Listening to the radio podcast of "To the Point" today, I heard a guest of the show refer to the 60 Minutes interview with the FBI interrogator, George Piro, who systematically drew information from the former Iraqi dictator through the FBI's rapport-building interrogation techniques.
How had I missed news about this interview?
This afternoon I read the transcript of the interview at the 60 Minutes website. Piro's interrogation discovered the following facts:
1. Saddam Hussein's WMDs had been mostly destroyed by the UN in the 90's, and by 1998 Iraq had unilaterally completed the task.
2. Hussein was not friendly with Osama bin Laden, and the feeling was mutual.
Iraq had not been completely transparent about its weapons program because Iran, its neighbor and long time foe, could have taken advantage of a weakened Iraqi state.
Apparently Saddam had no connection with al-Qaeda and bin Laden, and had even refused to cooperate with them. He viewed bin Laden as a fanatic.
This information must have been told to President Bush while the U.S. Military was conducting a thorough search for the weapons and legitimate ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. We all know that this information was not enough to change President Bush's mind that the invasion was the right thing to do.
You can read the transcript of the 60 Minutes interview at the following link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/24/60minutes/main3749494.shtml
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