In 2017, I had the opportunity to interview former CIA analyst John Nixon about an experience very few people could ever describe firsthand: sitting across from Saddam Hussein and interrogating him following his capture by U.S. forces in 2003.
Nixon later told the story in his book, Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein.
In our conversation, we talked about what Saddam was really like face-to-face, what surprised Nixon during the interrogations, what he learned—and how some of what he discovered challenged assumptions the United States had made about Saddam and Iraq.
Nearly a decade later, Nixon’s story is back in the spotlight with the television series High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam. It seemed like the perfect time to go back into my archives and share our original conversation again.
Before it became a television series, I talked to the man who actually lived it.
Debriefing the President is available wherever books are sold.