Usamah “Sam” Husseini

Transcript

Sam Husseini: You, of course, were National Security Advisor under the first Bush Administration–

Brent Scowcroft: Yes.

SH: and one of the policies after the Gulf War was to maintain the sanctions regardless of what the Iraqi regime did? Was that a mistake?

BS: No, I don’t think it was a mistake because it accomplished what we were trying to accomplish and that is to make sure that Saddam was not a threat, and as it turned out, he was not a threat. The sanctions kept the army incredibly weak. We wiped it out in three weeks. So, Saddam was not a threat to the region under the sanctions. Did they hurt the Iraqi people? Yes, they did.

SH: And do you think that was worth it?

BS: In the overall results–yes.

SH: What estimates would have as to what the negative results were of the sanctions? How many people died because the sanctions remained in place?

BS: I don’t know how many people died. But nobody had to die, they died because of the way Saddam administered the sanctions. The oil, the Food for Oil Program was quite adequate had he done it right to feed any people hurt by the sanctions.

SH: The U.N. resolution said the sanctions would be removed once he complied with his obligations under the disarmament resolution.

BS: Yeah.

SH: –your policy was to say, even if he does comply–

BS: No, no, no, no, no, no.

SH: That’s what Jim Baker said and that’s what George Bush said in May of two thousand — of 1991.

BS: Well, I don’t recall the details of that.

SH: Regardless of your compliance–

BS: But he never did comply with the sanctions–

SH: He never complied with the disarmament obligation?

BS: No.

SH: So where are the weapons of mass destruction?

BS: No.

SH: Where are the weapons of mass destruction if he didn’t comply?

BS: He didn’t comply in the sense that we didn’t know that there weren’t weapons of mass destruction because he did not open for the inspectors until 2001–two.

SH: Hussein Kamel, are you familiar with the testimony of Hussein Kamel? When were you aware Hussein Kamel–

BS: Yes.

SH: –said that everything was destroyed.

BS: We were not in office at that time.

SH: When did you become aware of it, though?

BS: I don’t know that we became aware of it until after the Second Gulf War. Virtually, everyone thought there were weapons of mass destruction. We did. The Europeans did. Virtually everybody did. Hussein Kamel said they were destroyed and we didn’t believe him.