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Saddam was convinced US forces would never invade Iraq: Report
New York, Sept 08: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was apparently convinced that American forces would never invade Iraq and oust him from power, a media report said today quoting US officials familiar with the accounts of captured members of the former dictator`s regime.
New York, Sept 08: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was apparently convinced that American forces would never invade Iraq and oust him from power, a media report said today
quoting US officials familiar with the accounts of captured members of the former dictator's regime.
High-ranking former Saddam Hussein aides have told US interrogators that he believed the only assault President George W. Bush would ever launch against Iraq was the kind of low-risk bombing campaign that the Clinton administration used in the former Yugoslavia, US defence and security sources told a weekly.
Saddam Hussein was also confident that France and Germany would pressure the Americans to retreat from this course, leaving Iraq shaken but him still in power, the report said. Even after American divisions assembled on Iraq's borders, Saddam Hussein, recalling the first Gulf War, thought US ground forces would only go after suspected unconventional weapons sites, scud missile launchers and military bases, the magazine said quoting the sources.
US officials were quoted as saying that this account of Saddam Hussein's misunderstanding of American intentions could explain the haphazard way in which the regime defended itself and fell apart early in the American onslaught. It might also shed light on why Saddam's information minister continued to deny the regime was in peril even as US forces entered Baghdad, the magazine said. Bureau Report
Saddam Hussein was also confident that France and Germany would pressure the Americans to retreat from this course, leaving Iraq shaken but him still in power, the report said. Even after American divisions assembled on Iraq's borders, Saddam Hussein, recalling the first Gulf War, thought US ground forces would only go after suspected unconventional weapons sites, scud missile launchers and military bases, the magazine said quoting the sources.
US officials were quoted as saying that this account of Saddam Hussein's misunderstanding of American intentions could explain the haphazard way in which the regime defended itself and fell apart early in the American onslaught. It might also shed light on why Saddam's information minister continued to deny the regime was in peril even as US forces entered Baghdad, the magazine said. Bureau Report