Saddam More Pathetic Than Previously Thought

Daisy · Mar 14, 2006

originally posted by ScottJ
Yeah. That was working real well. Saddam had continued to oppress Iraq... and the latest evidence (recordings of his inner circle) demonstrates that he had both an active WMD program and was waiting for the air to clear so he could expand it. (BTW, I gave this possibility before these tapes came out and the anti-Bush crowd here scoffed). He even referred to future WMD terrorism against the US in the context of discussing his own secret capabilities.
Click to expand...

This sounded important, so I googled for the link myself. I believe the New York Times broke the story, but their new policy won't keep the article online (for free) for long.

Even as U.S. Invaded, Hussein Saw Iraqi Unrest as Top Threat

<snip>
Ever vigilant about coups and fearful of revolt, Mr. Hussein was deeply distrustful of his own commanders and soldiers, the documents show.

He made crucial decisions himself, relied on his sons for military counsel and imposed security measures that had the effect of hobbling his forces. He did that in several ways:

¶The Iraqi dictator was so secretive and kept information so compartmentalized that his top military leaders were stunned when he told them three months before the war that he had no weapons of mass destruction, and they were demoralized because they had counted on hidden stocks of poison gas or germ weapons for the nation's defense.

¶He put a general widely viewed as an incompetent drunkard in charge of the Special Republican Guard, entrusted to protect the capital, primarily because he was considered loyal.

¶Mr. Hussein micromanaged the war, not allowing commanders to move troops without permission from Baghdad and blocking communications among military leaders.

<snip>

Despite the lopsided defeat his forces suffered during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, Mr. Hussein did not see the United States as his primary adversary. His greater fear was a Shiite uprising, like the one that shook his government after the 1991 war.

<snip>

Mr. Hussein did take some steps to avoid provoking war, though. While diplomatic efforts by France, Germany and Russia were under way to avert war, he rejected proposals to mine the Persian Gulf, fearing that the Bush administration would use such an action as an excuse to strike, the Joint Forces Command study noted.

In December 2002, he told his top commanders that Iraq did not possess unconventional arms, like nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, according to the Iraq Survey Group, a task force established by the C.I.A. to investigate what happened to Iraq's weapons programs. Mr. Hussein wanted his officers to know they could not rely on poison gas or germ weapons if war broke out. The disclosure that the cupboard was bare, Mr. Aziz said, sent morale plummeting.

To ensure that Iraq would pass scrutiny by United Nations arms inspectors, Mr. Hussein ordered that they be given the access that they wanted. And he ordered a crash effort to scrub the country so the inspectors would not discover any vestiges of old unconventional weapons, no small concern in a nation that had once amassed an arsenal of chemical weapons, biological agents and Scud missiles, the Iraq survey group report said.

Mr. Hussein's compliance was not complete, though. Iraq's declarations to the United Nations covering what stocks of illicit weapons it had possessed and how it had disposed of them were old and had gaps. And Mr. Hussein would not allow his weapons scientists to leave the country, where United Nations officials could interview them outside the government's control.

Seeking to deter Iran and even enemies at home, the Iraqi dictator's goal was to cooperate with the inspectors while preserving some ambiguity about its unconventional weapons — a strategy General Hamdani, the Republican Guard commander, later dubbed in a television interview "deterrence by doubt."

That strategy led to mutual misperception. When Secretary of State Colin L. Powell addressed the Security Council in February 2003, he offered evidence from photographs and intercepted communications that the Iraqis were rushing to sanitize suspected weapons sites. Mr. Hussein's efforts to remove any residue from old unconventional weapons programs were viewed by the Americans as efforts to hide the weapons. The very steps the Iraqi government was taking to reduce the prospect of war were used against it, increasing the odds of a military confrontation.

Even some Iraqi officials were impressed by Mr. Powell's presentation. Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaish, who oversaw Iraq's military industry, thought he knew all the government's secrets. But Bush administration officials were so insistent that he began to question whether Iraq might have prohibited weapons after all. "I knew a lot, but wondered why Bush believed we had these weapons," he told interrogators after the war, according to the Iraq Survey Group report.

<snip>

Source: NYTimes: 3/12/2006: Michael R Gordon and Benard E Trainor (linkie)
Click to expand...

There is a declassified exerpt from U.S. military's Joint Forces Command on Foreign Affairs (linkie) available - I haven't read it yet myself. It's probably worth archiving for future reference.

emeraldctyangel · Mar 20, 2006

Should they change it then, to "Saddam lied and people died"?

Following his trial on crimes against humanity, he is at least a bit entertaining when he claimed the other day he was the Head of State and then the judge corrected him, 'You are a defendent in a criminal trail'. I was waiting for him to tell the court to (again) go to H3ll.

Daisy · Mar 20, 2006

There is a certain irony that he no longer had the WMDs, yet lacked the proof of their destruction. But it was Bush's unseemly rush to war that curtailed the inspections that may very well have uncovered Saddam's embarrassing secret.

BTW, welcome back, eca! It's been a while. I hope you've been well.

Saddam More Pathetic Than Previously Thought

Daisy New Member

emeraldctyangel New Member

Daisy New Member

Useful Searches

Saddam More Pathetic Than Previously Thought

Daisy New Member

emeraldctyangel New Member

Daisy New Member