Sir Trevor McDonald has expressed his surprise at seeing a "smiling" Saddam Hussein – and revealed the question that still makes him "cringe" – as he rewatched his extraordinary 1990 grilling of the Iraqi dictator for the first time.
The broadcasting legend re-examined extended excerpts from the hour-long exclusive interview in the inaugural episode of the new ITV News show, Reporting History.
Sir Trevor’s sit-down interview with Hussein, which was recorded for ITN in a palace in Baghdad in November 1990, was the first by a British news organisation, weeks after Iraq’s swift and brutal invasion of neighbouring Kuwait.
While Iraq swiftly lost the Gulf War in 1991 in the face of the Western-led Operation Desert Storm, Hussein’s brutal reign continued until the US-driven invasion in 2003. He was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court in 2006 for crimes against humanity.
The interview was recorded before the outbreak of another war in the Middle East over the past week, as a U.S.-Israel military alliance fronted by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a wave of strikes on Iran and killed the long-time Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In the interview, Trevor reflects on how the Iraq War unfolded in the wake of 9/11, and asks: "What was the broad point of the West’s intervention? Was it just to end the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, or was that to try to engineer some permanent political change in that part of the Middle East?"
00:00 Intro
01:12 Securing the Interview
04:18 Getting to Saddam’s Palace
05:30 Before the Interview
08:50 ‘This Question Makes Me Cringe’
11:20 Saddam Defends Kuwait Invasion
14:03 Questioning Saddam on Atrocities
17:55 The ‘Extraordinary’ Twist
19:51 The Moments After
22:03 Reflecting on Iraq War
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