Saddam didn't expect U.S. Invasion

[JediAthos]

I found this interesting little tidbit on both MSN and Yahoo today:

NEW YORK - Saddam Hussein allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction to deter rival Iran and did not think the United States would stage a major invasion, according to an FBI interrogator who questioned the Iraqi leader after his capture.

 

Saddam expected only a limited aerial attack by the United States and thought he could remain in control, the FBI special agent, George Piro, told CBS’s “60 Minutes” program in an interview to be broadcast Sunday.

 

“He told me he initially miscalculated ... President Bush’s intentions,” said Piro. “He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as we did in 1998 ... a four-day aerial attack.”

 

“He survived that one and he was willing to accept that type of attack,” Piro said.

 

In 2003, a close aide of Saddam's told The Associated Press that Saddam did not expect a U.S. invasion and deliberately kept the world guessing about his weapons program, although he already had gotten rid of it.

 

Keeping up the illusion of weapons program

Saddam publicly denied having unconventional weapons before the U.S. invasion, but prevented U.N. inspectors from working in the country from 1998 until 2002 and when they finally returned in November 2002, they often complained that Iraq wasn’t fully cooperating.

 

Piro, a Lebanese-American who speaks Arabic, debriefed Saddam after he was found in an underground hideout near his home city north of Baghdad in December 2003, nine months after the U.S. invasion.

 

Piro said Saddam also said that he wanted to keep up the illusion that he had the program in part because he thought it would deter a likely Iranian invasion.

 

“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,” Piro told Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes.”

 

Piro added that Saddam had the intention of restarting an Iraqi weapons program at the time, and had engineers available for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

 

Kuwait invasion after insult to Iraqi women

Piro also mentioned Saddam’s revelation during questioning that what pushed him to invade Kuwait in 1990 was a dishonorable swipe at Iraqi women made by the Kuwaiti leader, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah.

 

During the buildup to the invasion, Iraq had accused Kuwait of flooding the world market with oil and demanded compensation for oil produced from a disputed area on the border of the two countries.

 

Piro said that Al Sabah told the foreign minister of Iraq during a discussion aimed at resolving some of those conflicts that “he would not stop doing what he was doing until he turned every Iraqi woman into a $10 prostitute. And that really sealed it for him, to invade Kuwait,” said Piro.

[Totenkopf]

If he were still alive.....he could chalk it up to the law of unintended consequences.

 

$10 prostitutes, huh? Guess it's a good thing the guy didn't directly address SH's own mother.

[Rev7]

[align=center]^^^^^^^^^^^^^^[/align]

lol

 

As for the other stuff, I am not sure I quite understand what his (Saddam's) reasons were. Is that some sort of game that he was playing?! Not a very 'fun' game if you ask me.

[Corinthian]

$5 says this doesn't deter anyone from calling Bush a warmonger.

[Rev7]

hmmm, lots of people, IMO, still can't get over the fact that we have gone to war, and haven't been able to get out for some time now. Yes, I know that it affects many of our lives by being in the Middle East, and it has certainly affected mine becasue my brother was stationed there for some time. But that is for another thread.

[Totenkopf]

$5 says this doesn't deter anyone from calling Bush a warmonger.

 

 

That sounds suspiciously like a sucker's bet.

 

@Rev-hope your bro gets through it intact and has no probs readjusting when he returns.

[Corinthian]

Paypal stands ready, but I've got until this thread reaches Page 2, by which time True_Avery, Achilles, and every other Bush-hater under the bloody sun will have posted in this thread. Good luck.

[Totenkopf]

I mean that anyone taking your bet would have to be a sucker for the reasons you mentioned.

[mur'phon]

says this doesn't deter anyone from calling Bush a warmonger

 

So because Saddam wanted the world to believe he had WMD's, Bush should loose his status as warmonger in chief?

[Totenkopf]

Well.......looks like you didn't even make it to the second page w/o a complaint.

[mur'phon]

Just defending the local jerks money, no need to thank me:xp:

[SilentScope001]

So because Saddam wanted the world to believe he had WMD's' date=' Bush should loose his status as warmonger in chief? [/quote']

 

There is NO EVIDENCE the FBI Agent is correct. No evidence whatsoever. Besides, he's from the FBI! FBI agents are paid to lie about their recent investigations, so he could be lying! LYING, I tell ya! It's all part of the MSM conspriacy to make Saddam look like a hero by lying about WMDs to deter an Iranian invasion when he really had them hiding in Flordia!!1!

 

The title didn't really interest me, but the actual text of the article did. Eh.

[Web Rider]

$5 says this doesn't deter anyone from calling Bush a warmonger.

 

Which would be MORE correct now since if the CIA couldn't figure this stuff out, we need to fire them all.

 

Somehow, I'm not surprised at the news though. It's a rather sound strategy.

[John Galt]

Paypal stands ready, but I've got until this thread reaches Page 2, by which time True_Avery, Achilles, and every other Bush-hater under the bloody sun will have posted in this thread. Good luck.

 

I don't particularly hate bush, but I can't help feeling betrayed after he flagrantly discarded his campaign promises. He said that he would pursue "a more humble foreign policy," which is something we need. Now we are being alienated more and more from the rest of the "free" world daily. He also said he would downsize government, yet he presided over the largest increase in the size of government in recent history.

