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NEW YORK, Mar 12 (AFP): Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was more preoccupied about the threat to his regime from within the country than about advancing US forces, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Citing a classified US military report and other documents, the newspaper said that approach had crippled his military in fighting the threat from without.
Only one of his defenses -- the Saddam Fedayeen -- proved potent against the invaders, the report said.
Documents show that fearful of revolt, Hussein was deeply distrustful of his own commanders and soldiers, according to The Times.
He made crucial decisions himself, relied on his sons for military counsel and imposed security measures that had the effect of hobbling his forces.
The paper said that the Iraqi dictator was so secretive and kept information so compartmentalized that his top military leaders were stunned when he told them three months before the war that he had no weapons of mass destruction.
They were demoralized because they had counted on hidden stocks of poison gas or germ weapons for the nation's defense, the report added.
He put a general widely viewed as an incompetent drunkard in charge of the Special Republican Guard primarily because he was considered loyal.
Hussein did not allow commanders to move troops without permission from Baghdad and blocked communications among military leaders, The Times said.
The Fedayeen's operations were not shared with leaders of conventional forces. Republican Guard divisions were not allowed to communicate with sister units. Commanders could not even get precise maps of terrain near the Baghdad airport because that would identify locations of the Iraqi leader's palaces.
Much of this material is included in a secret history prepared by the American military of how Hussein and his commanders fought the war, the report said.
Posing as military historians, US analysts interrogated more than 110 Iraqi officials and military officers, treating some to lavish dinners to pry loose their secrets and questioning others in a detention center at the Baghdad airport or the Abu Ghraib prison, The Times said.
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