FBI Agent Who Interrogated Saddam Hussein Leads Florida Airport Case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The FBI agent who interrogated Saddam Hussein alone for months after the former Iraqi leader's capture is now leading the investigation into the Florida airport shooting rampage that killed five and is being blamed on an Iraq war veteran.

George Piro, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami field office, was Saddam's sole interrogator beginning in January 2004. In previous interviews, Piro has said Saddam did not know his true identity — the Iraqi leader called him "Mr. George" — and that he posed as a high-level envoy who answered directly to then-President George W. Bush.

Now the 49-year-old Piro, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, fluent in Arabic and Assyrian, is in charge of the FBI investigation into the shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport that left five people dead and six wounded.