Saddam briefcase 'a goldmine'

2004-01-09 17:54

LOndon - Saddam Hussein has given no useful information to United States interrogators, but documents and papers found in his briefcase have yielded results "far greater than we expected," said a senior British official on Friday.

The official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity, said US authorities were taking their time interrogating the former Iraqi dictator, in the hope that he would feel more comfortable about talking in captivity.

"The results from the capture of Saddam were greater than we were ever expecting," said the official.

"He has not talked himself, but what came out of the papers found with him led to further information that led to further operations," said the official, who is closely involved in British activity in Iraq.

The official said the US administrator, L Paul Bremer, had told Prime Minister Tony Blair in Basra last week that "Saddam is not offering information of an operationally useful kind".

"They (US authorities) are taking their time, trying to get him to talk so that he can feel comfortable that he can talk in captivity."

Saddam was arrested near his hometown of Tikrit on December 13, and the US military has said soldiers also seized a briefcase containing documents that shed light on the anti-US insurgency.

The US Central Intelligence Agency is interrogating him in Iraq; Iraqi officials have said the former dictator is in the Baghdad area.

Bremer has said that information gleaned from Saddam's capture has led to the arrests of insurgents, and Saddam's "cronies and colleagues".

The British official said Saddam loyalists were operating in small cells and had found it difficult to organise a "co-ordinated structure" to their attacks against coalition troops.

- AP