2003 : (IRAQI MUKHABARET OFFICER/FORMER AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY & TUNISIA FAROUK HIJAZI FLEES TO SYRIA AFTER THE FALL OF BAGHDAD TO US/UK LED COALITION FORCES) The United States had evidence that Hijazi was among the regime figures who had fled to Syria in the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, and his continued presence in that country was high on the list of complaints the Bush administration had made against the Syrian government for its backstage role in helping Saddam.
Hijazi, who most recently served as Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia, was the man the Washington believes organized the April 1993 assassination attempt on President Bush's father during a visit to Kuwait. - "COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS," by NILES LATHEM, New York Post, 4/26/03
APRIL 17, 2003 : (REPORT : SYRIA DENIES THAT IT IS SHELTERING FAROUK HIJAZI, IRAQ'S AMBASSADOR TO TUNISIA AND FORMERLY #3 IN THE IRAQI INTELLIGENCE SERVICE) DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syria denied American accusations Wednesday that it is sheltering a high-level Iraqi diplomat - or any other senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime. U.S. officials in Washington said that Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia and once the No. 3 man in the Mukhabarat, Saddam's intelligence service, apparently had surfaced in Syria. Hijazi is believed to be one of several high-ranking Iraqis who made their way across Iraq's western border to Syria, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. He is believed to have come from Tunisia, not Iraq.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Bouthayna Shaaban denied that Hijazi was in Syria and said no other Iraqis had fled here, either. ``What Syria says is what Syria does,'' Shaaban said. ``When Syria says its borders are closed, it means the borders are closed. When Syria says it did not allow any symbol of the Iraqi regime to come here, it means that it did not allow anyone to come here.'' ...
In recent days, senior U.S. officials, including President Bush, have accused Syria of providing Iraq with war materiel, giving haven to senior Iraqi officials and permitting foreign fighters to join the war against the U.S.-led coalition. The charges have raised concerns that Syria could be the next U.S. target.
APRIL 25, 2003 : (SYRIAN-IRAQI BORDER : SYRIANS HAND IRAQI INTEL OFFICER & AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY FAROUK HIJAZI OVER TO THE US) WASHINGTON -- A longtime Iraqi spy official, suspected of involvement in a plot to assassinate former President Bush and of having links to al-Qaida, was delivered to the Iraqi border by Syrian authorities Friday, U.S. officials said. Farouk Hijazi was taken into custody near the Syrian border, U.S. officials said, indicating new cooperation from a government that had been accused of harboring members of Saddam Hussein's deposed regime. Hijazi most recently served as Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia and was formerly ambassador to Turkey. But he is of particular interest to the CIA and the Pentagon because he was "a lifelong member of the Iraqi Intelligence Service," known as Mukhabarat, a U.S. official said. "He is significant," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "We think he could be interesting."
Hijazi is thought to have extensive knowledge of Iraqi operations and plots dating back decades. He occupied the No. 3 position in Hussein's spy apparatus in the early 1990s when Iraq tried to assassinate former President Bush in Kuwait.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey said that Hijazi's capture was "the biggest catch so far" for U.S. forces and that Hijazi is a key link between Hussein and terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida. "This man was involved, we know, with a number of contacts with al-Qaida," Woolsey told CNN.
But U.S. officials were more measured in their appraisals and expressed some skepticism about reports that Hijazi had once met with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Unconfirmed media reports have indicated that Hijazi was Hussein's liaison to anti-Western terrorist organizations and that he met with bin Laden between 1996 and 1998. "We've seen the reports," one official said. "We don't know how true they are. It certainly presents an avenue of questioning." He said U.S. intelligence analysts are divided over whether Hijazi would have met bin Laden given that the radical Islamic terror chieftain had publicly denounced Hussein's secular regime.
Officials said it is more likely that Hijazi would be able to provide information on the attempted assassination of the first President Bush in 1993. "We think that's highly probable given the job that he had at the time," the U.S. official said. "We believe he was either witting or responsible." At the time of the assassination attempt, Hijazi was responsible for overseeing covert operations overseas for Hussein.
The administration official said the Syrians had held Hijazi for a week and questioned him extensively."They put him out on the Iraq side of the border," the administration official said. "The Syrians put him into our hands. We knew when he was going to cross. We knew he was going to be there." The official indicated that there was no direct communication between the United States and Syria on the matter but that there were indirect signals, perhaps conveyed through a third party friendly to both sides, such as Jordan.
Details on Hijazi's capture were sketchy Friday, but U.S. officials said he was delivered to the Iraqi border by the Syrian government.The word on Hijazi's capture came the day after the surrender of Tariq Aziz, Hussein's deputy prime minister .- "Syria hands top Iraqi spy to U.S. forces," by Greg Miller, Washington correspondent, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, April 26 2003 Greg Miller writes for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Co. newspaper. Information from The New York Times was used to supplement this report.
APRIL 25, 2003 : (RUMSFELD BRIEFING ON THE CAPTURE OF IRAQI OFFICIAL FAROUK HIJAZI AND ANOTHER SENIOR IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE WITH THE 'AMERICAN PORTFOLIO' ) As US officials announced the capture of an Iraqi official with suspected al-Qaeda links, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said other key prisoners were providing useful information. Farouk Hijazi, Iraq's ambassador to Tunisia and a former high-ranking intelligence official, joins Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and others under interrogation. The key questions put to them: What happened to Saddam Hussein and the rest of the Iraqi leadership? Where are chemical and biological weapons hidden? What links did Saddam have to terrorist groups?
"You can be certain that the people who we have reason to believe have information are being interrogated by inter-agency teams, and they are in fact providing information that's useful," said Rumsfeld, briefing reporters yesterday [April 25, 2003] at the Pentagon. "He is significant. We think he could be interesting," Rumsfeld said of Hijazi. Rumsfeld said another senior Iraqi intelligence operative, who he said "had the American portfolio," was also captured. He did not identify that person.
Hijazi was captured at Iraq's border with Syria, US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He had been in Tunisia when the war started and sought refuge in Syria as Saddam's government fell, officials said. It was unclear whether the Syrians expelled him. President George W Bush's administration has been pressuring Syria to expel any Iraqi leaders who turn up there, and US officials said last week the Syrians appeared to be responding positively.
Hijazi, born in Saudi Arabia, served as Iraq's ambassador to Turkey in the late 1990s. US officials believe he travelled to Afghanistan in December 1998, and they say he may have met with Osama bin Laden in Kandahar. What occurred at the alleged meeting - which Saddam's government denied took place - is unknown, but it is one of the events that US officials refer to in suggesting contacts between Iraq and the terror network al-Qaeda.
Hijazi also served as the director of external operations for the Iraqi Mukhabarat, or intelligence service, in the early 1990s - the service's No. 3 position. During that time, in 1993, Mukhabarat operatives are alleged to have plotted to assassinate former President George Bush with a car bomb, but Kuwaiti security forces foiled the plan.
If Hijazi was indeed a liaison to terrorist organisations, he would know to what extent Iraq assisted such groups, one official said. As a foreign ambassador, he may also have information on any efforts to acquire illicit materials abroad for Iraq's alleged weapons programs, the official said. Hijazi wasn't on the military's top-55 list of Iraqi leaders. -- "Iraqi intelligence agents held,"AP via TheAge.com.au, April 26 2003
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