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Interview with Simon Henderson
Aired September 23, 2002 - 14:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a recent magazine report suggests that the U.S. actually had a hand in creating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's power. It was the cover story for "Newsweek." Now, that report is in dispute.
Simon Henderson authored a 1991 biography of Saddam Hussein. He joins us to argue against some of the report's stated facts -- Simon, you did -- you wrote the biography on Saddam Hussein. Plain and simple, do you think he is a thug like everyone says he is?
SIMON HENDERSON, BIOGRAPHER: Yes, very much a thug. More than that, he is a leader of a street gang. That is the way you should look at him. He knows Iraq very well, and he controls those -- the streets, the area of Iraq through fear.
He doesn't know the area beyond his few -- his neighborhood, and that is where he is a danger to the rest of the world, because he is still prepared to try and exert his influence there.
PHILLIPS: Now, this recent "Newsweek" article talks about how the U.S. created this -- quote-unquote -- "monster," but you disagree with that. You don't think the U.S. played a hand in letting Saddam Hussein have a lot of lag time, shall we say, to build weapons of mass destruction and become the man that he is.
HENDERSON: No. I wrote my biography which came out in 1991 based on research which I was following Iraq for much of the '80s, which is much of the time when he was developing superweapons, as I called them then, now called weapons of mass destruction. And the contribution of the U.S. to Saddam's Iraq was very little, indeed.
Relations -- diplomatic relations had been cut in '67, at the time of the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab states, and they weren't reestablished at a formal level until 1984, and it really didn't start any level of cooperation until 1986, and even then it was very low-level stuff, but it was worth doing as a diplomatic ploy, because up until that time, the Soviet Union had been Iraq's dominant supplier, and anything that the United States could do to undercut some of the Soviet Union's position was, to my mind, worth trying.
PHILLIPS: But the U.S. did back Iraq quite a bit with this war -- with its war against Iran, Iraq-Iran War, intelligence, military- type support. You are saying that it was barely anything?
HENDERSON: Well, it's overstated. I mean, the amount of the equipment, military equipment which came from the United States to Iraq was, I think, just 50 helicopters, and they weren't actually supplied to the Iraqi military. I think they were supplied to the Iraqi electricity industry with the purpose of inspecting overhead pylons.
Now, if the -- the Americans knew that some of them might be used for military purposes, but they would have to had to be armored and armed before they could have been used for that purpose. The amount of munitions and military equipment which was coming from the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc states, from China, was enormous.
The American contribution, in percentage terms, was two or three percent.
PHILLIPS: Simon, I am told we have to wrap this up. But I do have to ask you this, and that is, do you think Saddam Hussein will use weapons of mass destruction against the United States?
HENDERSON: If you push him into a corner, he will lash out unless you get to him first.
PHILLIPS: Simon Henderson, straight and to the point. We appreciate it, sir.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired September 23, 2002 - 14:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a recent magazine report suggests that the U.S. actually had a hand in creating Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's power. It was the cover story for "Newsweek." Now, that report is in dispute.
Simon Henderson authored a 1991 biography of Saddam Hussein. He joins us to argue against some of the report's stated facts -- Simon, you did -- you wrote the biography on Saddam Hussein. Plain and simple, do you think he is a thug like everyone says he is?
SIMON HENDERSON, BIOGRAPHER: Yes, very much a thug. More than that, he is a leader of a street gang. That is the way you should look at him. He knows Iraq very well, and he controls those -- the streets, the area of Iraq through fear.
He doesn't know the area beyond his few -- his neighborhood, and that is where he is a danger to the rest of the world, because he is still prepared to try and exert his influence there.
PHILLIPS: Now, this recent "Newsweek" article talks about how the U.S. created this -- quote-unquote -- "monster," but you disagree with that. You don't think the U.S. played a hand in letting Saddam Hussein have a lot of lag time, shall we say, to build weapons of mass destruction and become the man that he is.
HENDERSON: No. I wrote my biography which came out in 1991 based on research which I was following Iraq for much of the '80s, which is much of the time when he was developing superweapons, as I called them then, now called weapons of mass destruction. And the contribution of the U.S. to Saddam's Iraq was very little, indeed.
Relations -- diplomatic relations had been cut in '67, at the time of the Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab states, and they weren't reestablished at a formal level until 1984, and it really didn't start any level of cooperation until 1986, and even then it was very low-level stuff, but it was worth doing as a diplomatic ploy, because up until that time, the Soviet Union had been Iraq's dominant supplier, and anything that the United States could do to undercut some of the Soviet Union's position was, to my mind, worth trying.
PHILLIPS: But the U.S. did back Iraq quite a bit with this war -- with its war against Iran, Iraq-Iran War, intelligence, military- type support. You are saying that it was barely anything?
HENDERSON: Well, it's overstated. I mean, the amount of the equipment, military equipment which came from the United States to Iraq was, I think, just 50 helicopters, and they weren't actually supplied to the Iraqi military. I think they were supplied to the Iraqi electricity industry with the purpose of inspecting overhead pylons.
Now, if the -- the Americans knew that some of them might be used for military purposes, but they would have to had to be armored and armed before they could have been used for that purpose. The amount of munitions and military equipment which was coming from the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc states, from China, was enormous.
The American contribution, in percentage terms, was two or three percent.
PHILLIPS: Simon, I am told we have to wrap this up. But I do have to ask you this, and that is, do you think Saddam Hussein will use weapons of mass destruction against the United States?
HENDERSON: If you push him into a corner, he will lash out unless you get to him first.
PHILLIPS: Simon Henderson, straight and to the point. We appreciate it, sir.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
