Report: Saddam Tells Interrogators 'No WMD'

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) denied during the initial interrogation after his capture that Iraq (news - web sites) possessed weapons of mass destruction, Time magazine reported on Sunday.



Citing a U.S. intelligence official in Iraq, the report said that when asked if his government had such weapons Saddam replied: "No, of course not. The U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us."


The news magazine reported that the official, who read a transcript of the interrogation of the former Iraqi president, said the interrogator asked: "If you had no weapons of mass destruction, then why not let the U.N. inspectors into your facilities?"


Saddam's reply: "We didn't want them to go into the presidential areas and intrude on our privacy."

more.................

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=12&u=/nm/20031215/ts_nm/iraq_saddam_interrogation_dc

[FreakinDJ]

1. Never knew the reason

but I knew their were no weapons of mass destruction

[jenk]

2. the reason was...

the reason he didn't let the inspectors in too deep was because he was afraid they might be spying for the americans or israeli's, you know how paranoid saddam is.

[Just Me]

15. "Paranoia",..what a term of art,...*LOL*

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. Yep...it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. Heh. (n/t)

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. It's not like it hasn't happened before.

The U.N. inspectors have turned out to be spies in the past.

Two things always bothered me about what Bush did. First, he went as far as anyone could to determine there was no WMD BEFORE he attacked. In other words, he had a chance to explore his enemy's vulnerabilities before he made a surprise attack. And when he did attack, he had one plan: That was to kill Saddam in that first Shock and Awe strike. When it didn't happen, it turned out to be one of those ugly executions that required more than one bloody whack. By the time it's over, you've become as barbaric as the person you're trying to execute.

[LiberalFighter]

24. All to get revenge for them trying to off his stupid dad

[jmowreader]

25. Two holes in your argument

First, he didn't go as far as anyone could to determine there was no WMD before he attacked. Quite the contrary; he decided there were WMD before the inspectors went in then decided the lack of WMD in the inspections meant Saddam had either hidden or moved (or, after "Mission Accomplished," that he had destroyed before the war) the WMD.

Second, that was no surprise attack. He sounded off with "we're comin' to getcha" for months. If you don't destroy the WMD we're coming. If Saddam, Uday and Qusay don't surrender/leave Iraq/whatever by this time, we're coming. If the whole Ba'ath Party doesn't self-immolate, we're coming. If all Iraqis don't convert to Southern Baptist by Tuesday, we're coming. He kept piling on more and more conditions that you knew they weren't going to meet. Then when Saddam called the Americans and said look, I'll give up to prevent the war from happening, where do we meet, Bush decided to attack anyway because there just had to be a loophole in there.

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. Okay, two holes in the argument, but the result is still a bloody mess.

Out, out! Damn spot!

[TryingToWarnYou]

26. Actually, we did send spies...

We stuck some CIA guys in as inspectors and they were discovered if I'm not mistaken. It's one of the reasons they cut back on the inspections.

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. That's correct.

*

[54anickel]

36. Yes, and a few DUers have posted in the past the the inspections

were to verify there were no WMD, scouting to see if the coast was clear. If you caught much of the early days of the war with all the embedded reporters you may have noticed the troops were not in their "chemical suits" in many of those early skirmishes, nor when they rolled into Baghdad even though the media kept talking about this being the time Saddam would most likely unleash his chemical assault. You would just see those talking heads reporting from the rooftops of Baghdad putting on their gas masks for that "dramatic effect".

[rocktivity]

5. He was trying to protect his privacy?

Surely that's something the Bush regime can understand!


rocknation

[ozymandius]

10. OMG! Does this mean that the war was predicated on a lie???

If this is the gem of all blurbs to be released, why release this one?

[PurityOfEssence]

3. How's this getting out?

The administration can't possibly want him to have a chance to truly talk; what's the scoop? If the locals get their mitts on him, they might just find out all sorts of greasy little details of our doings; are we going to let that happen?

This little blurb just floors me.

[Rose Siding]

13. Trial balloon?

Maybe they are checking on public reaction to what he says?

[kalian]

4. What?

Makes no sense...
They capture the guy today (suppossedly) and they have already
"interrogated" him this thoroughly? :shrug:

I think its total bs...

[KoKo]

6. It's Bizarre! How were Time & Newsweek on top of this when he was just

taken out of his "hole" yesterday? And, why say he had no WMD. This whole thing is very bizarre.

[The Zanti Regent]

9. TIMID and NEWSPEAK are lying

What these two pieces of shit are writing are lies predetermined by Karl Rove.

[tkmorris]

11. That makes no sense

Why would Rove want them to say that?

[Wickerman]

16. Don't forget the "instant DNA" confirmation

Who knows how long ti actually takes to get accurate DNA confirmation?

