A former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein has said that America "got it wrong" about the former Iraqi dictator.
John Nixon, in his new book, has laid out accounts of his many conversations with the Iraqi leader and has declared that the US was critically mistaken about their intervention in Iraq on multiple levels.
The former CIA agent said that the CIA's perception, particularly, was wrong about Hussein. He added that the agency was also incorrect about his attitude to use chemical weapons in the disputed region. Nixon said that the federal agency was not up to terms with Hussein's personal habits either, nor his health and his involvement in running Iraq.
Nixon also criticised the George W Bush-led government and America's invasion of Iraq saying that the former US president just heard "what he wanted to hear" on the Iraq issue.
The former agent said that when he asked Hussein whether he ever thought of using chemical weapons against the American troops in Saudi Arabia, the former dictator replied: "We never thought about using weapons of mass destruction. It was not discussed. Use chemical weapons against the world? Is there anyone with full faculties who would do this? Who would use these weapons when they had not been used against us?"
Nixon said that he was taken aback by Hussein's response and admitted that it was "not what we had expected to hear". He said that America had made such a grave miscalculation about invading Iraq because the "spirit of listening and understanding was not there."
Reports state that America justified its invasion on Iraq by citing that the country was set to use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the American troops. However, according to Nixon, Hussein calculated America's interest in Iraq and told him, "You are going to fail. You are going to find that it is not so easy to govern Iraq."
When asked why he thought so, Hussein told Nixon that it was because the Americans did not understand the people of Iraq, they were not familiar with their mindset, their history, their language and even their weather.
After three years of being in captivity after being arrested by the American Special Forces, the Iraqi dictator was subsequently executed in 2006. However, what Hussein said has remained eerily accurate, the country has been riled in chaos ever since he was removed from power and over 200,000 people have died ever since till now, the Independent reported.
