The Iraqi Perspectives Report: Saddam's Senior Leadership on Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Official U.S. Joint Forces Command Report Book

"The fall of Baghdad in April 2003 opened one of the most secretive and brutal governments in history to outside scrutiny. For the first time since the end of World War II, American analysts did not have to guess what had happened on the other side of a conflict but could actually read the defeated enemy's documents and interrogate its leading figures. . . This two-year project has changed our understanding of the war from the ground up."--Foreign Affairs "There are some intriguing new answers in this study by military experts who had access to many former officials in Saddam's regime, along with their files. . . . The most interesting parts of the report show just how dysfunctional and twisted the regime's internal workings had become. The culture of fear was so complete that Saddam's underlings routinely lied to him about almost everything, including the capabilities of his own military forces."--U.S. News & World Report "The report cites captured Iraqi documents that say the Russians had 'sources inside the American Central Command' and that intelligence was passed to Saddam through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad."--Associated Press This Pentagon study takes advantage of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to delve deeply into Saddam's decision-making processes. A declassified version of a secret U.S. Joint Forces Command report, the work is based on thousands of captured Iraqi documents and dozens of interviews with senior Iraqi military and political leaders conducted by a small team of professionals from the Joint Center for Operational Analysis to determine what drove the Iraqis to do what they did. Such a full investigation of Saddam's leadership and its effect on the actions of the Iraqi military goes a long way towards revealing the inner workings of that closed regime and the lessons to be learned from that knowledge. The release of the report has prompted news stories around the world and been the source of much debate over the role played by Russian intelligence sources in supplying information to Saddam.Read More