REUTERS==>CIA: SADDAM 'DANGEROUS PERSONALITY'
Undaunted Infidel
Wed Jul 10, 1:25 AM ET
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Jerrold Post, a former CIA ( news - web sites) specialist
on what makes foreign leaders tick, has been studying Saddam Hussein (
news - web sites) for years. It doesn't matter that Saddam has never been on
Post's couch. Enough is known about Saddam, he says, to draw certain
conclusions.
Saddam is not insane but "represents the most dangerous personality," says
Post, who directs a political psychology program at George Washington
University.
He says Saddam is narcissistic to an extreme, regards everyone as a
potential enemy and is incapable of feeling remorse for the suffering of
others.
Saddam, Post says, was raised from age 9 by a maternal uncle who instilled
in him the dream of following in the path of Saladin and Nebuchadnezzar and
other long departed radical Arab leaders. Saddam took the advice to heart.
His mindset is on the minds of Bush administration officials these days as
they contemplate ways of evicting the Iraqi leader from power for his
refusal to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
President Bush ( news - web sites) believes Saddam has the means and the
motives to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction and
must be dealt with before he strikes. The timing of U.S. action is unclear.
"I'm a patient person," Bush said at a White House news conference Monday.
"But I do firmly believe that the world will be safer and more peaceful if
there's a regime change in that government.
"It's a stated policy of this government to have regime change. And it
hasn't changed. And we'll use all tools at our disposal to do so," he said.
"I'm involved in the military plan, diplomatic planning, financial
planning - all aspects of - reviewing all the tools at my disposal."
Post has been studying foreign leaders for more than 35 years, 21 of them at
the CIA where he became known for his psychological profiles. He founded the
CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior.
Before President Carter met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in September 1978, Post drew up psychological
summaries of the two Mideast leaders for Carter.
Post's views on some foreign leaders:
_Cuba's Fidel Castro ( news - web sites): "He can blame the United States
for his leadership failures."
_Palestinian Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites): "To the degree that (Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon has pursued his very aggressive posture toward
reoccupation, that puts Arafat in his favorite position of being the
underdog victim."
_North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il: "The starvation and the epidemics that are
ravaging the country have to press upon him, and may be even a motivation
for taking over the South and its resources."
As for Saddam, Post says he "rules by terror" and cites as an example the
arrest in 1982 of his Oxford-educated minister of health, whose loyalty
Saddam had questioned.
After the arrest, Post says, the minister's wife told Saddam her husband was
always loyal and begged Saddam to release him to her. The next day, he
obliged by returning her husband to her in a "black canvas body bag,"
according to Post.
The bad news for the United States is that Saddam is much more sophisticated
internationally than he was during the 1991 Persian Gulf War ( news - web
sites), when he had few friends, Post says.
Saddam has made peace with most of his neighbors and cultivated Russia,
China and France, making it far more difficult for the United States to
develop a coalition against him than it was in the post-Kuwait invasion
period, Post says.
On the other hand, Saddam faces more unrest in his military, Post says,
pointing to a number of coup attempts. Also, he says, three of five Iraqi
clans which once supported him have been associated with coup activity.
Post sees no chance Saddam would succumb to a renewal of U.N. weapons
inspections. Saddam sent envoys to Vienna last week for yet another
discussion of a possible resumption of inspections, but they apparently got
nowhere.
Post says Saddam will never give up his forbidden weapons because they
enable him to say, "You see, we are sovereign. I can thwart the U.N. and the
U.S. with impunity. We will continue and we will succeed."