 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.
| Two possibilities: 1.) It's true. That'd imply Syria's bending over backwards to be accomodating toward us and toward Iraq — keep in mind that despite its current fairly dire straits, under normal conditions it's a much more significant power than Syria. 2.) It's false, we or the Iraqis caught him or some combination thereof. Thanking the Syrians for it drives a large wedge between them and the Bad Guyz, who can't afford not to believe it's true. I'd call it a win-win situation for the Good Guys. |
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.
| They'd claim that either way, true or false... |
But Capt. Ahmed Ismael, an intelligence officer in the Interior Ministry, said Hasan was detained early Sunday.
| Which'd likely be when he was detained by the Iraqis, assuming the Syrians (or the CIA or the Israelis or the Turks) had him until then... |
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.
| Whether they want it to be or not. At least one segment of the Syrian power structure doesn't know whether to spit or go blind today. Possibly all of it... |
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. |