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2023-03-19 Iraq
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'At my first meeting with Saddam Hussein, within 30 seconds, he knew two things about me,' says FBI interrogator
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Long — you’ll want a comfortable chair, dear Reader, a cup of coffee (or your preferred equivalent), and a plate of snacks. If you know more about interrogation that I, you may have opinions on the conclusions of FBI interrogator George Piro (Lebanese-American Christian), not to mention CNN interviewer Peter Bergen. A taste: [ShafaqNews] Two decades ago, on March 19, 2003, President George W. Bush ordered the US invasion of Iraq. Bush and senior administration officials had repeatedly told Americans that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was armed to the teeth with weapons of mass destruction and that he was in league with al Qaeda.
These claims resulted in most Americans believing that Saddam was involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks.
People believe lots of things, especially with the aid of the mainstream media. Here at Rantburg we concluded that While Saddam Hussein had included Al Qaeda cadres in Iraq’s terrorism training school at Salman Pak, he intended to use them against the world rather than joining them in their jihad to establish a Sunni caliphate. A year after 9/11, two-thirds of Americans said that the Iraqi leader had helped the terrorists, according to Pew Research Center polling, even though there was not a shred of convincing evidence for this. Nor did he have the WMD alleged by US officials.
Continued from Page 4
US and UK forces defeated Saddam's troops within weeks, but an insurgency sprang up against the invaders, which persisted for years. On December 13, 2003, US Special Operations Forces found Saddam hiding in a one-man-size hole in northern Iraq.
The FBI
 ...Formerly one of the world's premier criminal investigation organizations, something for a nation to be proud of. Now it's a political arm of the Deep State oligarchy that is willing to trump up charges, suppress evidence, or take out insurance policies come election time...
decided that George Piro, a Lebanese American special agent in his mid-30s who spoke Arabic, was the right person to interrogate Saddam. Piro's work ethic was impressive: He would arrive at the FBI gym in downtown Washington, DC, at 6 a.m. for a workout, so he could start on the job at 7 a.m. at his office, which was lined with Middle Eastern history books.
The stakes could not have been higher for the FBI. Piro was under tremendous pressure to find out from Saddam the truth about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and purported ties to al Qaeda. CIA Director George Tenet had famously told Bush that the case that Saddam had WMD was a "slam dunk."
The Iraq War was also sold to Americans as a "cakewalk." Instead, hundreds of American soldiers had already been killed in Iraq by the time of Saddam's arrest.
The CIA first questioned Saddam. And then over a period of seven months, Piro talked to him for many hours a day, with no one else allowed in the interrogation room. He discovered from the Iraqi dictator that no WMD existed and that Saddam only had contempt for the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse......
, the leader of al Qaeda.
The dictator's discussions with Piro confirmed that the Iraq War was America's original sin during the dawn of the 21st century — a war fought under false assumptions, a conflict that killed thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
The war also damaged America's standing in the world and the credibility of the US government among its citizens. Even the official US Army history of Iraq concluded that the real winner of the war in Iraq wasn't America. It was ... Iran.
George Piro, who retired from the FBI in July, is writing a book about interrogating the Iraqi dictator.
After interrogating Saddam, Piro ascended to high-ranking positions at the FBI, retiring in July as the special agent in charge of the Miami field office. Now he is writing a book about his lengthy interrogations of the Iraqi dictator for Simon & Schuster.
As the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War approaches, I spoke to Piro about what some consider the most successful interrogation in FBI history and the aftershocks of the US invasion of Iraq, which are still being felt today.
Our conversation was lightly edited for clarity.
Peter Bergen: Tell me how this all started.
George Piro: I received a call on Christmas Eve, at about 5 o'clock in the evening, from a senior executive in the Counterterrorism Division. And he informed me that I had just been selected to interrogate Saddam Hussein on behalf of the FBI.
Bergen: What was your reaction?
Piro: Panic. Initially — I'll be honest — it was terrifying to know that now I was going to be interrogating somebody that was on the world stage for so many years. It seemed such a significant responsibility on behalf of the FBI. I went to Barnes & Noble and bought two books on Saddam Hussein so I could start improving my understanding of who he was and all the things that were going to be important in developing an interrogation strategy.
I had already been to Iraq once, the first element of FBI personnel to deploy, and I had begun to develop an understanding of Iraqi culture and the Baath Party, which was led by Saddam.
Saddam was born on April 28, 1937, in a small village called al-Ajwa (near Tikrit
...birthplace of Saddam Hussein...
). He had an extremely tough childhood as he did not have a father, and his mother married his uncle, who became his stepfather. Growing up, Saddam and his family were very poor, and initially, he was unable to attend school, but that childhood shaped the man Saddam became.
His childhood instilled in him a deep desire to prove everyone wrong about him and not to trust anyone, but to rely solely on his instincts. As a young man, he joined the Baath Party, and one of his early assignments was to assassinate the then-prime minister. The liquidation attempt failed, and Saddam was forced to flee Iraq. But upon his return, he was seen as a tough guy, an image he would promote throughout his career.
At my first meeting with Saddam, within 30 seconds, he knew two things about me. I told him my name was George Piro and that I was in charge, and he immediately said, "You're Lebanese." I told him my parents were Lebanese, and then he said, "You're Christian." I asked him if that was a problem, and he said absolutely not. He loved the Lebanese people. Lebanese people loved him. And I was like, "Well, great. We're going to get along wonderfully." (Saddam was a Sunni Moslem, while most Iraqis are Shia Moslems.) 
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