Iraqi officials say, I'm choking back a laugh here, that Syrian authorities had been the ones to capture Saddam's latest half-brother and turned him over.
The arrests dealt a blow to an insurgency that some Iraqi officials claim Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan was helping organize and fund from Syria. The U.S. military said two American soldiers were killed Sunday in an ambush in the capital.
Al-Hassan, a former Saddam adviser, was captured in Hasakah in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, two senior Iraqi officials told The Associated Press by telephone on condition of anonymity. Hasakah is about 30 miles from Iraq.
They added that al-Hassan was captured and handed over to Iraqi authorities along with 29 other members of Saddam's collapsed Baath Party, whose Syrian branch has been in power in Damascus since 1963.The Iraqi officials did not specify when al-Hassan was captured, only saying he was detained following the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon, in a blast that killed 16 others.
There is some confusion about who actually made the arrest, but still, no one can tell me that this would have happened had the Iraqi elections not gone so well and had Bush not been so forthright. Syria is coming to terms with the prospect that things have changed in the Middle East.
These people that Syria handed over today could have been in custody for some time, or at least under surveillance or protection. Now that things are turning against them, the terror masters (to borrow from Michael Ledeen) in Syria are scrambling to make themselves look like they're good guys. I doubt it will work. The best thing for Iraq to do is get as much out of them as is possible and then be done.
Assad is the worst kind of dictator. By that I mean the most craven, weak and unsuccessful kind. I bet daddy is rolling in his grave. Sooner of later those around him will be reminded of what has happened to Saddam and his inner circle and realize that Assad Jr. doesn't belong in the dictator's club anymore. The straws will be drawn and someone's going to take the boy on a long ride.
I'm thinking about a Syrian fat Clemenza type to drive the car. "Who? Bashir? Oh, you won't be hearing much from him anymore."
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