Fbi Agent Says Saddam Cried At Last Meeting

[Elphaba]

In book, FBI agent says Saddam Hussein cried at last meeting

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Tuesday, November 13th 2007, 11:37 AM

WASHINGTON - After confessing to slaughtering 180,000 Kurds and plotting to build a doomsday nuke, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was so upset when his FBI interrogator left for home that he cried like a baby.

FBI Special Agent George Piro whipped out two Cuban Cohibas - Saddam's favorite cigar - and they smoked on the patio behind his cell at Baghdad's airport.

"When we were saying bye, he started to tear up," Piro recalled in the new book "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack."

The self-effacing G-man was hardly surprised - he had spent nearly a year carefully becoming Saddam's best friend in a successful ploy to extract confessions from the notorious brute.

Piro's inside account of spending up to seven hours a day, every day, for eight months with Saddam is revealed in the new book by journalist Ronald Kessler.

Piro, then 36, began grilling Saddam in early 2004.

Instead of bright lights, loud music or waterboarding, the Beirut-born Arabic speaker - who immigrated to the U.S. as a teen - built a rapport with the dictator nabbed in a spider hole. He treated him with respect and took care of his every need.

On his birthday, Piro showed Saddam news clippings showing that Iraqis no longer celebrated the date. But then the agent gave him baklava Piro's Lebanese mother sent him in Baghdad.

It Doesn't Take Torture To Get Saddam To Talk

Elphaba

[prisonchaplain]

Elpha, is it wrong to stop short of torture, but to use scary interrogation techniques in order to obtain information that is time-sensitive (we know they're planning to blow up a building in Chicago in 3 days, but which one, for example?)

I'm not saying the answer is yes. There has to be a line somewhere. Most Americans agree that outright torture is wrong. But, what of those "gray areas," when we know 100s or 1000s of lives may be in imminent danger?

[Moksha]

Chaplin, do you see any hard and fast moral principles that need to be observed in this regard? Also, would there need to be a distinction made between the torturous interrogation of someone suspected of having knowledge of a plot or crime, and someone being interrogated to extract a confession? Finally, were those Geneva Convention people just a bunch of wusses or were they trying to outline a viable way of conducting ourselves?

[prisonchaplain]

Chaplin, do you see any hard and fast moral principles that need to be observed in this regard?

I do agree with the current administration's stance that actual permanent physical damage or disfiguration is torture. The article I just read on waterboarding causes me to question it--since it quite often leads to permanent psychological damage.

Also, would there need to be a distinction made between the torturous interrogation of someone suspected of having knowledge of a plot or crime, and someone being interrogated to extract a confession?

Yes. From what I've read about "waterboarding," it would clearly be over the line for seeking a confession. It is at best questionable, when seeking information about a pending plot or capital crime.

Finally, were those Geneva Convention people just a bunch of wusses or were they trying to outline a viable way of conducting ourselves?

The Geneva Convention is extremely important. It's not canon, but in the secular world, it's pretty close. We never ignore it, and we skirt its limits only in the most dire of circumstances.

[mountainrider]

.....but what you don't know and will never know is what Sadaam didn't tell the FBI agent. Maybe another means would have made him talk.....Sadaam was not a stupid man and you don't think he knew what the FBI was doing to him? I suspect he told this FBI guy what he wanted to know because he knew there was no way out of his predicament. At least he had all his fingers when the noose was put around his neck.

[boyando]

The reverse of this is when a young officer, shoots a gun, next to the head, but not pointing it at the person who has the information of were the enemy is planing an ambush, and the officer is court marshaled, for getting information in a "mean" way. Some times, time is of the essences.

By the way, the officer said that he would do it again, if it meant saving some of fellow soldiers.

[a-train]

In my opinion, torture is never necessary. Looking for confessions or information that is needed in a timely manner doesn't change the situation.

In many movies depicting American's at war, the enemy is a bloodthirsty murderous people, but the Americans show restraint and give care to their POWs. I wish that wasn't just a movie.

If we wish to improve the standing of the United States in the eyes of the world, we will only do it with benevolence and charity. Subverting the law with offshore prison camps and un-American treatments will only further the cause of those who seek our destruction.

Our popularity and support throughout the world and with the LORD will only diminish as we abandon the principles of our constitution, the value of humanity, and the morality and ethics given us by our fathers. Doing so will never boulster national security, and suggesting an acception should be made in the name of national security is to suggest that creating enemies will boulster peace.

-a-train

[prisonchaplain]

In my opinion, torture is never necessary. Looking for confessions or information that is needed in a timely manner doesn't change the situation.

We have information that a terrorist cell is going to blow up a bridge in a certain city, between 3:30 and 4:30PM. There are three bridges in the area, and it is now 3:05PM. The bomb is expected to kill a minimum of 800 people, and could kill as many as 5000?

