‘CIA planned video to show Saddam as gay’

“It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera. Very grainy,like it’s a secret videotaping of a sex session. The idea was to then flood Iraq with the videos,” said one of the former CIA officials.

Another idea was to interrupt the Iraqi TV programming with a fake news bulletin — an actor playing Saddam would announce he was stepping down in favour of his son Uday. “I’m sure you will throw your support behind His Excellency Uday,” the fake Hussein would say.

The CIA also wanted to hack into Iraq’s TV networks and insert misleading messages. Eventually,“things ground to a halt”,the other former official said,because no one could agree on the projects.

They also faced strong opposition from James Pavitt,then head of the agency’s Operations Division,and his deputy,Hugh Turner,who “kept throwing darts at it”,the newspaper claimed in its ‘SpyTalk’ blog.

The ideas were patently ridiculous,said the other former agency officer. “They came from people whose careers were spent in Latin America or East Asia and didn’t understand the cultural nuances of the region. Saddam playing with boys would have no resonance in the Middle East — nobody cares,” agreed a third former CIA official with extensive experience in the region.

“Trying to mount such a campaign would show a total misunderstanding of the target. We always mistake our own taboos as universal when,in fact,they are just our taboos,” he added.

Saddam was eventually captured in late 2003 and hanged in December 2006. His two sons,Uday and Qusay,were killed in a shootout with allied troops in July 2003. A US official,speaking on condition of anonymity,has declined to confirm the accounts,or deny them.