A defiant, deranged Saddam Hussein is making outrageous statements to CIA interrogators, claiming his government never surrendered - and that he would win by a landslide in new Iraqi elections, The Post has learned.
| They didn't have to surrender. They were trounced. They just quit coming to work in the morning, remember? |
Saddam is also denying that his regime committed atrocities, charging that it was Iran that launched the murderous chemical-weapons attacks on the Kurds in the late 1980s, according to U.S. officials who have been briefed on the bizarre interrogation sessions.
| The Medes and the Persians no doubt gassed their own troops, too... |
Refusing to acknowledge the desperate circumstances in which he finds himself, the imprisoned, egomaniacal ex-tyrant is demanding to be treated with respect, the officials said.
"The ring."
"Eh?"
"Kiss the ring!"
"Oh, shuddup and eat your dinner." |
The Butcher of Baghdad has repeatedly insisted during this week’s sessions that he is still president of Iraq and said his military and government never surrendered during the war. At times, he’s the cocky killer who balks at the simplest orders from his jailers - such as being asked to stand during some of the questioning. "He’s saying things like ’I’d like to sit down now. I’m the president of Iraq. You wouldn’t treat your own president this way,’" said a U.S. intelligence official.
Sources said the American interrogators, in an attempt to break through that hubris, are repeatedly telling him that he is no longer president of Iraq.
| I think the tack I'd take would be to tell him he never was president of Iraq. He's been sick, and he had some hallucinations while the fever was high, but he's getting better now... |
They have also played him videotapes of Iraqis celebrating in the streets at the news of his capture and tapes of the uncovering of mass graves and former torture chambers. "His reply to this is to tell us to go ahead and organize elections and that he’d win big if we did," said a U.S. official.
| "It's an illness, Sammy. It can happen to anyone. They used to call it brain fever. But you're getting better now. You'll soon be cured. Now, let's try and work out the details of those hallucinations. You had a tin hat and a beret? And who was it you thought was head of your elite suicide bombers? — Heh heh! Suicide bombers! That's a good one! Who in the world would blow themselves to smithereens for a... what did you call that party? Baath Party? And somebody'd kill themselves for that idea?... Weird. Here, have another pill. Nurse! I think Mr. Hussein needs another shot!" |
|