Saturday, December 20, 2003

Man who betrayed Iraq

THE MAN who "betrayed Iraq" and gave the tip-off that
led to the capture of Saddam Hussein was a distant
relative of the ousted president, according to Iraqi
sources in Tikrit. The sources identified the man as
Qusai Rasoul, who they say was among the most trusted
Saddam loyalist at one point.
"We are almost sure that this animal and son of a
bitch was the one who gave the information to the
Americans," said one source speaking in Arabic using
the term "heyawan" (animal) and "ibn al khalb" (son of
a bitch) to describe him. "He should not have broken
down under questioning no matter what, but it seems he
did and this makes him a traitor of Iraq. We will
never forgive him. We will give him a death worse than
a dog's."
According to the sources, Qusai Rasoul was among a
dozen people picked up by American soldiers about a
week before Saddam's capture on Saturday and
reportedly subjected to intense questioning.
A few of those questioned were released two days
later, and they told fellow Tikriti loyalists of
Saddam after the capture of the former president that
they believed Qusai Rasoul was the man who fingered
the ousted leader.
"It was not as if the others knew where Saddam was and
they did not talk," said the source. "They, like most
others, did not know but they knew that Qusai Rasoul
could have some idea."
Qusai Rasoul is believed to be still held under US
custody and it is unlikely that he would be entitled
to the $25 million bounty on Saddam's head since he
had not volunteered the information and gave it out
under pressure.
"We are searching for him now, and he would die a slow
and painful death when we catch him," said the
source. "All the people Tikrit would take part in his
execution by tearing him apart."
The information provided by Qusai Rasoul was the name
of another man whom he perhaps knew was sheltering the
ousted leader. That man was Qais Al Namek, who once
served Saddam in Baghdad but retired several years ago
and returned to his home and farming in Al Dawr,
located about 25 kilometres northeast of Tikrit.
According to the US military, a 600-member American
military unit - a special task force mandated to
ferret out Saddam — made a beeline for Al Dawr after
receiving "actionable intelligence" about Saddam's
whereabouts. They laid siege to Namek's home as well
as his nearby farmhouse. It was in an underground
cellar in the yard of the farmhouse that they
discovered Saddam and arrested him. The two targets
were the areas codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2
in the American operation.
While the Tikriti sources were not privy to details of
the raid and arrest, they said if it was true that
Saddam was found hiding inside a cellar in Al Dawr,
then it was definitely at Namek's farmhouse.
Arrested along with Saddam was Namek's two sons, who
were present at the site, according to other sources.
A red and white taxi, which was apparently used by
Saddam to move around, was owned by one of the sons.
That was also hauled away by the American soldiers,
obviously hoping it might provide some clue to the
places that Saddam might have frequented.
None of the Tikrit sources who spoke to Manorama knew
where the elder Qais Al Namek was or even whether he
was alive or dead or in American captivity.
According to the sources, Qais Al Namek, a schoolmate
of Saddam, was enlisted into the private circles the
president in the 70s, but he left Baghdad a few years
ago complaining of ill-health.
It was since he did not figure in any American list of
people who were believed close to the president at the
time of his ouster from power that Namek's home or
farmhouse did not figure high in the toppled leader's
suspected hideout.
At the same time, the sources in Tikrit said they
believed -- although they did not actually know
specifics — that the Namek hideout could have been
among the dozens of such cellars where Saddam could
have been hiding since he went underground following
the fall of Baghdad to US forces.
"There are dozens like Nameks who would give their
life to Saddam," commented the source.
That declaration confirms the belief that it was
highly unlikely that Saddam spent all the time since
April at Namek's farmhouse. He would have changed
places very frequently. This means that he had to have
Namek-like hideouts to retire to whenever the American
heat got closer to him.
However, the US force hunting for Saddam had not
reported finding any such empty cellars during their
failed effort to locate Saddam on Saturday. But that
did not mean there were not any since the US would
have kept it a tightly guarded secret that they had
some clue to the means of hiding adopted by Saddam