 

He was rather charismatic during his first presidential run, but I think most of that is gone now. I've only seen him once, and that was at a good distance. He was walking across the lawn of the White House and playing with the scottie dog. I waved at the sniper on top of the white house.

[Corinthian]

Too late, Kids, Mur'phon blew it for you. Good job, Mur.

[Rev7]

@Rev-hope your bro gets through it intact and has no probs readjusting when he returns.

Thanks, actually he has been in the states for eh...maybe coming up on four months. He had been stationed in Iraq several years ago, and came back, went back, then just recently came back after being stationed there for about a month, because he was suffering from Post dramatic stress, but he is doing just fine know!

[Web Rider]

Too late, Kids, Mur'phon blew it for you. Good job, Mur.

 

Awww, you're cute, you can be condescending. Lets see....what was I thinking....oh yeah, nobody really cares.

 

Fact is: intelligence says Saddam DIDNT have WMDs since after the whole first gulf war deal. Bush said he did. Went to war with a guy who was playing cold war with Iran, which means actual, valid, correct intelligence was ignored in favor of playing soldier.

 

Bush wants to go fight on the front? Be my guest, but don't go get my friends and family killed over BS.

[Totenkopf]

Actually, perhaps we should bring all our soldiers home from *everywhere* and put them on the US/Mexican border. Mexico would make a stink, but who the hell cares. Afterall, anyone look at Mexico's southern border policies? The added benefit might be that other nations would have to increase their own defense budgets to protect their own interests, thus giving us some relief on the economic front. If we were completely autarkical, it might make for an interesting "experiment".

 

@Rev--does he talk much about it to you? How does he feel about the whole thing, being as how he's put in the meatgrinder? Outside of the code pink wackos and their like minded compatriots, how does he feel about the level of support he sees at home for what they are doing?

[John Galt]

Actually, perhaps we should bring all our soldiers home from *everywhere* and put them on the US/Mexican border. Mexico would make a stink, but who the hell cares. Afterall, anyone look at Mexico's southern border policies? The added benefit might be that other nations would have to increase their own defense budgets to protect their own interests, thus giving us some relief on the economic front. If we were completely autarkical, it might make for an interesting "experiment".

 

That's exactly what I've been saying. That IS the traditional function of the US army. I mean, remember where John Pershing was literally the month before he was appointed to lead America's first expedition to Europe? Down on the border, chasing Villa.

 

Besides, think of all the money we'd save from not having to supply and keep up all those bases in those 130+ countries...

[RobQel-Droma]

Fact is: intelligence says Saddam DIDNT have WMDs since after the whole first gulf war deal. Bush said he did. Went to war with a guy who was playing cold war with Iran, which means actual, valid, correct intelligence was ignored in favor of playing soldier.

 

Bush wants to go fight on the front? Be my guest, but don't go get my friends and family killed over BS.

 

It wasn't just Bush, dude. A lot of people believed Saddam had WMDs. Even some of today's prominent democrats that love to bash Bush right and left about Iraq.

 

And besides, there was reasonable enough suspicion to think that he might have them, or be developing them. Let's see: he's had them before, he's used them before, he's resisted calls for him to stop his weapon's programs and acted like he wasn't doing anything...... guess we should just wait until Saddam does his own 9/11?

[Corinthian]

What? Web Rider, all the intelligence said he had WMDs. Logic said he had WMDs. Common sense said he had WMDs. But what we didn't count on was deliberate disinformation by Hussein himself.

[Tommycat]

Realistically, what happened was Saddam expected the US to be a toothless tiger. He was wrong.

 

Try this experiment at home kids(please don't, doing so could cause death or serious injury):

Tell your neighbor that you intend to blow him up. Pretend to be making a bomb to do it. Then when the police try to come in to verify, tell them they can't search the whole house, only narrowly defined areas. What's gonna happen? My guess is you go to jail, or if you hold out long enough, not make it to jail.

 

That is basically what Saddam did, and he got caught. He could have saved a lot of lives(and maybe even his own) by surrendering when the invasion started and allowing inspectors back in. But he didn't.

[mimartin]

All the released intelligence did say Saddam had WMDs, even the intelligence the U.S. Government decided to make up said Saddam had WMDs or was trying to get WMDs. Even when the CIA got it right, they were quoted incorrectly by the White House (see Valerie Plame).

 

We seemed to believe every shred of evidence that said Saddam had WMDs no matter the source (Like the source for the bioweapon labs mounted on trucks that came from an Iraqi defector that the Defense Intelligence Agency had all ready discredited labeling him an “a liar and a fabricator”. The Defense Intelligence Agency’s label of the source of this information was not shared with Colin Powell by the CIA for some unknown reason). Yet we dismissed all creditable evidence that Saddam did not have WMDs that was coming from the people on the ground such as the U.N. Weapons Inspectors and our own Directorate of Central Intelligence Nonproliferation Center.

[Achilles]

^^^^

comments not conforming to generally accepted rhetoric will be ignored

[Totenkopf]

^^^ Yeah, regardless of the type of rhetoric (left/right/lib/cons/ad nauseam...). Most people have a tendency to believe their own spin and "commonly accepted rhetoric" over that of others.