Saddam Hussein Bluffed on WMD's Over Iran

Its an interesting development and it deals a significant blow to the "Bush Lied Soldiers Died" mythology that pretty much laid the basis for the Democrats in 2006 and perhaps even Obama's win in 2008. This isn't a new argument but this is the first time we can trace it back to directly to Saddam Hussein:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein believed Iran was a significant threat to Iraq and left open the possibility that he had weapons of mass destruction rather than appear vulnerable, according to declassified FBI documents on interrogations of the former Iraqi leader.

"Hussein believed that Iraq could not appear weak to its enemies, especially Iran," FBI special agent George Piro wrote on notes of a conversation with Saddam in June 2004 about weapons of mass destruction.

He believed Iraq was being threatened by others in the region and must appear able to defend itself, the report said.

The FBI reports, released on Wednesday, said Saddam asserted that he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for blocking the return of UN weapons inspectors who were searching for WMD.

"In his opinion, the UN inspectors would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq," according to the documents obtained and released by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute.

He was bluffing on WMD's and he thought the United States was bluffing on regime change. Some othe rhighlights:

Saddam, identified as "High Value Detainee #1," shared Bush's hostility toward the "fanatic" Iranian mullahs, according to the FBI records of conversations from February through June 2004 between Saddam and Arabic-speaking agents in his detention cell at Baghdad International Airport.(When I was in theatre I occasionaly went to Baghdad and once or twice I heard stories that Saddam was in this or that place. I don't think he was at Camp Cropper (located in BIAP), which was the high value prison his top men were kept out years ago.)

1. Saddam also denied any connections to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who he called a "zealot," and cited North Korea as his most likely ally in a crunch, according to the documents.
2. He also takes personal responsibility for ordering the launching of SCUD missiles against Israeli targets during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, because he blamed Israel and its influence in the United States for "all the problems of the Arabs," the reports said.
3. During the interviews, Saddam rejects some examples of what he viewed as myths, like his purported use of body doubles. According to the notes, Saddam said he could recall using the telephone only twice since March 1990 and that he communicated primarily through couriers.

In addition Saddam claimed he wanted to sign an alliance with the United States against Iran. Color me skeptical on that one as that would have required the inspections plus massive changes in his country that he must have known he could never carry out.