- BAGHDAD -- 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.
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- 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.
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- So far he has lost almost a stone thanks to his new fitness
regime, said General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of
staff.
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- "My understanding is he's lost about 12lbs, on purpose,
and he's worked out, I think twice a day," Gen Myers told the US television
network Fox News. "He's had more time to work out than I have."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- In that time he has been allowed no visitors, except
occasionally from Red Cross officials.
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- 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 Ba'athists turned guerrilla
fighters. But from the former dictator himself, information was harder
to extract.
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- He revealed little about his weapons programme or the
insurgency that has gripped Iraq, senior US officials involved in his custody
told the New York Times yesterday.
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- Yet Saddam did provide an often perplexing commentary
on the origins of the Ba'ath party and modern Iraqi history.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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 programme.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Throughout the questioning he acted as he had during
his courtroom appearance, as if he remained president of Iraq, and gave
up little information.
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- "We got very little, I would say almost nothing,"
one former senior official with the occupation authority told the New York
Times.
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- 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.
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- Some US officials have suggested the former dictator
was even having 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.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1252959,00.html
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