HIGH LEVEL DEFECTORS GO BACK TO IRAQ\Saddam sons-in-law end strange exile.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. The most senior Iraqi official ever to defect returned home Tuesday, ending a bizarre six-month exile in which he had vowed to topple Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (born April 28, 1937, Tikrit, Iraq—died Dec. 30, 2006, Baghdad) President of Iraq (1979–2003). He joined the Ba'th Party in 1957. Following participation in a failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres. , his father-in-law. Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid (Arabic: حسين كامل حسن الماجد) (died February 23, 1996) was the son-in-law and second cousin of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. al-Majid and his brother, Col. Saddam Kamel Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid was the second cousin and son-in-law of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He was married to Rana Hussein and was the brother of Hussein Kamel (who was also married to a daughter of Saddam, Raghad Hussein). , crossed the desert highway into Iraq with their wives - both daughters of the Iraqi leader. Their 25-vehicle caravan hauled furniture and documents. The entourage arrived in Baghdad late Tuesday, Iraq's state-run television reported. It said Saddam had agreed to allow al-Majid to return after the defector pleaded for a pardon on Saturday. The Iraqi report said the Revolutionary Command Council, headed by Saddam, approved the return and would "deal with him as an ordinary citizen." During his time in Jordan, al-Majid was shunned by the Iraqi dissidents he had hoped to lead and ignored by Arab and Western governments. He lived in isolation outside Amman in a palace provided by the Jordanian monarch. Sources close to al-Majid, once Saddam's right-hand man and head of Iraq's clandestine weapons programs, said he became bad-tempered as time passed. Jordanian officials said most of the 30 people who defected with al-Majid returned to Iraq with him. They included his wife Raghad, eldest of Saddam's three daughters and once his favorite; and Kamel's wife Rana, Saddam's middle daughter. The defection in August reportedly resulted from a feud between al-Majid and Saddam's eldest son, Odai. At the time, the spectacle of discord Discord See also Confusion. Andras demon of discord. [Occultism: Jobes, 93] discord, apple of caused conflict among goddesses; Trojan War ultimate result. [Gk. Myth. within Saddam's inner circle was considered a major blow to the Iraqi leader. Shortly after defecting, al-Majid told the Associated Press that he left because he "could not continue to tolerate the oppression of the Iraqi people and the savagery Savagery Apache Indians once fierce fighting tribe of American West. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 123] bandersnatch imaginary wild animal of great ferocity. [Br. Lit. of the regime." The defection did not threaten Saddam's rule. But al-Majid's knowledge of the regime's inner workings forced Baghdad to give U.N. weapons inspectors data on Iraq's military programs that had been hidden since the Gulf War. U.N. weapons monitors said the data helped fill in gaps about their knowledge of the Iraqi programs, but they are still seeking proof that all weapons of mass destruction Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, but exclude the means of transporting or have been destroyed. CAPTION(S): PHOTO Hussein Kamel al-Majid Shunned in Jordan |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion