Saddam tended to think that the C.I.A. was omniscient, that it knew Iraq’s important secrets. Surely, therefore, the U.S. knew about his clandestine plan to occupy Kuwait. In any event, by mid-July, Saddam was no longer hiding his preparations. Yet Bush still wrote him friendly notes, and the president’s envoys delivered no direct or forceful warning against an attack. In Saddam’s way of thinking, this meant that Bush might want him to take Kuwait. Years later, in captivity, Saddam asked U.S. investigators: “If you didn’t want me to go in, why didn’t you tell me?”[52]
