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| Iraq |
| Kurdish militia capture Iraqi ex-vice president |
| 2003-08-20 |
| Details of yesterday’s arrest. EFL: Kurdish militiamen captured Iraq’s feared former vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, in a bloodless operation in this northern city Tuesday and turned him over to the U.S. military, marking one of the highest-profile arrests since most of ousted President Saddam Hussein’s leadership went underground after his government collapsed in April. Ramadan, once one of Saddam’s closest advisers, was seized with three guards soon after midnight from a two-story villa in the northern city of Mosul, where U.S. forces killed Saddam’s two eldest sons last month. After trying to flee through a back door, Ramadan surrendered peacefully, Kurdish officials said. "He wasn’t expecting anyone," said Sadi Ahmed Pire, the local director of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main Kurdish parties whose militiamen seized Ramadan. Did I mention I like the Kurds? Pire said Kurdish officials had been actively pursuing Ramadan for two weeks. He credited the break to a series of arrests of Ramadan’s aides over the previous 48 hours. The final arrest led to Ramadan’s private secretary, who divulged Ramadan’s exact whereabouts in an upscale neighborhood known as Wahda. "I’ll talk, I’ll talk, just put that thing away!" At 12:30 a.m., Kurdish militiamen brought an aide of Ramadan’s to the front door. Recognizing his voice, guards allowed him to enter, and about 15 militiamen rushed in, Pire said. Kurdish militiamen took Ramadan to their headquarters in Mosul and turned him over to the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, which is stationed nearby. I really, really like the Kurds. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 Anybody know the national anthem of Kurdistan? |
| Posted by: Matt 2003-8-20 2:25:37 PM |
| #3 More details: An Arabic TV station broadcast footage Wednesday of former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan's capture this week, showing pictures of a docile captive who had been a ruthless lieutenant to Saddam Hussein. Kurdish forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan captured Ramadan Monday in Mosul, the northern Iraqi city where the fugitive dictator's sons were killed last month. In the footage shown on Al Jazeera Wednesday, men blindfolded and handcuffed a placid and silent Ramadan in a house with a portrait of PUK leader Jalal Talabani on the wall. "We are not like you, we have a conscience," one man told Ramadan, referring to massacres of Kurdish and Shi'ite Muslim opponents by Saddam's forces during the Iraqi leader's 24-year rule. "There wasn't a beautiful girl in Baghdad that you didn't touch. We knew about everything," the man was heard saying. "I don't know," Ramadan said. "You were vice president, so don't say you don't know," his interrogator replied. "I won't hit you," he added. The man also said they had been hunting for two months for Ramadan, whose hair and mustache appeared gray in the TV recording. They had been dark before he disappeared. Ramadan, a ruthless and long-serving right-hand man who once suggested President Bush fight a duel with Saddam, was handed over to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division a few hours later, after a brief interrogation by the PUK. How'd that duel work out, Taha? Guess you forgot that the challenged party gets to pick weapons. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-8-20 2:11:02 PM |
| #2 Turkey now has an incentive to help out, namely the pipeline. When the pipeline from Kirkuk to Turkey is working, the fees to Turkey range up to $1/barrel and Turkist citizens get jobs at the Med terminus of the pipeline. Turkey got a taste of fees last week before the ALQ/Baathists struck. All the distrust, etc. doesn't mean much when there is a cold cash potential,especially for a government that is frequently in precarious financial condition. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-8-20 11:26:54 AM |
| #1 Did they beat him? Did they torture a confession out of him? Did they gas him, slit his throat and hang him by the heels from some street lamp? What a bunch of wussies. I like the Kurds a lot but they seem to be a little soft hearted to really get into the anti-terrorism thing....they need a bit more killer instinct. Oh excuse me, I forgot about the reward money.....now THAT is capitalism in action. |
| Posted by: SOG475 2003-8-20 10:38:48 AM |