A new book from John Nixon, a CIA analyst who interrogated Saddam Hussein, claims that pretty much everything the Americans believed about him was wrong.
'Debriefing The President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein' tells the true story of the CIA interrogation of the world's most wanted man; from first seeing him after he was pulled from his underground bunker to getting the truth about his regime and whether he was in possession of weapons of mass destruction or not.
Credit: PA
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Nixon writes that speaking to Hussein "turned our assumptions upside down." When asked about his ownership of any weapons of mass destruction, the pretext for the US invasion into Iraq, Hussein's response was 'simply to mock' the interrogators.
He allegedly said: "You found a traitor who led you to Saddam Hussein. Isn't there one traitor who can tell you where the WMDs are?", before adding: "Iraq is not a terrorist nation. We did not have a relationship with bin Laden, and did not have weapons of mass destruction and were not a threat to our neighbours. But the American President (George W. Bush) said Iraq wanted to attack his daddy and said we had 'weapons of mass destruction'."
Nixon goes on to write that this revelation shocked the entire team.
He also writes that Hussein denied any involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, saying that he actually believed that Iraq and America would become closer after 9/11 as they would need help from his government to fight fundamentalism.
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The Chilcot report, released earlier this year, found that British Prime Minister Tony Blair "deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by Hussein" and that there was no "imminent threat from Hussein."
Thousands of British and US men and women died in the Iraq war, between 2003 and 2011, as well as thousands of Iraqi civilians.
'Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein', by John Nixon, is published on December 29 and priced at £16.99.
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