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10 - PEOPLE/(H-M)/Saddam Hussein.md
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@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags:
- Iraq
- CIA
- Ba'ath
summary: "Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, a figure whose rise was facilitated by CIA support for the Ba'ath Party and whose regime became both a Cold War client and an adversary; his wars, arms procurement networks, and weapons programs intersect extensively with the vault's Iran-Contra, PROMIS, and intelligence-community subjects."
summary: "President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, whose Ba'ath Party took power in a 1963 coup the CIA welcomed, and whose regime received U.S. intelligence during the Iran-Iraq War."
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-05-14
born: 1937-04-28
@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ The Ba'ath Party was ousted from government in the same year and returned to pow
In September 1980, Saddam launched an invasion of [[Iran]] following the instability created by the [[Iranian Revolution]]. The eight-year [[Iran-Iraq War]] (1980-1988) killed an estimated half million to one million people. A State Department memorandum of October 7, 1983 assumed that the United States was already providing tactical intelligence to Iraq, and on November 29, 1984 Secretary of State [[George Shultz]] told Tariq Aziz that superior intelligence must be an important factor in Iraq's defense.[^6] According to a January 31, 1995 affidavit by former National Security Council staff member Howard Teicher, Director of Central Intelligence [[William Casey]] led efforts to ensure that Iraq received weapons, financial credits, intelligence and strategic military advice.[^6] The administration meanwhile ran the secret arms-for-hostages pipeline to Iran that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].
[[Donald Rumsfeld]] visited Saddam in December 1983 as a special envoy for President [[Ronald Reagan]], cementing the relationship at a moment when U.S. intelligence knew Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iranian forces.[^6] The arms and technology transfers to Iraq during the 1980s - including chemical and biological precursors - were later examined in congressional investigations and linked to the [[BNL scandal]] involving the [[Atlanta]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]].[^7]
[[Donald Rumsfeld]] visited Saddam in December 1983 as a special envoy for President [[Ronald Reagan]], cementing the relationship at a moment when U.S. intelligence knew Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iranian forces.[^6] The arms and technology transfers to Iraq during the 1980s, including chemical and biological precursors, were later examined in congressional investigations and linked to the [[BNL scandal]] involving the [[Atlanta]] branch of [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]].[^7]
### Arms Procurement Networks

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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Yehoshua Sagi.md
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summary: "Yehoshua Sagi (also rendered Saguy) served as director of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman) from 1979 to 1983 and was found by the Kahan Commission to bear personal responsibility for indifference regarding the Sabra and Shatila massacres."
created: 2026-05-14
updated: 2026-05-14
born: 1933-09-27
died: 2021-02-18
born: 1933
location: "Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine"
---
Yehoshua Sagi (also transliterated Saguy in some English-language sources) was born on September 27, 1933, in Jerusalem, then under British Mandatory rule. He died on February 18, 2021, aged 87. He entered the [[Israel Defense Forces]] in 1951 and built a career within the [[Military Intelligence Directorate]] (Aman), serving during the Suez Crisis in 1956 and through the [[Yom Kippur War]]. He rose to deputy head of Aman in 1978 before being appointed director the following year.[^1]
Yehoshua Sagi (also transliterated Saguy in some English-language sources) was born in 1933 in Jerusalem, then under British Mandatory rule. He entered the [[Israel Defense Forces]] in 1951 and built a career within the [[Military Intelligence Directorate]] (Aman), serving during the Suez Crisis in 1956 and through the [[Yom Kippur War]]. He rose to deputy head of Aman in 1978 before being appointed director the following year.
### As Aman Director (1979-1983)
During his directorship, Sagi was involved in two of the most consequential [[Israel|Israeli]] strategic decisions of the period. He opposed [[Operation Opera]], Israel's June 1981 airstrike on [[Iraq]]'s [[Osirak]] nuclear reactor, stating that his assessment did not support the level of threat attributed to the Iraqi program. He was overruled.[^1]
In 1982, Sagi participated in planning discussions for the Israeli invasion of [[Lebanon]]. Aman's assessments accurately forecast the limitations of the Christian Lebanese militias on which the operation depended and anticipated the likelihood of direct conflict with the [[Syria|Syrian]] garrison. Sagi conveyed these reservations privately to Prime Minister [[Menachem Begin]] and in internal military discussions. He did not press his objections openly during cabinet meetings, declining to publicly contradict Defense Minister [[Ariel Sharon]].[^2]
During his directorship, Sagi was involved in two of the most consequential [[Israel|Israeli]] strategic decisions of the period. According to Rodger Claire, Sagi opposed [[Operation Opera]], Israel's June 1981 airstrike on [[Iraq]]'s [[Osirak]] nuclear reactor, stating that his assessment did not support the level of threat attributed to the Iraqi program, and was overruled.[^1]
### Kahan Commission
Following the September 1982 [[Sabra and Shatila massacres|massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps]], an Israeli government inquiry chaired by Supreme Court President [[Yitzhak Kahan]] examined the conduct of Israeli military and political leadership. The Kahan Commission found that Sagi bore personal responsibility for "indifference" - having correctly analyzed the risks posed by the Phalangist militias who carried out the massacres, then failing to ensure those assessments were acted upon when the Phalangists were admitted to the camps. Sagi resigned from the army in 1983 following the commission's findings.[^2]
Following the September 1982 [[Sabra and Shatila massacres|massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps]], an Israeli government inquiry chaired by Supreme Court President [[Yitzhak Kahan]] examined the conduct of Israeli military and political leadership. The Kahan Commission, whose report is dated February 8, 1983, wrote that the picture from Saguy's own testimony was "of indifference and a conspicuous lack of concern, of shutting of eyes and ears to a matter regarding which it was incumbent on the director of the intelligence arm of the I.D.F. to open his eyes and listen well," found that he had not given sufficient attention to the decision to send the Phalangists into the camps and had not warned after the assassination of Bashir Gemayel of the danger of revenge, and recommended that he "not continue as Director of Military Intelligence." The Commission also quoted Saguy as saying of the Phalangists' entry, "I simply step aside in this matter," and wrote that the remark showed "the main reason why he 'stepped aside.'"[^2]
### Later Career
Sagi subsequently entered electoral politics, serving as a member of the Knesset on the [[Likud Party|Likud]] list from 1988 to 1992. He then served as mayor of Bat Yam from 1993 to 2003.[^1]
Sagi subsequently entered electoral politics, serving as a member of the Knesset on the [[Likud Party|Likud]] list from 1988 to 1992. He then served as mayor of Bat Yam.
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Yehoshua Sagi," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehoshua_Sagi
[^2]: "Israel Intelligence & Security: Directors of Military Intelligence (Aman)," Jewish Virtual Library. https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/directors-of-military-intelligence-aman
[^1]: Rodger W. Claire, *Raid on the Sun: Inside Israel's Secret Campaign That Denied Saddam the Bomb* (Broadway Books, 2004).
[^2]: Commission of Inquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut, Final Report, February 8, 1983, section on "The Director of Military Intelligence, Major General Yehoshua Saguy," in Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, *Israel's Foreign Relations: Selected Documents*, vol. 8, 1982-1984, doc. 104. https://syriaaccountability.org/content/images/wordpress/ISRAELMFA_Commission-Inquiry-Beirut_1983_EN.pdf