2023-07-29 23:40:58
George Piro, a Lebanese-American special agent, was chosen to interrogate Saddam Hussein. The then dictator of Iraq had been found hiding in a hole in December 2003, nine months after the US invasion of the country.
At the time, President George W. Bush ordered the invasion on the grounds that the dictator was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
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For seven months, the FBI agent talked to Saddam in prison. It took several hours trying to extract information that would confirm the story sold by the Americans.
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“In my first meeting with Saddam, within 30 seconds, he knew two things about me,” he reported in an interview with CNN’s Peter Bergen. “I said my name, and he immediately said, ‘You are Lebanese.’ I told him that my parents were Lebanese, and then he added, ‘You are a Christian.’
Formal interrogations took place once or twice a week, but Piro saw Saddam daily. “It was five to seven hours individually,” he said. The aim was to develop trust with the dictator. “We talked about everything. My goal was just to get him talking.”
According to Piro, Saddam wanted to be considered one of the greatest Arab Muslim leaders in history. “In his mind, he was the third greatest Arab warrior,” the agent described.
Piro said that on his 67th birthday, Saddam saw Iraqis on TV celebrating the fact that they were not obliged to celebrate the dictator’s birthday, as was the case annually. “And it had a significant emotional impact on him. It affected him, it made him depressed.”
US invasion of Iraq
Dictator Saddam Hussein was executed in December 2006 | Photo: reproduction
Saddam revealed that he was not surprised by the US invasion in March 2003.
“Initially, he didn’t think we were going to invade. He was under the impression that we were going to carry out air strikes,” noted Piro.
“That’s why he was defiant until September 2002, when he changed his stance and allowed weapons inspectors into Iraq. He didn’t realize until November of that year that war was inevitable.”
weapons of mass destruction
During the period the agent spent with Saddam, they didn’t talk about weapons of mass destruction until after five months of interrogation.
In June 2000, Saddam made a speech claiming that the country had weapons of mass destruction. This was the beginning of suspicions against the dictator.
“So what he told me was that, of course, Iraq didn’t have the weapons of mass destruction that we suspected it had,” said the former agent. “And when he told me about that speech, he revealed that his biggest enemy was not the United States or Israel. His biggest enemy was Iran, and he told me he was constantly trying to balance or compete with Iran.”
“Saddam’s biggest fear was that if Iran discovered how weak and vulnerable Iraq had become, nothing would stop them from invading and taking over southern Iraq. So his goal was to keep Iran at bay.”
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The two countries fought an eight-year conflict in the 1980s, resulting in border disputes over political and religious issues.
According to interrogation, the dictator purposely was misleading or ambiguous on the matter to repel the threats. Saddam’s intention at the time was not to let the Iranians realize that Iraq had lost military capability because of US sanctions.
“He bluffed his biggest enemy into believing he was as powerful and dangerous as he was in the 1980s.”
Trial of Dictator Saddam Hussein
Much of the information extracted by the agent during interrogations served as the basis for Saddam’s trial, such as crimes against the Iraqi people.
“We all understood that, at some point, he would have to face justice for the atrocities he committed,” Piro highlighted. “He admitted to all the crimes.”
The agent reinforced that “Saddam was one of the most brutal dictators of our time and was responsible for some of the most horrific atrocities in history.”
The dictator was executed in December 2006. The hanging was broadcast on Iraqi state television.
“We talked about his execution because he knew he would be convicted and killed,” he added. “For him, his death would be to repair or redeem his image. He wanted to top the scene of being pulled out of the hole where he was captured by American soldiers. Some labeled him a coward for not resisting or fighting.”
The story will become a book
After interrogating Saddam, Piro rose to high-ranking positions in the FBI. He retired last year as a special agent. Now he is writing a book about his long interrogations with the Iraqi dictator.
“Saddam told me that I got to know him better than his two sons because I ended up spending more time with him than his sons,” he concluded.
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