Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons [Paperback]

Tim Trevan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

The author of this text, Tim Trevan, was a key British participant (1992-1995) in UNSCOM's investigation of Iraqi chemical and biological sites. In his narrative, he shows how UNSCOM dealt with Iraq's devious, despotic regime: the early frustrations encountered because of Iraq's lying and obstruction; the techniques and technologies inspectors employed; the personal difficulties and dangers of the job; and their ingenuity in tackling problems. The book also shows how the Commission maintained support in a divided UN Security Council long enough to achieve success, despite the ceaseless stream of international crises unleashed by Iraq to try and break the Commission.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The British author spent several years as a key member of UNSCOMAthe United Nations Special Commission for Iraq, tasked with monitoring and enforcing Iraq's dismantling of its capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction. In addition to an informative narrative of the U.N.'s frustrating attempts to limit Saddam's weapons program, Trevan offers a valuable perspective on U.N. bureaucracy at a time when the organization is trying to assert its power and influence around the world. He describes the personal dynamics that replace national loyalties; the emphasis on negotiating finesse and the careful parsing of written agreements; the heavy dependence on leaks, back-channeling and spin. From the beginning, Iraqi officials placed every possible obstacle in UNSCOM's path. The deception and evasions were, in Trevan's view, as brazen as they were comprehensive. In the resulting game of "catch us if you can," UNSCOMAwith significant help from Israeli intelligenceAscored its share of limited, specific successes. In Trevan's final analysis, however, the triumphs were ephemeral as Saddam Hussein continued his weapons research programs, inconvenienced but unthwarted. Not surprisingly, Trevan concludes that "Iraq was not interested in cooperating with UNSCOM." To the book's fundamental questionAhow can democracies force a hostile nondemocracy to "be good" without compromising democratic principles?ATrevan offers some answers in an epilogue. He argues for an increasing transfer of both sovereignty and power to international organizations, specifically the U.N. In fact, despite Saddam's success in dodging UNSCOM, Trevan considers UNSCOM a paradigm: "excellent people bound by a strong culture of achievement and attention to detail."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Tim Trevan is a former senior advisor to the UN Special Commission for Iraq (UNSCOM) and a former British diplomat. He is now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He graduated in Cellular Pathology from Bristol University in the late 1970s, served in the Arms Control and Disarmament Dept. of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, on the Chemical, Biological and Radiological Weapons desk, and subsequently learnt Arabic in the Yemen.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000653113X
• ISBN-13: 978-0006531135
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,279,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Time Machiavelli, February 13, 2002

By 

HPV (Brixton, London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons (Paperback)

Hidden behind a seemingly specialised subject, Saddam's Secrets, lies the extraordinary story of one of this centuries greatest political transformations - that of the United Nations evolving from a forum of bitter rivalries into an arbiter of morals with the power and will to punish wrongdoers on a global scale. By setting up UNSCOM and appropriating a military force under its light blue banner, the United Nations (UN) heralded a new era from which it roared a resonant political focus. The events that led to this are detailed and analysed with Tim Trevan's aquiline eye and hawkish wit. The author unfolds the unique and bizarre story of the multi-faceted battle of two determined and abstractly united foes in a fragile world...

The premise is quite simple, as was my understating through CNN and the BBC that Saddam and his evil regime had lost the Gulf war and would be divested of the weapons of mass destruction it had accumulated and would not be capable of threatening its neighbours ever again.

The organ tasked to deliver this mission and the hopes of a `new world order' was UNSCOM. It would have to find out how much weaponry the Iraqis ever had, where the remaining arms were concealed and then destroy any that were warranted as offensive. This was logistically a mammoth task however unlike many other limp-wristed UN gestures; UNSCOM was comprised of determined and formidable political negotiators and uncompromising and belligerent inspectors that cajoled the UN Security Council for unequivocal support.

