Posted on 03/22/2003 9:48:01 AM PST by Wallaby
�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Copenhagen
Former Iraqi general Nizar al-Khazraji, who disappeared Monday while under house arrest in Denmark, was abducted to Saudi Arabia by CIA agents, the Danish tabloid B.T. reported Saturday.
|
Al-Khazraji allegedly was spirited out of his Danish home, where he had been under house arrest since November. |
Al-Kharaji led the Iraqi forces between 1987-1990 and has been accused of involvement in chemical attacks against the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq. He fled Iraq in 1995 and has denied involvement in attacks on Kurds.
Al-Khazraji allegedly was spirited out of his Danish home, where he had been under house arrest since November while Danish authorities investigated his involvement.
Police officials said it could not be ruled out that the former general had been taken by the CIA, and said it was unclear whether this would have been done against his will or not.
Danish prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant via Interpol for the al-Khazraji. dpa tb emc jm
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
|
BBC Monitoring International Reports March 19, 2003
He had told IRNA so far that the US has invited several opposition figures to join the command council to conduct attack on Iraq.
|
Khazraji was head of Iraq's armed forces from 1987 to 1990, fled to Jordan in 1995 and four years later applied for political asylum in Denmark. He was denied asylum as immigration authorities thought it likely he was involved in chemical weapon attacks on Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s. |
Damn, we're good!
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
|
By Bryar Mariwani KurdishMedia.com 22 March 2003 London/Kurdistan (KurdishMedia.com) Interpol have issued an international warrant to arrest the former Iraqi military chief. Hawlati, the independent Kurdish weekly, said yesterday that Al-Khazraji is in South Kurdistan, without giving further details. The website Iraqipages.com reported today that Al-Khazraji has been taken to Kurdistan and is now in Sulemani to supervise the military attack against the Iraqi troops in a northern front.
|
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on the other hand reported few days ago that the general was in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Sources close to KurdishMedia.com reveal that Al-Khazraji was kidnapped by the US in order to give intelligences which the US can use in its war against Iraq. Al-Khazraji was in charge of the Iraqi military troops when more than 182,000 Kurds were killed in the genocide operations called Anfal. Al-Khazraji was also in charge of the Iraqi army when the Iraqi jets bombed the Kurdish city of Halabja with chemical weapons in 1988. |
March 19, 2003, Wednesday
Associated Press
Bush asks Saddam's soldiers not to fight, but they likely fear Saddam
By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt(snip)
Meanwhile, an exiled Iraqi general who has been rumored as a possible successor to Saddam has disappeared from his home in Denmark.
Iraq watchers speculate that Gen. Nizar al-Khazraji, Saddam's former chief of staff, could re-emerge in the Middle East to give legitimacy to any army rebellion against Saddam. His son, however, asserts that he has been abducted by Iraqi agents.
Al-Khazraji had been under house arrest as Danish prosecutors investigate accusations that he ordered chemical weapons attacks that killed more than 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in 1988.
Al-Khazraji, 64, has repeatedly denied involvement. He earlier had tried to go to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, apparently to rally anti-Saddam forces.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Agence France Presse
March 18, 2003 Tuesday
Family of ex-army chief fears he was abducted by Iraqi intelligence
DUBAI, March 18The family of ex-Iraqi army chief Nizar al-Khazraji, touted as a possible successor to President Saddam Hussein, has been hearing all sorts of rumors about his whereabouts since he went missing but fears he was abducted by Iraqi intelligence, his son said Tuesday.
"We have been hearing a new rumor every 10 minutes, the latest being that he is in a training camp for the Iraqi opposition in Hungary," Ahmad al-Khazraji, 38, told AFP by telephone from the family home in Denmark.
He said that since his father went missing after going for a daily walk in the southwest town of Soroe Monday morning, the family had heard that he was in one of any number of Arab countries -- including Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan -- as well as in Turkey, Iran and Kurdish-held northern Iraq. "We hope one of these reports turns out to be true. But what we fear is that Iraqi intelligence caught up with him," Ahmad said, dismissing suggestions that the family may be covering up for Khazraji until he reaches a safe place.
Danish police suspect Khazraji might have fled the country or been kidnapped by Iraqi agents. They said an international warrant was issued for his arrest.
