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The first man to interrogate Saddam Hussein after his capture by US forces in 2003 has said it quickly became clear he had not developed weapons of mass destruction .
Former CIA analyst John Nixon was tasked with questioning the Iraqi dictator after he was found hiding in a cave in December 2003.
He said “all the White House wanted to know” was if there was any evidence that Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction .
But talking to Hussein, his advisers and subsequent research had led him to the conclusion that Iraq's nuclear weapons programme had ended years earlier.
His team were regarded as “failures” after they came to that conclusion, he told the BBC ,
Mr Nixon added that he was not invited to debrief the then president George W Bush until 2008 - two years after Hussein's execution.
In a scathing assessment of the former Commander in Chief, he said he was one of the few to shake both Mr Bush's hand and that of Hussein, but he would rather have spent more time with the latter.
Mr Bush was “isolated from reality” and his advisors were yes men, he said.
“I used to think what we said at the CIA mattered and the president would listen, but it doesn't matter what we say, politics trumps intelligence”, he added.
Mr Nixon, who left the CIA in 2011, said he was “ashamed” of what happened in Iraq after Hussein’s fall.
The most iconic images from the war in IraqShow all 20 1 /20The most iconic images from the war in Iraq The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq, March 29, 2003
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An explosion rocks Baghdad during air strikes March 21, 2003
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman watches U.N. weapons inspectors leave Saddam airport in Baghdad March 18, 2003
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her sister as she waits for her mother (R) to bring over food bought in Basra March 29, 2003
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marine Corp Assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, April 9, 2003
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq US Marines kick in a door while securing a building next to the main hospital in central Baghdad April 15, 2003
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A soldier of U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division (Task Force Ironhorse) searches through dense vegetation around the Diala river where Iraqi militants are hiding outside Baquba early November 13, 2003
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi detainee gestures toward U.S. soldiers through bars of his cell at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad May 17, 2004
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Mays, a young Iraqi Shi'ite girl, cries after a mortar shell which landed outside the family's home in a Najaf residential area injured her uncle August 18, 2004
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. Marines carry an injured colleague to a helicopter near the city of Falluja, November 10, 2004
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi man suspected of having explosives in his car is held after being arrested by the U.S army near Baquba, Iraq, October 15, 2005
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A wounded Iraqi woman is helped after several bomb attacks in central Baghdad, July 27, 2006
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq A man runs down a street warning people to flee shortly after a twin car bomb attack at Shorja market in Baghdad, February 12, 2007
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi girl holds her hands up while U.S. and Iraqi soldiers search her family house in Baquba early June 30, 2007
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi woman tries to explain that she has nothing to do with illegal fuel as soldiers from the 2nd battalion, 32nd Field Artillery brigade patrol search for illegal fuel sellers in Baghdad August 6, 2007
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. President George W. Bush (L) walks in front of Humvees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates (C) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following remarks to the press after nightfall at Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province September 3, 2007
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq U.S. soldiers blindfold an Iraqi man after arresting him during a night patrol at the Zafraniya neighborhood, southeast of Baghdad September 4, 2007
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq An Iraqi baby lies in a cradle while a woman argues with U.S. soldiers of 1/8 Bravo Company searching for weapons, explosives and information about militants in the area during a foot patrol in a neighbourhood of Mosul June 26, 2008
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Policemen cry during a funeral of their colleague a day after a bomb attack in Baghdad's Jihad district November 3, 2010
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The most iconic images from the war in Iraq Staff Sgt. Keith Fidler kisses his wife Cynthia, as their son Kolin looks on, during a homecoming ceremony in New York, April 8, 2011 for the New York Army National Guard's 442nd Military Police Company's return from Iraq
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He said the Bush Administration gave no thought to what would happen after the US led invasion of the country.
Perhaps, in light of the subsequent rise of Isis, the region would have been better off if Hussein had remained in his post , he added.
Mr Nixon's comments come after the Chilcot Report finally delivered its verdict on Tony Blair’s decision to take Britain into the war alongside the US.
Sir John Chilcot savaged the decision to go to war and said there was “no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein” in March 2003.
He said: “We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.”
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