Interrogation of Saddam Hussein

This article is part of a series about Saddam Hussein
President of Iraq Early life Family Saddamism Ba'athist Iraq Affiliations Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Iraq-based Ba'ath Party Revolutionary Command Council Political offices President of Iraq (1979–2003) Prime Minister of Iraq (1979–1991, 1994–2003) Vice President of Iraq (1968–1979) Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (1979–2003) Regional Secretary of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party (1964–1966, 1979–2006) Secretary General of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party (1992–2006) Presidency 1959 Mosul uprising Ramadan Revolution 17 July Revolution First Iraqi–Kurdish War Yom Kippur War Second Iraqi–Kurdish War 1974–75 Shatt al-Arab conflict 1975 Algiers Agreement 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge Iran–Iraq War Iraqi invasion of Iran Dujail massacre Anfal campaign Halabja massacre Iraqi invasion of Kuwait Gulf War missile attacks on Israel missile attacks on U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia 1991 Iraqi uprisings 1999 Shia uprising 2003 invasion of Iraq Battle of Baghdad Firdos Square statue destruction Human rights record Al-Qaeda link allegations Timeline Nuclear weapon program Operation Opera Post-2003 Capture Interrogation Trial Execution Reactions Elections and referendums 1995 Iraqi presidential referendum 2002 Iraqi presidential referendum Books Blood Quran Zabibah and the King The Fortified Castle Men and the City Begone, Demons
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The interrogation of Saddam Hussein began shortly after his capture by U.S. forces in December 2003, while the deposed president of Iraq was held at the Camp Cropper detention facility at Baghdad International Airport.^[1] Beginning in February 2004, the interrogation program, codenamed Operation Desert Spider, was controlled by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents.^[1] Standard FBI FD-302 forms^[1] filed at the time were declassified and released in 2009 under a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request filed by the National Security Archive.^[2] Saddam, identified as "High Value Detainee #1" in the documents, was the subject of 20 "formal interviews" followed by five "casual conversations."^[2] Questioning covered the span of Saddam's political career, from 2003 when he was found hiding in a "spider hole" on a farm near his home town of Tikrit, back to his role in a failed 1959 coup attempt in Iraq, after which he had taken refuge in the very same place, one report noted.^[2][3]

Detailed questioning covered the Iran–Iraq War and his use of chemical weapons against Iranians.^[1] Saddam denied repeated assertions by his interrogator of a current weapons of mass destruction capability in Iraq,^[4] yet had resisted UN weapons inspections because he "was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for his refusal to allow U.N. inspectors back into Iraq," according to the reports.^[5] The former leader reportedly maintained that he did not collaborate with Al-Qaeda, as had been suggested by Bush administration officials in support of its policy of regime change in Iraq.^[6] Saddam said he feared Al-Qaeda would have turned on him, and was quoted calling Osama bin Laden a "zealot."^[3] The face-to-face sessions were conducted by George Piro, an FBI supervisory special agent (SSA), one of only a few FBI agents who spoke Arabic fluently.^[1] Saddam was led to believe that his interrogator was a high-ranking U.S. government official with direct access to U.S. President George W. Bush, when in reality he was in a relatively low-level position at the time.^[7][8] Piro discussed the interrogation process during an interview on the television news magazine 60 Minutes in January 2008.^[8] In an official statement, a senior FBI official in Piro’s chain of command characterized the perceived success of their interrogation of Saddam Hussein as one of the agency's top accomplishments in its 100-year history.^[8][9]