - as the proof that terrorism works and the inspiration for the 9/11 attacks. Obama is singularly responsible for the greatest number of civilian casualties by opening the way for ISIS to swarm out of Syria into Iraq acquire and hold the territory and resources to not just sustain a local fight but also to expand into other continents.

I will now retreat to my underground bunker

Good idea.

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