BAGHDAD, 4 July 2004 — The thinned-out face of Saddam Hussein broadcast from his first courtroom hearing may not have been entirely due to the stress of his impending trial. For in between the interrogations which appear to have yielded little for the coalition, Saddam has been working out in his jail twice a day.
So far he has lost almost a stone thanks to his new fitness regime, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. “My understanding is he’s lost about 12 pounds, on purpose, and he’s worked out, I think twice a day,” Myers told the US television network Fox News. “He’s had more time to work out than I have.”
Apart from the rich brown dye that he appeared to have used on his hair, Thursday’s court hearing gave few clues to what Saddam has been doing since he was captured. For the past six months he has been detained at a secret location, thought to be in the military camp near Baghdad’s airport, although some reports suggested he had been flown out of the country. In that time he has been allowed no visitors, except occasionally from Red Cross officials. A letter written to his family and sent last month was so heavily censored by the US military that it said little. “As for my spirit and morale,” he wrote, “they are high, thanks to the greatness of God. And say hello to everyone.”
Last year one report suggested Saddam was being held in a white-tiled room. On one wall was a poster of the dozens of Iraqi officials from his regime who have been captured or killed, including his two dead sons. On the opposite wall hung a portrait of George Bush.
Immediately after his capture the CIA were ordered to take charge of his interrogation. It now appears they were able to obtain precious little information from their subject.
A personal briefcase found on the evening he was captured held documents that did lead American officers to make new arrests and round up cells of former Baathists-turned guerrilla fighters. But from the former dictator himself, information was harder to extract.
He revealed little about his weapons program or the violence that has gripped Iraq, senior US officials involved in his custody told the New York Times Friday.
Yet Saddam did provide an often perplexing commentary on the origins of the Baath Party and modern Iraqi history. At one stage he explained the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 as necessary in order to keep his army occupied, either an indication of his paranoia or of serious discontent among his officers. During his court hearing the former dictator expressed surprise when he heard the invasion of Kuwait was the seventh charge he faced. “Everyone knows Iraq is part of Kuwait,” he told the judge.
The officials also said they believed Saddam was surprised when the US invaded in March last year and had thought the American administration would be bogged down by debates at the UN over the inspections of his supposed weapons program.
His chief interrogator was an intelligence officer who spoke to him in Arabic. At times there would be one brief question, on other occasions several hours of straight interrogation. Saddam answered only in Arabic and was at one time guarded by reservists from Puerto Rico who were instructed only to speak Spanish in his presence.
At one point Saddam described how he had imprisoned his son Uday in solitary confinement after he had beaten to death someone who had annoyed him by playing music too loudly. Uday was eventually killed, alongside his brother Qusay, by US troops in July last year.
Throughout the questioning he acted as he had during his courtroom appearance, as if he remained president of Iraq, and gave up little information. “We got very little, I would say almost nothing,” one former senior official with the occupation authority told the New York Times.
Eventually the FBI began to play a role in his questioning, suggesting they were trying to help build the court case against Saddam. Around 50 officials from the US Justice Department are in Iraq helping to sift through the evidence against him.
Some US officials have suggested the former dictator was even taking pleasure from the questioning. “He’s a pretty wily guy and he’s not giving much information that I’ve seen. But he seems to be enjoying the debate,” Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, said earlier this year.
