Haaretz
Adar 17, 5766
WASHINGTON - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
pretended to have chemical weapons because, among other reasons, he feared
that Israel might attack if it discovered he did not. This is revealed in
a recently declassified internal report by the American military.
The report was compiled from many dozens of interviews with senior
Iraqi officials and hundreds of documents captured by the American forces
during and after the war.
Hussein made the above statement at a
meeting with leaders of the Ba'ath Party, said Ali Hassan al-Majid, better
known as Chemical Ali, to American interrogators. Ali was in charge of
using chemical weapons against the Kurdish forces at the end of the 1980s.
"According to Chemical Ali, Hussein was asked about the weapons
during a meeting with members of the Revolutionary Command Council. He
replied that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) but
flatly rejected a suggestion that the regime remove all doubts to the
contrary," the report states. Ali explained that such a declaration could
encourage Israel to attack, the report says.
The 100-page report
has not been released yet, but some 9,000 words of it are to appear in the
next edition of Foreign Affairs Magazine.
There is a growing
tendency in the U.S. to declassify Iraqi documents captured after the war
and release them. Hundreds of thousands of documents are expected to be
released next week, following an agreement between the intelligence
community, the National Security Council and American lawmakers.
The report details Hussein's reasons for deciding to continue
deceiving the international community into thinking that Iraq had WMD,
despite the fact that such deception could increase the chances of a
military attack on the country.
Last moment
Hussein
did not believe until almost the last moment that the U.S. would send its
forces into Baghdad, the report says. He was much more afraid of
subversive elements in Iraq - mainly the Shi'ites and Kurds - and from
regional powers - mainly Iran but also Israel - than of an American
invasion.
This is why he decided to leave the bridges leading into
Iraq standing, believing he would need them, and to maintain ambiguity
until close to the invasion, causing Western intelligence to believe he
had WMDs.
"Many months after the fall of Baghdad, a number of
senior Iraqi officials in coalition custody continued to believe it
possible that Iraq still possesed WMD capability hidden away somewhere.
Saddam attempted to convince one audience that they were gone while
simultaneously convincing another that Iraq still had them," the report
says.
Senior Iraqi officials told their interrogators that Hussein
had no idea what the true state of the country's weapons was, because
everyone lied to him and refrained from giving him bad news for fear of
being executed.
Hussein's deputy Tariq Aziz told interrogators,
"The people in the military industrial commission were liars. They lied to
you, and they lied to Hussein. They were always saying they were producing
special weapons."
"A captured military industrial commission
annual report of investments from 2002 showed more than 170 research
projects. When Hussein asked for updates on the nonexistent projects, they
simply faked plans and designs to show progress," the report says.
Many in Israeli intelligence still believe Hussein had chemical
weapons, which were transferred to Syria before the war. Israel discussed
this with the Americans, but the latter no longer believe that Israeli
evidence is conclusive on the matter.
The report also describes
how unprepared Iraq was for the American invasion. Many of its commanders
were unsuitable, appointed for political reasons, including Hussein's son.
In addition, the militias Hussein formed to protect his regime were not
trained professionally.