Saddam a 'cagey' source for US weapons hunters

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (AFP) - US arms experts seeking to piece together Iraq's prewar weapons program have interrogated a "cagey" Saddam Hussein, appealing to his desire to rehabilitate his name in order to try to pry loose his secrets, a US official said.
The debriefings were conducted by a single FBI agent, who was chosen to gather evidence for trial but also in the belief that having just one person dedicated to Saddam would help establish a bond with the former dictator, said the official.
"This guy, he is a very cagey guy," the official said of Saddam, adding that he had "an exquisite sense of the use of power" and would cut a "compelling" figure on trial.
No promises of leniency were made to get Saddam to cooperate with the weapons hunt led by Charles Duelfer, the head of the Iraq Survey Group who reported to Congress Wednesday on his findings, the official said.
"All we could offer him was an opportunity to help shape his legacy. 'Do you want to be remembered by what these characters around you were describing you as, or would you like to help shape it yourself?' And that was sort of the suggestion," said the official, who was familiar with Duelfer's work.
Saddam was "not loquacious" about Iraq's chemical, biological or nuclear programs, the official said.
But he did talk about the threats Iraq faced as he perceived them, considering Iran to be "a real present danger," and Israel only a secondary threat.
"What he did say was that he was very sensitive to the Iranian program, the Iranian WMD program, and he was going to match them," said the official.
US investigators concluded that Saddam and his associates became convinced that weapons of mass destruction were key to the country's survival after the 1980-88 war with Iran when they were used to repel Iranian invasion attempts.
That view was reinforced in the 1991 Gulf War when the United States decided not to march on Baghdad, a decision the Iraqis attributed to US fear that chemical weapons would be used against their forces.
"In the run-up to the 1991 war, Iraq loaded, dispersed and pre-delegated the authority to use both biological and chemical weapons if the coalition proceeded to Baghdad. The regime believes its possession of WMD deterred the US from going to Baghdad in 1991," Duelfer said in Senate testimony on Wednesday..
After the Gulf War, though, Saddam quickly decided that his top priority would be to end UN sanctions against Iraq, even if it meant deferring his weapons programs. Duelfer concluded Iraq got rid of the bulk of its banned weapons by December 1991.
"After the 1991 war, Saddam established as his prime objective (after survival) the termination of UN sanctions on Iraq, and he weighed all policy actions and steps for their impact on this overarching objective," Duelfer said.
But Saddam was slow to respond to the implications of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, in Duelfer's view.
As late as 2002 he made a speech questioning why Iraq should be forced to give up weapons its neighbors had, alluding to Iran and Israel.
Asked why, if he had no weapons, he made the speech, Saddam said it was to maintain ambiguity, the official said.
Many top Iraqi officials were stunned when Saddam told them on the eve of the war, "By the way guys, we don't have any weapons," the official said.
"We had the opportunity to debrief him, but he naturally had limited incentives to be forthcoming or candid at all," Duelfer said Wednesday of Saddam.
"Nevertheless many of his statements were interesting and revealing," he said. "In the end only he knows many of the vital points. Even those closest to him had mixed understandings of his objectives.
"In fact there was uncertainty among some of his closest advisors about WMD and whether it even existed. It is ironic that when he had the weapons, they saved him. When he did not have them, he was deposed."