According to the recent report of an FBI agent who interviewed Saddam Hussein after the former leader of Iraq was captured in 2003, Iraq wanted to trick the rest of the world into believing that it had weapons of mass destruction to intimidate Iran:
Saddam Hussein let the world think he had weapons of mass destruction to intimidate Iran and prevent the country from attacking Iraq, according to an FBI agent who interviewed the dictator after his 2003 capture.
According to a CBS report, Hussein claimed he didn’t anticipate that the United States would invade Iraq over WMD, agent George Piro said on “60 Minutes,” scheduled for Sunday broadcast.
“For him, it was critical that he was seen as still the strong, defiant Saddam. He thought that (faking having the weapons) would prevent the Iranians from reinvading Iraq,” said Piro.
Kind of like Israel, but in reverse, I guess—trying to make a deterrent out of making everybody think you have WMDs when you actually don’t.
The report will show up on tonight’s 60 Minutes, but I plan to be watching the rebroadcast of the 2008 U.S. figure skating championships, which will be sure to hold my interest for much longer, for two (related) reasons. One, who the hell remembers or cares about weapons of mass destruction? WMDs as a justification for war with Iraq went out of fashion about six months after the invasion, when none were found. At that point, it became all about turning Iraq into a democracy, ending the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, and other reasons that seemed to come out of the blue. So I have to wonder how much impact this is going to have on either the political policy or the public consciousness of the United States. (Though I might look for Bush to throw in a veiled dig or two at this report in tomorrow night’s State of the Union speech). And second, this report doesn’t change anything: Hussein was already executed back in 2006, the U.S. military is still bogged down in a war in Iraq with no end in sight, and at this point what does it matter whether the initial justification was right or not? Not that it would have changed anything back during the run-up to the war years ago anyway…
Update: Think Progress has a video and transcript of the original interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes here.
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28 January 2008 at 1:24 pm
Pingback from Xyre : Bush’s State of the Union is tonight. So what?
27 January 2008 at 8:43 pm
George Vreeland Hill
Bush fell for all the lies, as did the people who protect our (U.S.) country.
The Republican Party still backs this WMD lie, and it is proof that our government had no clue about what Iraq was doing, so they all had to lie themselves.
The result was a complete mess.
This war must be on terror, and not in Iraq.
Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
Bush and “his people” are full of bs.
We should never vote for a Republican again.
I am,
George Vreeland Hill
28 January 2008 at 2:00 am
Shamen
Listen,why is the government still trying to point the finger of blame elseswhere? Gen. Colin Powell all but assured Congress that there were mobile death labs,death powder,and all sorts of yellow cakes etc,when he made the case for going to war. This had nothing to do with Saddam Husseins posturing,but more to do with the vendetta that the currnet president had against him. A very sad chapter in American history that will once again,change the political landscape of the Middle East,but this time to the detriment of the west. One has to wonder just how many boys will grow into real terrorists,thanks to what they have seen take place over the past five years?
28 January 2008 at 4:27 am
Ordinary Joe
This idiotic FBI story is designed to make stupid, ignorant Americans voters to think like this: This terrible and endless war wasn’t Bush’s fault, he’s not a evil liar, because Saddam Hussein “let the world think he had weapons of mass destruction to intimidate Iran and prevent the country from attacking Iraq”
Well, this is for the ignorant imbeciles. Who reads the newspapers know that, before the invasion, the world press showed, so many times, Saddam stating that Iraqwas WMD free. Even Hans Blix, the swedish UN inspector stated that Iraq was WMD free.
Perhaps, the American mainstream media, in fact a big controlled propaganda agency, have censored these statements. Maybe Americans are ignorant about it. But the rest of the world knows, and this stupid interview makes the US image more ridiculous and criminal