 BAGHDAD â Iraqâs national security adviser said yesterday he wanted to re-arrest Saddam Husseinâs former top weapons experts, as the US military confirmed the release of 14 more high-ranking detainees. Scientists Rihab Taha and Huda Ammash â âDr Germâ and âMrs Anthraxâ to the Western media â were among eight former senior figures under Saddam freed on December 17. Along with several of the 14 more now technically freed, they appear to be still in US care for their own protection, awaiting flights abroad.
| Where we'll continue to pick their brains apart. |
A lawyer for Ammash and others dismissed the announcement of Iraqi arrest warrants as âpure theatreâ, saying the government had agreed to a deal under which, he said, US forces had freed the 22 Saddam aides on condition they leave the country.
| Yup, they gotta go. Someplace tropical. I know just the place. |
National Security Adviser Mowaffak Al Rubaie said after he met top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani in Najaf that he would not accept their being at liberty: âThere are warrants of arrest for them issued by Iraqi judicial authorities and if they are released, weâll arrest them.â
The Shia Islamist-led government, bolstered by last weekâs election success, is clearly eager that supporters see it as being tough on Saddam, now on trial, and his followers. Many minority Sunni Arabs, dominant under the old regime, view the government as vindictive and accuse it of abusing human rights. US officials have declined formally to name those freed.
âThe 22 individuals no longer posed a security threat to the people of Iraq and to the coalition forces,â US commander General George Casey said yesterday in a joint statement with the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. US forces âtherefore, had no legal basis to hold them any longerâ, the statement went on, adding: âThe detainees have been released in Iraq. We have not transported any of them outside Iraq or provided them with passports or other travel documents.â
| "But all the new government has to do is ask." |
|