Saddam expressed fear of Iran

WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- Before being hanged, Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein told the FBI he let the world think he had weapons of mass destruction because he feared Iran, records show.

The Washington Post reported Thursday declassified accounts of several interviews the FBI conducted with the deposed Iraqi leader also said he had no interaction with al-Qaida and considered the leader of the terrorist group, Osama bin Laden, "a zealot."

Saddam told his American questioners he even considered seeking a "security agreement" with the United States to protect Iraq from regional threats.

Saddam denied regularly using a body double to avoid being assassinated, calling that notion "movie magic, not reality." However, he said he rarely slept in the same location two days in a row and had used a telephone only twice since 1990, the Post said.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq six years ago was based, then-President George W. Bush said, on the belief Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and likely had links to al-Qaida.

The Post obtained the summaries of 20 formal interrogations and five more casual conversations the FBI had with Saddam in 2004 under the Freedom of Information Act.

Saddam was hanged in December 2006.