Saddam Bluffed About WMD's According to FBI Files

[Herb Schaffler]

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein bluffed about WMDs fearing Iranian arsenal, secret FBI files show

BY [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link.
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated Wednesday, June 24th 2009, 4:59 PM
Pool/Getty Images Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gestures during his trial in 2006.

[LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. - [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. feared [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. 's arsenal more than a [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. attack, and even considered asking [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. "to protect" [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. from its neighbor, once secret [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. files show.



The FBI interrogations of the toppled tyrant - codename "Desert Spider" - were declassified after a [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. request.
The records show Saddam happily boasted of duping the world about stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. And he consistently denied cooperating with [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. 's Al Qaeda.
Of all his enemies, Iraq's ex-president - who insisted he still held office during captivity - hated Iran most.
Asked how he would have faced "fanatic" Iranian ayatollahs if Iraq had been proven toothless by [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. weapons inspectors in 2003, Saddam said he would have cut a deal with Bush.
"Hussein replied Iraq would have been extremely vulnerable to attack from Iran and would have sought a security agreement with the U.S. to protect it from threats in the region," according to a 2004 FBI report among the declassified files.
Without Bush's help, "Iraq would have done what was necessary," he told [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. in his [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. cell.
That didn't mean an alliance of evil with [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. , he insisted months into what he called a "dialogue" with Piro.
The interrogations unfolded in 2004 after his capture the previous December at the same farm where he said he'd hidden after orchestrating a failed 1959 coup plot.
Saddam denied ever laying eyes on the "zealot" Bin Laden, bent on striking the U.S.
He said he "did not have the same belief of vision" as the terror kingpin.
Saddam never sought Al Qaeda assistance because he feared the terror group would turn on him. To protect his country, the more likely ally "would have been [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This No Hillary For President Forum Link. ."
Saddam also said the U.S. "used the 9/11 attack as a justification to attack Iraq" and "lost sight of the cause of 9/11."
The U.S. "was not Iraq's enemy," just its policies, Saddam explained.
Asked about WMDs, Saddam insisted: "We destroyed them. We told you."
"By God, if I had such weapons, I would have used them in the fight against the U.S," he added.