UNSCOM needed to be this robust as Iraq in the other corner had an array of illegal punches and spoiling tactics that would brashly dispose of lightweights. Iraq had only mouthed agreement to the full disclosure of its capabilities under its terms of surrender. Like a poisonous dance between Mr and Mrs Mantis, Iraq and UNSCOM spun political protocol and legalistic diatribe to mesmerise the watching world into lending support or disallowing advantage as a fickle referee. If UNSCOM dictated the tune then Iraq would be left honourless and emancipated without its chemical, biological and nuclear apparel. If Iraq out-manoeuvred the worlds will then UNSCOM would expire and `peace and security' would ensure its fame as the mother of all political platitudes, and so by default the UN credo.

The loaded situation produced a colossal detective story with the tedium of painstaking evidence gathering, conspicuous surveillance and brilliant hypothesis with an array of monstrous characters to divert suspicions. Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz, Dr Germ and the various other agents of death and destruction are described with the non-fussed detail of reality yet emerge almost apocryphal by their scheming and morality. Some events like the `car park siege' are completely fantastical. The lapses of Iraqi memory and excuse making are so ridiculously hilarious so as to question the authors' sanity.

However this was real history, it is a story that we have already seen, we had formed our opinions and we believed it was over. The baddies were shot down by the Anglo American alliance and that was that. Tim Trevan however hand-holds us through the nuances of real-politick. When we thought it was over, Tim was still there fighting the battle with UNSCOM... and now its over for him: IRAQ is still a threat. Saddam Hussein is still a dictator. The world seems still gullible enough to believe that decent and righteous humanity will one day vanquish all that is bad.

What Tim Trevan gives us as his parting shot is the most prudent observation of politics as a necessary evil since Machiavelli opined to the unknown prince. Real time.

If you want a cynical political advantage over your enemies, read this book and don't tell them about it, especially Saddam.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Hunt For An Editor, April 10, 2005

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons (Paperback)

I have read a number of books about the Iraqi weapons inspection process and I must say that this book is the most in depth. In what I admittedly would fess up to be a bit of a stereotype, the author is British thus the book is a bit on the dry side and full of detail. So much detail that at times it gets in the way of the main story. The author not only covers the story of how the Iraqi's hid the weapons or hindered the inspectors, but he also covers the formation of the weapons inspection team and process. He also covers many of the people involved and if you watched the lead up to the latest Iraqi war then you know all the names involved in this book. It seams like the years change, but the main experts are all the same.

The most interesting parts of the book for me covered the inspection process. I expected and heard a lot of about how difficult the Iraqi's made it for the inspectors. A constant peaty and nagging version of a cat and mouse game that would make even the most patent man scream in frustration. What I had not read before was the different ways the Iraqi's made it dangerous or how often the implied physical harm was around each corner. I kept wondering just how much these guys got paid given all the difficulties of their jobs, was it really worth it? The author also gives us a good review of the success the UN had in uncovering weapons in the first few years. The Iraqi's did seem to be somewhat cagey in their hiding of the weapons, but to be fair some of the discoveries were almost embarrassing for the Iraqi's. My toddler could have hidden some of the information and weapons better then these guys. It left one with the impression that the Iraqi's were in part a military organization filled up with incompetent relatives of Saddam that merely did as they were told with very little thinking.

Overall the book was interesting if not a bit long winded. The author could have cut out about 25% of the book and still got his point across, but in a much more readable fashion. He slipped into minutia of detail that was dull and not needed. I half expected his meal menu's and bathroom break details. It was also a bit humorous, given what we know today, with the last section of the book that was devoted to the breathless urgency of the Saddam threat. As we have seen, Saddam's only weapon of mass destruction was famine and poverty. At the end of the day the unstated story up to this point is that in the realm of removing weapons from Iraq, the UN did it's job. The book is interesting, but do not be surprised if you find yourself skipping a page here and there.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, January 27, 2012

By 

Michael Beachy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons (Paperback)

I thought this book was excellent and well written. Published in 99, it came out before the invasion. Goes into deep discussion about how Iraq prevented proper inspections of its weapons programs. After reading this book, it was hard not to believe that either Iraq was trying to build biological weapons or at least trying to convince investigators that they were. What is interesting about the inspections is that you would expect there to be some huge us military force rampaging through the country when in reality it was David Kay and handful of assistants staying in hotels and scheduling visits, well in advance, to suspected weapons sites. Reality is always so much simpler and less interesting than one expects.