By Jim Mannion

WASHINGTON, Jul 03, 2009 (AFP) - Saddam Hussein stayed in Baghdad until just hours before it was clear the city was about to fall after the US-led 2003 invasion, according to newly released FBI interviews with the deposed Iraqi dictator.

Summarizing 27 interviews between January and June 2004, newly declassified FBI documents offer an unusual window on Saddam's view of himself and his legacy at the end of his life.

In the closing days of his regime, as US forces swarmed toward Baghdad, Saddam said he stayed in the city up to April 10 or 11, 2003, until it appeared the city would certainly fall.

He held a final meeting with senior Iraqi leadership and told them "we will struggle in secret."

"Thereafter, he departed Baghdad and began gradually 'dispersing' his bodyguards, telling them they had completed their duty, so as not to draw attention," the FBI said.

Asked about widespread reports he often used "doubles" while in power, Saddam "laughed and stated, 'This is movie magic, not reality.'"

Playing cat and mouse with his FBI interviewer, Saddam acknowledged no responsibility for leading his country into a series of disastrous wars that culminated in the US invasion of Iraq.

He refused to answer questions about his regime's use of chemical weapons against his own people and Iran, telling his interviewer, "I will not be cornered or caught on some technicality. It will not do you any good."

He acknowledged some mistakes in his dealings with the United Nations on weapons of mass destruction, but insisted that Iraq complied with UN Security Council resolutions to disarm after the 1991 Gulf War.

"If I had the (prohibited) weapons, would I have let United States forces stay in Kuwait without attacking?" he is quoted as saying at one point.

The interviews were conducted by an Arabic speaking FBI special agent, George Piro, who questioned the Iraqi leader about plots, assassinations, the expulsion of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei from his Iraqi refuge, and Iraq's wars with Iran, Kuwait and the United States.

In their last "casual conversation" at a US detention center near the Baghdad airport on June 28, 2004, Piro asked about Iraq's relationship with Al-Qaeda, a connection that Washington had played up in justifying the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

But Saddam said the Iraqi government did not cooperate with Bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader.

Bin Laden's ideology "was no different than the many zealots that came before him," Saddam told Piro, according to the summary, which said the two "did not have the same vision or philosophy."

When pressed, the deposed Iraqi leader said he did not regard the United States as Iraq's enemy even though it opposed its policies.

"If he wanted to cooperate with the enemies of the United States, Hussein would have (cooperated) with North Korea, which he claimed to a have a relationship with, or with China," the summary said.

In earlier interviews, Saddam cast Iran as Iraq's biggest threat, and suggested he wanted Tehran to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

"Hussein stated he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for his refusal to allow UN inspectors back into Iraq," according to a summary report.

"Hussein further stated that Iran's weapons capabilities have increased dramatically, while Iraq's have been eliminated by the UN sanctions.

"The effects of this will be seen and felt in the future, as Iran's weapons capabilities will be a greater threat to Iraq and the region in the future," it said.

The farm where he was captured in a "spider hole" in December 2003 was the same place where he hid after a failed 1959 coup, the FBI said.

Saddam was sentenced to death in November 2006 and hanged on December 30 that year.

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Copyright AFP 2009.