“In his opinion, the UN inspectors would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq,” according to the documents obtained and released by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute. “Hussein believed that Iraq could not appear weak to its enemies, especially Iran,” FBI special agent George Piro wrote on notes of a conversation with Saddam in June 2004 about weapons of mass destruction. He believed Iraq was being threatened by others in the region and must appear able to defend itself, the report said. * Saddam feared inspectors would identify weakness to Iran * Interviews show Iraqi leader saw bin Laden as “zealot” * Told questioners he saw North Korea as ally in a crunch By JoAnne Allen WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) – Saddam Hussein believed Iran was a significant threat to Iraq and left open the possibility that he had weapons of mass destruction rather than appear vulnerable, according to declassified FBI documents on interrogations of the former Iraqi leader.

DETROIT (Reuters) – The Detroit Pistons wasted little time in retooling their team for next season, agreeing terms with free agents Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva on Wednesday the NBA franchise said on their website (). “At this time, Bridgestone should be benefiting fully fromthe drop in raw materials prices, and we expect passenger cartire demand to recover from July-September, and truck/businesstire demand from October-December.” Trade was moderate on the Tokyo exchange’s first section with2.1 billion shares changing hands, in line with last week’s dailyaverage Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by 927 to 647 (Editing by Chris Gallagher) Stocks China Japan. Shares of Kobe Steel (5406.T) jumped 3.9 percent to 185 yen,while JFE Holdings (5411.T) advanced 1.3 percent to 3,240 yen. Bridgestone Corp (5108.T) climbed 3.7 percent to 1,574 yenafter Merrill Lynch initiated coverage of Japan’s largest tyremaker with a “buy” rating and a target price of 2,000 yen. “We expect a sharp earnings recovery in July-December 2009,”the brokerage wrote in a note to clients. [ID:nBNG508790] GS Yuasa Corp (6674.T), a car battery maker, gained 3 percentto 860 yen. Steelmakers climbed after Goldman Sachs said April-June, thefirst quarter of Japan’s financial year, is likely to be theworst of the year for them in terms of earnings and it expectssome of them to almost break even in the second quarter, partlybecause steel production has started to pick up.

Honda Motor Co (7267.T) slid 2.3 percent to 2,585 yen,the top drag on the Nikkei 225. But Hitachi climbed 3 percent to 307 yen after the Nikkeibusiness daily reported the company plans to boost productioncapacity for lithium ion batteries for hybrid cars, targeting a70-fold increase by 2015. manufacturing sectorcontracted in June but at a slower pace than in May.[ID:nPEK138883] [ID:nN01366244] BLUE-CHIPS WEIGH Canon Inc (7751.T) shed 1.9 percent to 3,070 yen andelectronics parts maker TDK Corp (6762.T) fell 1.6 percent to4,460 yen. Surveys from Europe showed manufacturing was shrinkingless than initially thought and in China’s case, growingmodestly, while other data showed the U.S. marketswill be shut on Friday for the Independence Day holiday, isexpected to depict an economy still wallowing in recession but itwill likely confirm the pace of job losses has slowed.[ID:nN01511504] The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 0.7 percent onWednesday. “The overly optimistic view on the economy has been modifiedand that is prompting investors to adjust positions in blue-chipstocks. For further gains, the market needs to see moreimprovement in the fundamentals of the economy,” said TakahikoMurai, general manager of equities at Nozomi Securities.