A London-based Iraqi opposition source had told AFP Monday that Khazraji, 65, had gone to Saudi Arabia.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the report on Khazraji's whereabouts came from "someone very close" to him in Denmark, noting that the former army chief has "always had good ties with Riyadh."
Khazraji had no travel documents, but could easily have left Denmark, which is part of the Schengen agreement for the free circulation of people, said special prosecutor for international criminal affairs, Birgitte Vestberg.
Khazraji, who headed the Iraqi armed forces during the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, fled to Jordan in 1995 and three years later applied for political asylum in Denmark, where he has since lived.
Despite being charged with war crimes for chemical weapon attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s, he has been tipped as a potential US nominee to succeed Saddam and was also said to enjoy Saudi backing.
Khazraji's son denied that his father had been under house arrest, saying he was free to move inside Denmark but could not leave the country.
His disappearance comes in the countdown to a US-led invasion of Iraq aimed at toppling Saddam.
US President George W. Bush has given the Iraqi leader until early Thursday to go into exile or face war.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Agence France Presse
November 29, 2002 Friday
Dissident officer doubts Iraqi army will fight for Saddam
DUBAI, Nov 29
Fugitive former Iraqi chief of staff General Nizar al-Khazraji said he doubted the army would put up much of a fight in the event of US-led military action to oust President Saddam Hussein, in comments published Friday.
"I doubt the capacity of the Iraqi army to fight, particularly if communications are cut between Saddam Hussein and his top commanders," Khazraji said in an interview with the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat. The former army chief said the most effective Iraqi military units remained the Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard, consisting of seven divisions totalling nearly 150,000 elite troops.
"They have the best of the weaponry available but even those weapons are already old and outdated and will not allow an equal fight."
Khazraji said that within the regular army there remained considerable opposition to Saddam, adding that there had been at least three attempted putsches by senior army officers since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
In a first instalment of the interview published by Al-Hayat Thursday, Khazraji called on Washington to maintain its pressure on the regime to encourage new putsch attempts.
The army defector, who faces a war crimes trial in Denmark where he now resides for his role in the use of chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels in the 1980s, said units still loyal to him were ready to rise up as soon as he "set foot in Iraq."
He said he intended to move to Kurdish-held northern Iraq to lead the uprising as soon as he obtained permission from the Danish authorities to leave the country.
But Danish prosecutors say they charged the general on Tuesday precisely to prevent him leaving the country after hearing that he had obtained a visa for Saudi Arabia.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
The Associated Press
November 8, 1990, Thursday
Soviets Support Military Action, Bush Orders in 150,000 Troops
By LISA GENASCI, Associated Press Writer
A U.S. campaign to gain support for U.N. military action against Iraq got a boost Thursday, with the Soviet Union offering its qualified approval. President Bush, as expected, ordered a new round of troop deployments, adding up to 150,000 soldiers to the multinational force facing off against Iraq.
In another development, Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein sacked his army chief, suggesting dissension in the ranks over Kuwait, which his forces overran three months ago.
(big snip)
Iraq's army newspaper and U.S. officials said Saddam replaced his military chief of staff, Gen. Nizar Al-Khazraji, with the head of his elite Republican Guards, Gen. Hussein Rashid. It did not say when or why Khazraji was dismissed.
Western analysts with knowledge of Iraq's military machine said Khazraji's surprise dismissal indicated growing opposition in some military quarters to Saddam's strategy on Kuwait.
"It's very ominous," said Hans-Heino Kopietz, with Control Risks, an international security firm in London.
"It's not wise to change horses in mid-stream at this point in time. Khazraji's dismissal now is indicative of some opposition to Saddam within the military," said Kopietz, just back from a Middle East tour.
Khazraji had been chief of staff since 1985 and was one of the top officers in Saddam's inner circle of military advisers.
He was sacked amid increasingly tough U.S. and British warnings that they might use force to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait if necessary.
Saddam regularly purges those he perceives as a threat. It was the second replacement of a high-level Iraqi official in two weeks. Oil Minister Issam Chalabi was fired Oct. 28 and replaced by Brig. Gen. Hussein Kamel, Saddam's cousin and son-in-law.
Some analysts said Rashid's appointment was in part designed to keep the Republican Guards on Saddam's side.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.