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Moshe Arens, Israel’s defense minister at the time of the 1991 Gulf War, wanted to launch a ground operation against Iraqi missile launchers firing missiles at Tel Aviv, but ran into strong opposition from then-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Shomron, according to recordings from IDF archives released Thursday on the 26th anniversary of the war. After American forces invaded Iraq in January 1991, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fired a total of 39 modified Soviet ‘Scud’ missiles at Israel in the hope the Jewish State would respond to the provocation by striking back at a Iraq. He reasoned the move would...

Boris Johnson, a former journalist, gives police the item, which had belonged to Iraqi official Tarik Aziz. Johnson blames political opponents for launching an "idiotic" probe. LONDON -- In the smoke-filled rooms of backroom politics here, it was only natural that a cigar case with a storied past would become convenient fodder for scandal. After months of smoldering controversy, London Mayor Boris Johnson appeared to put the matter to rest this week by handing over to Scotland Yard the item in question: a leather cigar case belonging to Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tarik Aziz, scavenged by the mayor himself...

Lawyers for The Daily Telegraph are to ask the American government to grant them access to Tariq Aziz to try to secure vital evidence in their forthcoming libel battle with George Galloway MP. Mr Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister and foreign minister who gave himself up to US forces yesterday, is named in Iraqi documents that the newspaper claims it obtained from the the country's Foreign Ministry last week. The newspaper alleges that Mr Galloway had struck a deal with Mr Aziz for the receipt of three million barrels of oil every six months, of which the MP's...

Nigergate: the dangerous relations between Democrat Senators and ex spies Here follows an interesting article from the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. I make no comment at all other than ‘read it’. Very soon, under the title “The Rockefeller Connection”, I will post something revealing, something important that until now passed completely under the Radar Screen. Stay tuned .. Nigergate: the dangerous relations between Democrat Senators and ex spies Il GIORNALE 13 November 2005 By Gian Marco Chiocci and Mario Sechi October 9 2002, Rome. Elisabetta Burba, journalist with Panorama magazine, crosses Via Veneto. At the American Embassy someone is waiting...

Many of the quasi-conclusions are based largely on claims of innocence from Saddam Hussein, “a top official in Saddam’s government, Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Kattab al-Tikriti,” Tariq Aziz and Faruq Hijazi. These are 4/7 of the primary players in any involvement or potential involvement between Saddam’s regime and al Qaeda. The other 3 primary players are Mohammed al-Douri (He is Saddam’s VP/muscle man/Thug-In-Charge who remains at large. He is also suspected of being the primary source for most of a large portion of the insurgency and most reports place him as directing operations from inside Syria). The last 2 primary players...

Tariq Aziz—once Saddam Hussein’s deputy prime minister and close adviser-- has died of a heart attack in a hospital in southern Iraq, officials say. Provincial governor Yahya al-Nassiri says Aziz, 79, died on Friday afternoon after he was taken to the al-Hussein hospital in the city of Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, when he fell ill.

The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq Sept. 25 — Aquila al-Hashimi, a career diplomat, was the only member of Saddam Hussein's regime to be chosen by Iraq's American occupiers to sit on the interim Governing Council. Al-Hashimi died Thursday of gunshot wounds, five days after being ambushed by six men in a pickup truck near her home in western Baghdad. Widely expected to become Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, she was preparing to attend the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. Her assassination was the latest in a series of assaults against Iraqis who have worked openly with the...

PARIS (Reuters) – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Wednesday he will not sign an execution order for Tareq Aziz, the former deputy of dictator Saddam Hussein sentenced to death last month for crimes against humanity. "No, I will not sign the execution order for Tareq Aziz, because I am a socialist," Talabani told French television France 24 in an interview. "I sympathize with Tareq Aziz because he is an Iraqi Christian. Moreover he is an old man who is over 70," he said. Iraq's high tribunal passed a death sentence on Aziz, once the international face of Saddam's government,...

The decision of the Iraqi war crimes tribunal to sentence Tariq Aziz to death is one that needs to be vigorously opposed for several reasons. Although it is true that, as Saddam Hussein's longtime henchman and deputy, he is morally tainted with some of the most appalling crimes in modern history, Aziz was not, in fact, condemned to execution for his part in the annexation of Kuwait, the destruction of the Marsh Arabs, or the attempted genocide against Iraq's Kurdish minority. (Indeed, there is some evidence that he advised his boss against the insane attack on Kuwait in 1990.) For...

BAGHDAD – Saddam Hussein's foreign minister Tariq Aziz was sentenced to death by hanging Tuesday for persecuting members of Shiite religious parties under the former regime. Iraq's high criminal court spokesman Mohammed Abdul Sahib did not say when Aziz, 74, would be put to death. The death sentence was for a conviction on charges of taking part in a Saddam-led campaign that hunted and executed members of the Shiite Dawa Party, of which current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member.

