Naji Sabri Ahmad Al-Hadithi was born on 1951 and is an Iraqi former politician who served as the Iraqi Foreign Minister under Saddam Hussein in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
14 Facts About Naji Sabri
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Naji Sabri was recalled from the embassy in 1980 after two of his brothers were arrested for plotting against Saddam Hussein's regime.
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Thereafter, Naji Sabri served as editor of an English language newspaper and translated English books into Arabic.
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On 26 September 2002, after Saddam Hussein's meeting with the Chechen pro-Moscow President Akhmad Kadyrov, Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri stated the country's position with regard to Chechnya, namely that Chechnya is an integral part of Russia.
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Naji Sabri worked to lobby support from Russia, China, India, and even Iraq's former enemy Iran.
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Naji Sabri was heavily engaged in talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix.
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In September 2002, Naji Sabri officially announced to Annan that Saddam Hussein had agreed to a resumption of weapons inspections in Iraq.
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Naji Sabri had managed to secure safe passage out of the country along a hazardous route.
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Naji Sabri continued onto Cairo, Egypt, where his security was guaranteed by the Egyptian government.
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In March 2006, NBC Nightly News reported that Naji Sabri was, indeed, the "source who had direct access to Saddam and his inner circle" of which former United States Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet had once boasted.
11.
In exchange for $100,000 paid to him by the American government, Naji Sabri offered the CIA important details on some of Saddam's alleged weapons programs and affirmation on the discontinuance of others.
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Naji Sabri told the CIA that Saddam had stockpiled certain chemical weapons, specifically "poison gas".
13.
Naji Sabri told the CIA that Saddam did not have an active nuclear or biological weapons program.
14.
Naji Sabri said Iraq had stockpiled weapons and had "poison gas" left over from the first Gulf War.