History Forum / General / British History / January 2008

Hmmmmmmm...

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas
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CBS 60 Minutes

(CBS)  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....

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.

Saddam still wouldn't admit he had no weapons of mass destruction, even when
it was obvious there would be military action against him because of the
perception he did.  Because, says Piro, "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," he
tells Pelley.

He also intended and had the wherewithal to restart the weapons program.
"Saddam] still had the engineers.  The folks that he needed to reconstitute
his program are still there," says Piro.  "He wanted to pursue all of WMD…to
reconstitute his entire WMD program."  This included chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons, Piro says.
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And that's why Saddam and his sons needed to be taken out.

DSH

Lux et Veritas et Libertas

Deus Vult

Vires et Honor