Recently declassified documents focusing on the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. September 11, 2001, taught us that it is too costly to allow a leader with a history of aggression and stated intent to harm the U.S. to maintain links to terrorist groups and acquire weapons capabilities to act upon that sentiment. Newly declassified documents about the testimony of Tariq Aziz, Saddam HusseinÂ’s deputy prime minister, reminds us why Saddam had to be removed from power. Contradicting Saddam HusseinÂ’s testimony where he claimed he actually wanted...

Just as President Jacques Chirac was vehemently arguing against invading Iraq in late 2002, General Philippe Rondot wrote that he had been given the green light to "recover" top officials including Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister. Previously unseen extracts of Gen Rondot's private diaries were reprinted in the newspaper Libération. In a passage dated Dec 3, 2002, the general refers to an "agreement in principle to 'recover' if necessary Mr Aziz and Al-Rafai" – said to be a senior Ba'ath Party politician. The two men were believed to have been considered useful to the French while Gen Rondot knew Aziz...

BAGHDAD — Tariq Aziz, the senior aide to Saddam Hussein who gained international renown as the public face of Iraq during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for crimes against humanity. It is the second verdict to be issued in a case involving Mr. Aziz, 73. Earlier this month he was acquitted on charges of ordering a brutal crackdown against Shiite protesters after the assassination of a revered cleric. He still faces charges in a third trial involving a massacre of Kurds in 1983. Two of Mr. Hussein’s half brothers, Watban...

Tariq Aziz guilty of Iraq murders Aziz surrendered to US troops in 2003 Tariq Aziz, for many years the public face of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, has been jailed for 15 years for his role in the execution of 42 merchants. Aziz had denied any role in the summary trials of the men accused in 1992 of profiteering during economic sanctions. Two of Saddam Hussein's half-brothers were also found guilty and sentenced to death by a court in Baghdad. Another top official, Ali Hassan al-Majid - commonly known as Chemical Ali - was jailed for 15 years. Two other Iraqi...

Iraq's special criminal court Monday acquitted Tariq Aziz, the man who once served as the urbane, cigar-smoking public face of Saddam Hussein's rule, delivering the most significant not-guilty verdict in a series of prosecutions for crimes against humanity that occurred before the U.S. invasion in 2003. Aziz, who will turn 73 next month, remained in custody, facing charges in two other cases. Only hours after his acquittal, he appeared before another judge to defend himself against charges that he was involved in a massacre of Kurds in 1983. Even so, the verdict - the first in a case against him...

Iraqi security forces under Saddam Hussein executed traders for breaking price controls and then banned their families from giving them proper funerals, a witness in the trial of a top Saddam aide said on Tuesday. Ex-Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, accused of playing a role in the execution of dozens of traders, denied involvement. Aziz, who was the public face of Saddam's regime, went on trial last month. They were executed after being accused of breaking price controls imposed in the wake of U.N. sanctions on Iraq in 1990s. Aziz appeared in court wearing a grey suit and supported by...

BAGHDAD - Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam Hussein's best-known lieutenants, accused the Shiite-led government of seeking revenge during a trial Tuesday over the executions of dozens of Baghdad merchants in 1992. Aziz told an Iraqi court, which resumed hearing the case against him and seven co-defendants, that he was proud of being a member of Saddam's Sunni-dominated Baath party and serving under the former dictator. But chief prosecutor Adnan Ali said Aziz and his co-defendants, who include Saddam's ailing cousin known as "Chemical Ali," were responsible for the merchants' deaths and urged the court "to issue the suitable punishment that...

Iraq's former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz is due on trial over the deaths of a group of merchants in 1992. Mr Aziz, along with seven other former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, are accused of involvement in the execution of about 40 merchants in Baghdad. The merchants were accused of hiking food prices at a time when Iraq was under international sanctions. They were executed after a speedy trial. Mr Aziz's son, Ziad, has said that his father is innocent. "My father told me personally that he had nothing to do with this case. At the time, my father...

Saddam Hussein's ally Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri 'captured' in Iraq By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 12:57am BST 24/04/2008 American forces have captured Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party heir, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most wanted former regime official still at large, it has been reported. A Middle Eastern television channel said Douri, a key force in the country's devastating insurgency, had been seized in a mountain raid in Saddam's home province of Salahaddin. Most wanted: Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri Douri was King of Clubs in the deck of cards of most wanted Iraqis issued to American soldiers after the war. But...

The spiritual leader of Iraq's Chaldean Christian community has called on US forces to release Saddam Hussein's ex-deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Cardinal Emmanuel Delly made the request in his Christmas message. Mr Aziz, who is himself a Christian, gave himself up to US forces after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but no charges have been brought against him. He was seen in court last year in his pyjamas, testifying for the defence in the trial of Saddam Hussein. "In terms of Tariq Aziz," Cardinal Delly said, "we have to demand the release of all those who were captured...