From his partial answers to questions about the recent war, intelligence officials said they came to believe that Mr. Hussein was surprised when the United States began its invasion in March 2003.

One official said that Mr. Hussein had implied that ambiguity over whether his government possessed illegal weapons "would keep the neighbors at bay, while the U.S. would be hung up in interminable debate at the U.N."
http://nytimes.com/2004/07/02/politics/02SADD.html?hp

He was interrogated principally by one intelligence officer in Arabic, the officials said. The authorities did not use any physically coercive methods, an official said, adding that psychological tricks were employed, like questioning him for several hours and then leaving him for a while, returning to ask just a brief question, only to leave him alone again for a while.

Mr. Hussein chided his interrogators at one point, saying that while he was on the run during the war, American soldiers had forced some people who were helping him hide to shame themselves by refusing to shelter him any longer because the pursuit was so intense. He said his hosts had been embarrassed that they could not provide him with the hospitality that is an important custom in the Arab world.

Officials said he also seemed to boast at one point that he had infiltrated the Iraqi National Congress, the exile organization headed by Ahmad Chalabi, that was instrumental in pressing the Bush administration to invade Iraq.
http://nytimes.com/2004/07/02/politics/02SADD.html?hp