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

Nuclear Israel and Mideast

PV Vivekanand

THE LIBYAN decision to abandon programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction may or may not have anything to do with what the world saw happening in Iraq in the name of WMD, but it raises again one of the key concerns of the countries of the Middle East — the Israeli arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
It has for long been a demand of the countries of the Middle East that the region be free of weapons of mass destruction. It was also one of the key objectives of the Arab-Israeli peace process launched in Madrid in 1991. Several rounds of talks were held indeed after the Madrid conference, but Israel's deceptive approach to the issue torpedoed the effort.
We have heard US President George Bush welcoming the Libyan move and calling on other nations to recognize that the pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons brings not influence or prestige, but "isolation and otherwise unwelcome consequences."
But we did not hear the US president mention Israel. Would it be that Bush forgot that Israel possesses one of the largest stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Granted that it might not have tonnes and tonnes of chemical or biological weapons stored, but it is known that Israel has perfected the techniques and keeps in battle readiness the components to make such weapons at short notice. That is not to mention its nuclear arsenal of up to 200 warheads and indeed more than that of the UK.
Perhaps Washington might not want to mention Israel's stocks and continuing pursuit of WMD if only because US assistance in material and technology might have had a lot to do with what is in Israel's possession now.
Israel always got away with refusing to deny or confirm its possession of WMD but asserting only that it would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East. The US not only went along with the Israeli posture but also protected its "strategic partner" in the Middle East whenver pressure mounted on it to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The US always used its diplomatic clout at the UN to ward off the pressure on Israel to sign the NPT and allow the UN to inspect its nuclear facilities. In the latest round, four years ago, Washington got tough with Egypt and warned Cairo to stay off Israel's case.
Of course, it was part of the established pattern that international law has two faces when it comes to the US and its allies, particularly Israel.
If our memory serves us right, Israel has often cited the need to defend itself against Iraqi and Libyan weapons in order to justify, however implictly, its own weapons programmes.
Today, Iraq's weapons are no more (that, if it had any to start with at the beginning of the war that led to the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime), and Libya has announced it is abandoning all its WMD programmes. Isn't time Washington turned its focus onto Israel?