|
Belarus Issued Passports to Officials of Husseinâs Government
From The Washington PostWhen Saddam Husseinâs closest aide, Abid Hamid Mahmud Tikriti, was apprehended in Iraq a year ago, U.S. officials were alarmed to find him carrying Belarusan passports not only for himself but also for other high-ranking members of the former regime -- including Husseinâs two infamous sons. A year later Washingtonâs continuing concern about this matter is understandable, given that some of Husseinâs top officials and others in his regime may have escaped via Syria to the European pariah state of Belarus during and after the war. ... Belarusâs dictatorial president, Alexander Lukashenko, made Hussein such a key military, political and economic partner that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in testimony to Congress a year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, singled out Belarus as the country most likely to accept Hussein if he were to flee Iraq. ... Husseinâs son Uday was scheduled to make a high-profile visit to that country in March of last year. The outbreak of war was the only reason this much-hyped trip did not take place. Saddam Hussein did manage, however, to dispatch Baghdadâs then-mayor, Adnan Abed Hamed, to Belarus two weeks before hostilities began to publicly thank the government for its strong support and to tour a truck factory that is widely believed to have supplied Iraq with vehicles that were adapted to carry missiles. Ominously, Belarus has not only reportedly sold weapons to six of the seven countries on the State Departmentâs list of state sponsors of terrorism but has also continued to defy Washington in doing so -- even with the war on terrorism in full swing. In the case of possible Belarusan involvement in weapons sales to Syria, Lukashenko has not even attempted to conceal his military assistance. "No matter how severely we are admonished for it," he has been quoted as saying, "weâll continue to help Syria militarily, because they have promised to help us in the same way." .... Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-06-12 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=35317 |