FBI Interviews Reveal Saddam Feared Iran More Than U.S.

Newly released interviews show that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was less afraid of the U.S. threat to Iraq than the one posed by its neighbor, Iran.

By: AP | WSAV News 3
Published: July 03, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Newly released interviews show that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was less afraid of the U.S. threat to Iraq than the one posed by its neighbor, Iran.
He told the FBI that's why he falsely let the world believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Otherwise, Saddam said he would be showing weakness to rival Iran.
The details from Saddam's final interviews are in FBI interview notes made public by a research group, the National Security Archive. The group got the FBI summaries through a Freedom of Information Act request and posted them on its Web site.
In the interviews, Saddam also said that the farm where he hid from U.S. forces was where he'd sought refuge 44 years earlier. That was after Saddam had taken part in a failed attempt to kill Iraq's president.
Saddam also dismissed Osama bin Laden as a "zealot."