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| Iraq |
| US hands over Tariq Aziz, other detainees: Iraq |
| 2010-07-15 |
| The US has handed over 55 former members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, including the longtime international face of the regime, Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy justice minister said Wednesday. The announcement comes a day before US authorities are to transfer authority of Camp Cropper, the last American-run detention facility to the Iraqi government. Iraq's deputy justice minister Busho Ibrahim told that the handover has taken place over the last three days, starting on Monday. "As of today, we have received 55 former regime officials, the main one is Tariq Aziz, and the others are the oil and culture ministers," he said, adding that they have also received Saddam's former secretary Abed Hmoud, as well as the former education and trade ministers in Saddam's regime. The US military confirmed that some detainees had been handed over but did not provide identities. Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy operations director of the Iraqi military, and Sultan Hashim al-Taie, the former defense minister, were not handed over, the Iraqi official said. As of Thursday, Iraqi security officials will control Camp Cropper, and the US will hand over roughly 1,600 Iraqi prisoners currently in American custody. However, US military officials have said previously that about 200 prisoners will remain in American custody at the request of Iraqi officials. The handover is part of US plans to draw down to 50,000 troops by the end of August in anticipation of all American forces leaving by the end of next year. Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam's mainly Sunni regime, became internationally known as the dictator's defender and a fierce American critic as foreign minister after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which led to the Gulf War, and later as a deputy prime minister who frequently traveled abroad on diplomatic missions. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Aziz is probably only alive because the Americans arrested him before he had a stroke, so he got medical care. Always an also-ran, he is a Chaldean Catholic. Saddam's pet Christian. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-07-15 08:56 |