Posted on 02/27/2005 3:45:18 PM PST by Valin
Senior Baathist accused of financing insurgency
Iraqi officials said Sunday that Syrian authorities captured Saddam Hussein's half brother in Syria and handed him over to Iraq in an apparent good will gesture. Sabaawi Ibrahim al-Hasan, who was also a former adviser suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted the former dictator, was captured in Hasakah in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, two senior Iraqi officials said in Cairo, Egypt, on condition of anonymity.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's spokesman confirmed that "the criminal Sabaawi was arrested on the Syrian-Iraqi borders." He declined to give further details.
The officials did not specify when Hasan was captured, only saying he was detained following the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut.
But Capt. Ahmed Ismael, an intelligence officer in the Interior Ministry, said Hasan was detained early Sunday.
A statement released earlier by the government did not say when or where he was seized or whether U.S. or Iraqi forces had captured him. It was expected to give more details at a news conference on Monday.
The statement said he had "participated effectively in planning, supervising, and carrying out many terrorist acts in Iraq."
It was also not immediately known whether U.S. troops had played any role in the arrest.
The officials said Hasan was captured and handed over to Iraqi authorities along with 29 other members of Saddam's Baath Party.
"The capture appeared to be a goodwill gesture by the Syrians," one official said.
A third Iraqi official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syrian security forces expelled Hasan from Syria into Iraq after he and a group of supporters had tried to cross the Syrian border into Lebanon and Jordan.
Hasan, an intelligence chief and one-time adviser to the former president, was number 36 on the U.S. military's list of the 55 most-wanted people in Iraq and one of only 12 remaining at large. Washington had put a $1 million bounty on his head.
The Iraqi government has claimed a number of successes in recent weeks in its fight against the insurgency.
Also on Sunday, it announced the arrest of Lieutenant Colonel Khaled Rajab, accused of running a 40-person militant cell in and around the northern city of Mosul, and on Friday it said it had captured a key lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Despite these successes, Iraq's daily suicide bomb blasts, ambushes and targeted killings persist.
A bomb near Mosul on Sunday killed eight people and wounded at least two more, the
U.S. military said. Several of the dead were Iraqi security guards, police said.
In Musayyib, a town south of Baghdad, police discovered five bodies, all shot several times in the head and with their hands handcuffed behind their backs. In Baghdad, the headless body of a woman was left on a street with a note saying "spy" attached.
Near Baghdad, a car carrying a journalist working for Al-Hurra, a U.S.-funded Iraqi television channel, was attacked. The driver was killed and the journalist wounded, police said.
Quelling the violence will be the first task of Iraq's new government once it takes power following the Jan. 30 election.
Intense jockeying to determine the make-up of the government, including the top position of prime minister, has been going on for weeks and shows little sign of letting up.
Two people are in the running to be prime minister - Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the candidate of the Islamist Shiite alliance that won the election, and Iyad Allawi, the current prime minister.
Both the Shiite alliance and Allawi's secular coalition need the support of the second-placed Kurds to form a government. The Kurds have given no indication who they will back.
"There are some sensitive and very important ministries we haven't agreed on yet," Jaafari told reporters on Sunday after meeting a delegation of U.S. congress members in Baghdad.
"There are some obstacles which need more time to resolve." - AP, Reuters
This is a new arrest..
Thanks Syria, but you don't get a get-out-of-jail-free pass with this one.
Syria can just keep handing over all these guys we know they have , as they pack up and leave Lebanon.
Syria is up to its neck in blood from sponsoring the terrorist 'insurgency' in Iraq (not to mention all their other evil deeds through the years), so they don't get any 'credit' for a good deed done to try to save themselves. Still, it is fun to see one band of jackals sell another band of jackals down the river to try to save themselves..... rumor is that this low-life Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti tried to take his merry band to Jordan and then to Lebanon when he sensed the game was up, but Syria said "sorry, buddy, it's more convenient for us to hand you over to Iraq and try to salvage some good relations with the new government there."
It's so nice to watch scumbags turn on each other......
"Also on Sunday, it announced the arrest of Lieutenant Colonel Khaled Rajab, accused of running a 40-person militant cell in and around the northern city of Mosul..."
"Al-Maslul" means "from Mosul."
We're rolling up that entire cell. Full Intel Penetration.
Life is good (for us).
Let's hope and pray Iran - which we all know is harboring unspecified Al Qaeda leaders - follows Syria's lead. Doubtful, but we can hope.
That's 90% of the message that they sent by cooperating on this latest bust...that they will listen to reason and diplomacy.
But it won't do them any good unless they get out of Lebanon.
The lesson here is that when the world's Super-Power starts gun-boat diplomacy in earnest, everybody else had better get out of our way. I realize that the Euro-weenies and presstitutes hate that fact, but that's the way that the world works.
Pursuing military options against the U.S., rather than diplomacy, simply isn't wise.
...Not when we're mad and mobilized, anyway.
Now, that being said, once Syria withdraws from Lebanon, Hezbollah must be disarmed, one way or another, by us, Syria, the Lebanese themselves, or Israel.
Okie dokie, they handed over half-brother and 20-odd others. That means Syria knew about them. What else might they hand over? Nerve gas, anthrax....the possibilities are endless.
which half did they hand over?
Here is an interesting bit of information:
“The weekend news of the capture came on the eve of a previously planned meeting Monday between David Satterfield, deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs, and Syrian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud. And it follows the unprecidented demonstrations in Lebanon. Just a coincidence?”
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2005/02/syrias_gestures.html
We know this guy Satterfield will be carrying a clear message from Sec. State Rice to boy Assad.
We'll see what happens in the next few days . . .
Saturday's Baghdad newspaper Al-Mada reported that Syria provided information that led Iraqi authorities to breaking up 35 insurgent cells in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and arresting some 750 suspected militants.
Was buried in this AP Sunday night note:
Newsview: Syria May Be Bowing to Pressure ( May be??? )
Also I included a news note from Lebanon Sunday night on the same thread stating:
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -
Several thousand anti-Syrian protesters took to Beirut's streets late Sunday in defiance of a government ban, while a visiting U.S. official kept up Washington's pressure on Syria by calling on it to withdraw its 15,000 troops from Lebanon following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri earlier this month.
See post #12.
Caught this:
THOUSANDS DEFY BEIRUT CURFEW
28.2.2005. 15:08:46
Lebanese opposition supporters protest in Beirut, waving flags and shouting anti-Syria slogans at the Martyrs Square (pic: AAP)
Thousands of demonstrators have defied a curfew in Beirut, massing in the streets with banners and Lebanese flags.
The protestors gathered in Martyr’s Square, some shouting “Syria out!”, forming a sea of red, white and green.
“We are going to hand out blankets, we are staying here,” said one demonstrator on a megaphone before the ban came into force.
The government imposed the ban on the public protests to ensure civil order.
But opposition sit-ins have been occurring nightly since former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was killed in a massive bomb two weeks ago.
In response to the protests, the government deployed hundreds of armed troops and police.
There are now fears of clashes as pro-government parties and Hezbollah call for counter-demonstrations.
“The ban does not concern us. We are only holding a peaceful sit-in which will be maintained. Let them arrest us,” said opposition politician Elias Attallah.
Opposition MP Nayla Moawwad told the crowd that three government ministers had resigned.
But one of the ministers called the protest organisers to deny the allegation. The two other ministers have not responded to enquiries.
The opposition is about to issue a motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Omar Karameh’s cabinet.
SOURCE: World News
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=106198®ion=6
Wow!
Wow. Nice catch on the Syrian Mosul assist.
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