Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein (Unabridged)
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Debriefing the President presents an astounding, candid portrait of one of our era’s most notorious strongmen. John Nixon, the first man to conduct a prolonged interrogation of Hussein after his capture, offers expert insight into the history and mind of America’s most enigmatic enemy.
In December 2003, after one of the largest, most aggressive manhunts in history, US military forces captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit. Beset by body-double rumors and false alarms during a nine-month search, the Bush administration needed positive identification of the prisoner before it could make the announcement that would rocket around the world.
At the time, John Nixon was a senior CIA leadership analyst who had spent years studying the Iraqi dictator. Called upon to make the official ID, Nixon looked for telltale scars and tribal tattoos and asked Hussein a list of questions only he could answer. The man was indeed Saddam Hussein, but as Nixon learned in the ensuing weeks, both he and America had greatly misunderstood just who Saddam Hussein really was.
After years of parsing Hussein’s leadership from afar, Nixon faithfully recounts his debriefing sessions and subsequently strips away the mythology surrounding an equally brutal and complex man. His account is not an apology, but a sobering examination of how preconceived ideas led Washington policymakers—and the Bush White House—astray. Unflinching and unprecedented, Debriefing the President exposes a fundamental misreading of one of the modern world’s most central figures and presents a new narrative that boldly counters the received account.
Customer Reviews
Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein
Analytical and enjoyable that had me wanting to continue reading. Insightful perspectives on Saddam Hussein and how the information chain works and doesn’t.
A compelling memoir turned into a term paper
Though this book starts out as a compelling narrative of the early post-war actions of Saddam, It far too quickly veers Into what resembles a dim sophomore’s attempt at mimicking his professor’s views. In addition to oddly treating the murderous psychopath as honest, the author consumes without criticism nearly all of the liberal mythology surrounding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Perhaps the greatest indication of the silliness, is the author’s snide comment that “one could argue” that President Bush was correct to invade Afghanistan. Ultimately, this book misses the opportunity to add to the available information by parroting progressive talking points.