Declassified documents show Saddam Hussein wanted alliance with U.S.

[Locutus]

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein feared Iran's arsenal more than a U.S. attack, and even considered asking ex-President George W. Bush "to protect" Iraq from its neighbor, once secret FBI files show.

The FBI interrogations of the toppled tyrant - codename "Desert Spider" - were declassified after a Freedom of Information Act request.

The records show Saddam happily boasted of duping the world about stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. And he consistently denied cooperating with Osama Bin Laden'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 UN 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 FBI Agent George Piro in his Baghdad International Airport cell.

That didn't mean an alliance of evil with Al Qaeda, 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 North Korea."

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.

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[Locutus]

The evidence just keeps coming in as to the lies and deceptions that the Bush administration were engaged in to justify going into Iraq.  They lied to other countries, to Congress, and to the American people. 

[Locutus]

[Palehorse]

Another potential diplomatic opportunity blown to hell in a hand basket. . . 

Clearly we were sold a bill of goods and now we're left to deal with the aftermath, with basically the entire middle-east against us. . .

[me]

Wonder then who used the chemicals against his people and put them in mass in those graves?  Gosh couldn't have been that nice wonderful Sadam......He didn't have any such thing did he? 

[LOsborne]

me, you seem to be addicted to the Straw Man fallacy. Saddam Hussein practicing genocide against the Kurds in 1988 has nothing to do with the state of his armaments in 2002-2003.

You asked: "Wonder then who used the chemicals against his people and put them in mass in those graves?  Gosh couldn't have been that nice wonderful Sadam......He didn't have any such thing did he?" He had the chemicals in 1988. He used them, then.

At least some people in this country tried to pass the Prevention of Genocide Act -- that would cut off U.S. foreign aid to Iraq and impose a trade embargo.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/20/sbm.iraq.galbraith/index.html

The Reagan administration had invested several years cultivating Iraq as an ally against Iran, their mutual enemy, and as a market for U.S. products, including more than $1 billion a year in farm exports.

The Prevention of Genocide Act would end the diplomatic courtship and hurt U.S businesses. ... In the end, the House of Representatives killed Galbraith's sanctions bill with backing from the Reagan administration. Politics had trumped principle.

Now, had the U.S launched the military campaign against Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the late 80's, your position might hold water. However, using the Kurdish atrocity for an excuse to attack in 2003 is exactly that -- an excuse.

[me]

Some of those bodies sure didn't look like they had been buried for 10yrs or more.  Bush was operating from Clinton's intelligence information and from what he was told.  All the BS in the world and news people diggin' and searchin' isn't gonna change that.  If it hadn't been for 9/11 there would have been more time to get things sorted out but there wasn't.  If Bush hadn't done what he did and the attacks had continued ya'll would still be bitchin' about that.  He did what he thought best and until he was elected again and the Dems started their bash fest everything was fine and hunky dory.  What was Sadam gonna say at his trial?  "Sure I had weapons of mass destruction and would have used them?"   Hell no, he was tryin' to save his sorry butt.  Do you really think Sadam would have told the truth at his trial?  Give me a break. 

[Sandy Eggo]

You better wake up

[LOsborne]

Bush was operating from Clinton's intelligence information and from what he was told.  All the BS in the world and news people diggin' and searchin' isn't gonna change that.  If it hadn't been for 9/11 there would have been more time to get things sorted out but there wasn't.  If Bush hadn't done what he did and the attacks had continued ya'll would still be bitchin' about that. ...

Rather than falling back on your stand-by excuse -- "It's Clinton's fault!" -- why not do a little research to discover what really happened in the intelligence community during the run-up to Bush's war? Here, I'll help.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200401/pollack

Favorite excerpt:

As Seymour Hersh, among others, has reported, Bush Administration officials also took some actions that arguably crossed the line between rigorous oversight of the intelligence community and an attempt to manipulate intelligence. They set up their own shop in the Pentagon, called the Office of Special Plans, in order to sift through the information on Iraq themselves. To a great extent OSP personnel "cherry-picked" the intelligence they passed on, selecting reports that supported the Administration's pre-existing position and ignoring all the rest.

Most problematic of all, the OSP often chose to believe reports that trained intelligence officers considered unreliable or downright false. In particular it gave great credence to reports from the Iraqi National Congress, whose leader was the Administration-backed Ahmed Chalabi.

Oh, one more thing. Saddam Hussein had NOTHING TO DO with the 9/11 attacks. Even Dick "Dick" Cheney admits that now.

[Locutus]

Exactly.   The OSP manufactured intelligence. 

[Locutus]

One more thing; I'm surprised at how many of Bush's war supporters don't even know that the OSP even existed, let alone what its purpose was.