Chris Briese/fbi photo

M. Chris Briese, the deputy assistant director for the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Team at Quantico, and who once oversaw  the interrogation team for Saddam Hussein,  is headed south to take charge of the bureau’s Charlotte Division, the FBI announced Monday.

Briese joined the FBI in 1987 and was first stationed in Los Angeles where he worked bank robberies, interstate theft, foreign counterintelligence and international terrorism matters.

In February 1996, he was promoted to the National Security Division in the Counterterrorism Planning Section at FBI headquarters, the FBI said. He was a founding member of the Weapons of Mass Operations Unit, and specialized in chemical and biological terrorism issues.

Two years later, he transferred to the Minneapolis Division in a supervisory role, and oversaw international and domestic terrorism, foreign counterintelligence programs and the St. Cloud Resident Agency.

He established the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was responsible for the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of crimes related to the 9/11 attacks.

In July 2001, he became the assistant special agent in charge of the Minneapolis Division.

In August 2003, Briese returned to the mothership in Washington as a section chief in the Counterterrorism Division. His duties included oversight of half the FBI’s global terrorism operations, including the FBI’s deployment in Iraq and the Saddam Hussein interrogation team.

In January 2005, he headed up the Pittsburgh Division. The following year, he returned to FBI Headquarters and worked in multiple executive positions within the National Security Branch, the FBI said.

He has a law degree from Louisiana State University Law School. He is married and the father of two teenage boys.

Saddam Hussein

WASHINGTON – The CIA had a bag of dirty tricks ready for Saddam Hussein in preparation of the 2003 American invasion of Iraq that included making him look like a pedophile. It also had something similar planned for Osama bin Laden.

The Washington Post blog Spy Talk, citing former CIA officials, said one devious tactic involved creating a video showing the Iraqi strongman purportedly having sex with a teenage boy.

“It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera,” one ex-CIA official told Spy Talk’s Jeff Stein. “Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session.”

The ex-CIA officials said the idea was then to “flood Iraq with the videos.”

To read full story click here.

photo-stanford.edu

Saddam Hussein was the master of illusion. With all the intelligence the world had, he still was able to give everyone, including the U.S., the impression he had weapons of mass destruction.  While captive, he let down his guard while talking to FBI agent George Pero, who even gave Hussein some of his mother’s baked goods. I heard Pero speak one day and he said his mother wasn’t so happy when she heard Hussein was the recipient of those goodies.

By James Gordon Meek
New York Daily News
WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein feared Iran’s arsenal more than a U.S. attack, and even considered asking ex-President George W. Bush “to protect” Iraq from its neighbor, once secret FBI files show.

The FBI interrogations of the toppled tyrant – codename “Desert Spider” – were declassified after a Freedom of Information Act request.

The records show Saddam happily boasted of duping the world about stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. And he consistently denied cooperating with Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.

Of all his enemies, Iraq’s ex-president – who insisted he still held office during captivity – hated Iran most.

For Full Story

Read 2004 FBI File

FBI Agent fingerprints Saddam Hussein/fbi photo

I remember hearing George Piro speak once and one thing he said was that Saddam Hussein loved Saddam Hussein. I guess there was a reason for a country full of Saddam statues.

But Piro -- backed up by a team of FBI agents and crack CIA analysts -- knew Saddam’s history too well. Where there were gaps, Piro was able to parry with the imprisoned leader to get credible answers. “High Value Detainee-1″ was soon blabbing so freely it was hard for him to keep his lies intact.

As the weeks wore on, Saddam opened up more and more as the FBI-CIA team leveraged its strategy to “overwhelm” -- and break -- him by confronting the deposed dictator with evidence of his crimes against humanity.

He was soon boasting of terrible misdeeds against his own people -- in order to set the historical record straight, which Piro had encouraged.

For Full Story

Read Saddam Hussein Interrogation Reports as Posted by the N.Y. Daily News:

FBI-Baghdad 302 interrogation reports from Mar. 3 -- May 1, 2004
FBI-Baghdad Mar. 21, 2004 progress report on interrogations
Read How the FBI Broke Saddam -- Part 1
Read How the FBI Broke Saddam -- Part 2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBLhU-4WsMI

By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
An Iraq-born Canadian citizen who was picked up at the U.S. border last week was charged Monday with conspiring to spy for Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
A criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department alleges that Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, 47, was paid to provide information to Iraqi government officials and intelligence officers in 2000 and later, including that Iraqi volunteers were being trained by the U.S. military in Virginia.
The complaint was filed in Maryland, where Darwish worked as a restaurant cook before moving back to Canada. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted of the charge of conspiracy to act as an agent for a foreign government.
For Full Story

Read FBI Affidavit