- Iraq's former chief of military intelligence has described
how previous wars, sanctions and Saddam Hussein's fear of betrayal brought
his military to its knees even before the US attacked.
-
- General Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib, who is now
in US custody, also dismissed the idea that there were weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq, but said nobody had been able to convince Saddam to
hand over the documents that would have proven it.
-
- Military officials refused to say what they planned to
do with the general. The Pentagon said it was too early to say whether
he might be tried for war crimes.
-
- But in an extraordinary interview with the Los Angeles
Times in the hours before his surrender, he portrayed a regime in which
Saddam made "staffing decisions based on his fears of betrayal, even
when they undermined his military's effectiveness", in the newspaper's
words.
-
- The 56-year-old claimed he was "just following orders"
during his 35-year career in the army.
-
- "This was the military - you move up from position
to position," Naqib said. "I was just following orders. But I
will not answer whether I believed in the regime."
-
- He became intelligence chief in June last year and he
felt he was on board "a sinking ship". But he did not leave because:
"I would be afraid about everything. No Iraqi could have left the
military unless the government wanted them to. It's not a matter of a person's
wish."
-
- He also denied doing anything wrong. "What is their
proof that I am a war criminal?" he asked.
-
- Urged to surrender by a relative, Naqib apparently refused
because he did not want to be the first, but gave himself up after hearing
that others had done so.
-
- The general surrendered on Wednesday - the same day US
forces seized Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al-Tikriti, the air defence commander,
Mohammed Mahdi al-Salih, the former trade minister, and Salim Said Khalaf
al-Jumayli, who ran the American desk for Iraqi intelligence.
-
- Asked if Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Naqib
was "sharply dismissive gesturing that there was nothing to it",
the paper reported. Refusing to give UN inspectors all the documents to
prove that was "Saddam Hussein's decision - no one could have any
effect on him".
-
- Naqib said Saddam had failed to rebuild the Iraqi army
after being devastated in the 1991 Gulf war. "The army for 12 years
stayed as it was. There was no replacement of weapons, no modernisation.
It was more than 50% degraded from 1990." Defeat was inevitable once
the coalition forces reached the capital, he said.
-
- "After the American army entered the main positions
in Baghdad - the airport, the palaces - it was over," he said.
|
