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Making Saddam Speak
Saddam Hussein has finally been caught, but with no letup in the attacks on coalition troops and the Iraqis who are helping them, the clock is ticking to get the former dictator to reveal all his secrets. CIA interrogators are now working on a plan to try to get Saddam to cooperate. "The CIA was given the lead to manage the organization because they have more capacity to do strategic intelligence," said Michael Vickers, a former CIA operations officer. Tactical or battlefield interrogations are normally handled by the military, but "the CIA can bring to bear a lot of psychiatrists, as well as Arabic-speaking operations officers, to do a lot of the sophisticated psychological stuff on Saddam," said Vickers. The expert interrogators will prove useful because officials say Saddamâs grandiose ego has recovered and his defiance has hardened since his humiliating capture over the weekend. "I think the likelihood of Saddam being âbrokenâ is remote," said Jerrold Post, a psychologist who once profiled the former Iraqi leader for the CIA. "In fact, I would guesstimate that pressure to âbreak himâ will prove to be failures." Saddamâs bedraggled appearance when he was captured should not be taken at face value, Post cautioned. "This is a man who, atop that shattered self, underneath has a defiant psychology that has been hardened over the years," he said. "Indeed, part of his image which he hopes to enshrine in history is of the defiant Arab strongman standing up to the West." U.S. officials say there are a variety of methods the CIA will likely try to make Saddam talk. Interrogators may wake him up at odd hours in order to disorient him and weaken him. They may show him torture videos âthe same ones he sent to relatives of his victims â to prove just how strong a case the United States has against him for a trial on charges of crimes against humanity. Posted by: OMER ISHMAIL 2003-12-19 |
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