5 Day turnaround
Based on the length of rDNA used, Laragen currently provides two tests of bacterial identification by 16S rDNA and one test of fungal identification by 28S rDNA. We use both AppliedBiosystems Microseq(Current Version of Microseq has about 1286 500 bacterial sequences , 1211 full bacterial sequences and 1069 fungal D2 sequences ) and Genebank databases to identify the unknown bacteria and fungi. The advantages of bacterial and fungal identification by rDNA sequences are fast turnaround time and accurate results even for problematic bacteria and fungi. All reports include electropherograms and the consensus sequence of the tested bacterial/fungal sequences, the alignment of top 10 matches at species or genus level and a phylogenetic tree with these top 10 sequences. Our turnaround time is 5 business days.

Apparent DNA identification of Saddam a hurry-up job, expert says
In routine practice, a commercial lab that is handling thousands of DNA samples develops a DNA profile from a given sample in a month or so, said Mark Stolorow, executive director of Orchid Cellmark forensic DNA labs, located in Germantown, Md., and elsewhere.

For an extra fee, that can be hurried up to five days, he said. Focusing on just a single sample, such a lab could probably do the job in something under 24 hours, and a lab that has long been preparing to identify a particular person like Saddam could probably do it even faster, he said.

"I don't know what
the bare minimum is," he said

[san antonio]

14. First question

I'm not sure it would take to long to get to "okay, you got us, we have no freaking clue where you put your bombs. do you have weapons or not?"

[0007]

20. A shave and a hair cut and a bath and three interviews...

not counting the interrogations. Unbelievable!

Hope all this back fires on junior's stinking ass.

[MASSAFRA]

7. Bush's Response

Saddam is lying. WHo are you going to believe him or me?

[caledesi]

8. Well I not going to believe you, G W, because you have a history

of lying.

[salinen]

12. No,no,no

No F.Way Time or Newsweek would be near him, or anyone who's been near him this soon!

[alittlelark]

34. Saddams 'capture' a few months ago....

Perhaps they were telling the truth..until the Pentagon claimed it was untrue. SH looks to be brain-fried. Few would debate that the CIA has been working w? it for 50+/- years.
Isn't his capture convenient!!!! I mean, gosh golly - we established the Iraq War Crimes Court less that a week ago!! And Clark is about to testify at the Hague ( *( * )*!#$>%$#). In CLOSED COURT! Heaven forbid we see a REAL hero put a despot behind bars


But then, I' m just paranoid. Coincidences DO happen, RIIIIIIGHT!!!???

[bpilgrim]

17. they keep saying he said he didn't let the inspectors in...

but he DID!

what's up wit dat?

i think they are gonna try to keep the lie alive that saddam just snowed us, because he thought that would protect him. :crazy:

peace

[Skip Intro]

23. Didn't bush force inspectors OUT to freedom bomb Iraq into democracy?

Forgetting the bush regime's efforts to thwart inspections and to smear Blix, didn't the inspectors - on the ground in Iraq - have to leave to avoid being caught in bush's bestowment of democracy to Iraq?

There is, yet again, no "there" there with this gang. I don't fully believe any of this "saddam captured" bs. After 9*11, fool me once...won't get fooled again...

[Military Brat]

18. He was afraid we would stumble onto his "shadow government"

There's nothing a dictator protects more fiercely than his hidden secrets which help him hold onto power. Surely bush** can understand that.

This "capture" is turning into the same bizarre guessing-game as the "Did I just see Air Force One" fiasco and the Jessica Lynch "rescue." There is something so weird about the event.

Possibly Saddam is dying from something (cancer?). Hurry up and trot him out to prove whatever. Remember Andrew Card said the WMD issue was moot.

[0007]

22. Is Mr. Card saying a kangaroo court is in order?

Asshole!

[Cocoa]

27. this is for show

they know there are no WMD.

[IndianaGreen]

32. Yep, the Bush regime always knew that WMDs was a lie

Will they bring the troops home now? Nope!

Will they let the Iraqis choose their own government? Nope!

Will the resistance continue? Yep!

[kodi]

30. memo to Bush: when the gods wish to punish you they answer your prayers

now we will either find WMD or not, and if not, there will be hell to pay when it is revealed that bush took us to war based upon a lie.

[Rose Siding]

31. What if the military is controlling this and NOT bush/admin??

Could that happen? Could the military or special ops have busted this open without admin control?

[Fleshdancer]

33. the only thing I like about the Bush admin

is that you know they'll royally fuck it all up at some point. They've been screwing up fast every time they get cocky...just wait and enjoy the show.

[imax2268]

35. I'm already

loaded up on Kettle Corn popcorn and Sierra Mist...should be quite entertaining...