With 14 seconds, those subjected to waterboarding panic, and there is a 70% chance that the technique could rendor the information that will allow us to defuse the bomb in time. There is also a 70% chance that using this technique will mean the victim suffers recurring nightmares and develops a fear of running water.

Do we do it?

It's a tough call, but needing information "in a timely matter," certainly does change the situation.

[Moksha]

<div class='quotemain'>

In my opinion, torture is never necessary. Looking for confessions or information that is needed in a timely manner doesn't change the situation.

We have information that a terrorist cell is going to blow up a bridge in a certain city, between 3:30 and 4:30PM. There are three bridges in the area, and it is now 3:05PM. The bomb is expected to kill a minimum of 800 people, and could kill as many as 5000?

With 14 seconds, those subjected to waterboarding panic, and there is a 70% chance that the technique could rendor the information that will allow us to defuse the bomb in time. There is also a 70% chance that using this technique will mean the victim suffers recurring nightmares and develops a fear of running water.

Do we do it?

It's a tough call, but needing information "in a timely matter," certainly does change the situation.

Do it anyway and perhaps feel really bad when we learn afterwards that the torturee had no knowledge of the events in question?

[Outshined]

I personally don't believe that torture is relaiable; people will say anythihng when they get desperate.

Also, I don't care if Saddam "cried"; the evil he performed called for more than hollow tears.

[Elphaba]

In my opinion, torture is never necessary. Looking for confessions or information that is needed in a timely manner doesn't change the situation.

In many movies depicting American's at war, the enemy is a bloodthirsty murderous people, but the Americans show restraint and give care to their POWs. I wish that wasn't just a movie.

If we wish to improve the standing of the United States in the eyes of the world, we will only do it with benevolence and charity. Subverting the law with offshore prison camps and un-American treatments will only further the cause of those who seek our destruction.

Our popularity and support throughout the world and with the LORD will only diminish as we abandon the principles of our constitution, the value of humanity, and the morality and ethics given us by our fathers. Doing so will never boulster national security, and suggesting an acception should be made in the name of national security is to suggest that creating enemies will boulster peace.

-a-train

That was profound, a.

And so completely logical I do not understand how anyone can fail to comprehend how dangerous, and obscene, it is for our country to torture human beings, regardless of who they are. I could go on and give the reasons why, but you've already done so, quite elegantly I might add.

Elphaba

[prisonchaplain]

While I'm not sold on the reliability of borderline interrogation tactics (we all agree that outright torture is wrong), in the extreme time-sensitive scenarios, such as I created above, if the odds were more than 50-50, and the detainee was a known enemy combatant (no uniform, no treaties, no rules of engagement on their side), the temptation to try and hope s/he spills the beans would be most understandable.

[Outshined]

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

[Josie]

Where were Sadam's tears when he tortured men, women, and children without remorse or sorrow and why should we change or try to change the law of another country? He received what the law of that country and the majority of the people in that country demanded.

Even the Bible states that if you take a life, you give your life in its place, and he slaughtered masses, not just one.

[pam]

<div class='quotemain'>

In my opinion, torture is never necessary. Looking for confessions or information that is needed in a timely manner doesn't change the situation.

We have information that a terrorist cell is going to blow up a bridge in a certain city, between 3:30 and 4:30PM. There are three bridges in the area, and it is now 3:05PM. The bomb is expected to kill a minimum of 800 people, and could kill as many as 5000?

With 14 seconds, those subjected to waterboarding panic, and there is a 70% chance that the technique could rendor the information that will allow us to defuse the bomb in time. There is also a 70% chance that using this technique will mean the victim suffers recurring nightmares and develops a fear of running water.

Do we do it?

It's a tough call, but needing information "in a timely matter," certainly does change the situation.

To that I would say call in Jack Bauer.

[Princess3dward]

In book, FBI agent says Saddam Hussein cried at last meeting

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Tuesday, November 13th 2007, 11:37 AM

WASHINGTON - After confessing to slaughtering 180,000 Kurds and plotting to build a doomsday nuke, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was so upset when his FBI interrogator left for home that he cried like a baby.

......

The self-effacing G-man was hardly surprised - he had spent nearly a year carefully becoming Saddam's best friend in a successful ploy to extract confessions from the notorious brute.

Part of me believes torture woiuld be more humane....

[Elphaba]

Part of me believes torture woiuld be more humane....

How so?

Elphaba

[Princess3dward]

It just makes me so sad when peoples emotions are played with.

To me anyway, that would hurt more than a beating...

[Moksha]

Do you think with enough encouragement, we could have gotten Saddam to confess to a barage of unsolved crimes within the United States?