Irak, elezioni, fazioni, Sunniti NYT 05-12-20
24 Ex-funzionari di Hussein scarcerati dagli USA
JOHN F. BURNS
A
due giorni dalle elezioni irachene, per compiacere i sunniti che hanno
ottenuto buoni risultati elettorali, liberati dagli americani 24 ex
funzionari del governo di Saddam Hussein, tra questi le due biologhe
responsabili di armi chimiche di distruzione di massa.
Già un anno fa i militari americani avevano consigliato di rilasciare almeno 13 detenuti, tra cui Taha; alti funzionari dei due governi di transizione si opposero al rilascio delle due donne temendo le reazioni degli sciiti.
Ora, il primo ministro Ibrahim
al-Jaafari, il religioso sciita a capo del governo provvisorio vuole
distendere rapporti con gli arabi sunniti, sperando di essere
confermato nel nuovo governo; la maggior parte dei 24 rilasciati sono appunto arabi sunniti, compresi i 4 esperti di armamenti.
Tra i rilasciati:
- 4 esperti che collaborarono al programma di Hussein per lo sviluppo di armi di distruzione di massa, tra questi le due biologhe, presentate sulla stampa irachena e internazionale come “signora Antrax” e “dottoressa batterio”:
- Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, (51 anni) ha studiato negli USA, unica donna del politburo baathista di Hussein; accusata dagli USA di aver condotto fino a metà anni 1990 un programma di armi biologiche segrete (per diffondere antrace, vaiolo e botulina);
avrebbe cooperato con gli investigatori. Ai reporter stranieri ha
dichiarato che si è invece occupata degli effetti cancerogeni
dell’uranio impoverito usato nelle bombe e nei missili americani nella
guerra del 1991. - Rihab Rashid Taha, (48 anni) ha studiato in GB, ha lavorato sulla guerra batteriologica dalla fine anni 1980 fino al 1995; ha ammesso di aver prodotto agenti batteriologici per uso bellico, che sarebbero stati distrutti.
- Humam Abdel Khaliq al-Ghafur, ex direttore dell’organizzazione per l’energia atomica irachena, accusato dall’ONU prima della guerra del 1991 di nascondere i tentativi iracheni per sviluppare l’atomica;
- Hossam Muhammad Amin, ex generale a capo del direttorio di Hussein per il controllo degli ispettori.
I detenuti rilasciati non rappresenterebbero più una minaccia per la
sicurezza in Irak, non sarebbero in possesso di informazioni utili a
combattere la resistenza e i terroristi.
24 Ex-Hussein Officials Freed From U.S. Custody
By JOHN F. BURNS
lawyers said Monday that a group of 24 former officials in Saddam
Hussein’s government were released from an American military detention
center over the weekend and that they included four leading figures in
Mr. Hussein’s program to develop weapons of mass destruction.
the four are two women who were scientists identified by United Nations
weapons inspectors in the mid-1990’s as having played leading roles in
biological weapons programs.
experts had been held at Camp Cropper, the detention center near
Baghdad Airport that was built to hold Mr. Hussein and his top aides.
Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, an American-trained biologist who was the only
woman on the Revolutionary Command Council, the Baath Party’s politburo
under Mr. Hussein, and Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, a British-educated
biologist, were released Saturday.
a former chief of Iraq’s atomic energy organization, Dr. Humam Abdel
Khaliq al-Ghafur, who was accused by United Nations inspectors of
attempts to cover up Iraq’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons before
the Persian Gulf war in 1991, and Hossam Muhammad Amin, a former
general who headed the monitoring directorate set up by Mr. Hussein to
work with the inspectors, the lawyers said.
the first large-scale release of high-ranking officials of Mr.
Hussein’s government since the American-led invasion in March 2003, came only two days after Iraqis went to the polls on Thursday to choose their first full-term government since the downfall of Mr. Hussein. The American military command said more than a year ago that it had recommended that at least 13 detainees,
including Dr. Taha, be released, and that Dr. Ammash’s case be put
through a review process with a view to her possible release as well.
American leader of a team of Western experts who spent two years
searching unsuccessfully for weapons of mass destruction after the
invasion, Charles A. Duelfer, reported late last year that Dr. Ammash, 51, had cooperated fully with the investigators, and he urged her release. Her family had pressed her case on medical grounds, saying she suffered a recurrence of breast cancer while in detention.
high-ranking officials of Iraq’s two provisional governments in the
last year had resisted the American moves to release the two women,
fearing that it would anger Shiites, the majority population in Iraq,
who were the principal victims of Mr. Hussein’s repression.
The first returns from the election, released Monday, showed strong support for the Shiite religious alliance that has led the transitional government here since May, and a strong showing, too, for a Sunni Arab religious coalition group.
Now, Mr. Aref said, Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a religious Shiite who leads the
transitional government and hopes to be appointed to the post again in
multiparty talks for a new government, seemed eager to ease tensions
with the Sunni Arabs, who were the main beneficiaries of Mr. Hussein’s
rule. Most of the 24 who were released are Sunni Arabs, including the
four weapons experts.
American military statement confirmed only the release of eight former
"high-value detainees," a term the American command has used to
describe the highest-ranking officials of the ousted
government. It gave no names, saying this was in line with a policy
aimed at securing the safety and privacy of those released.
American officials have said in the past that the high-value detainees
held at Camp Cropper included Dr. Ammash, who was No. 53 among the 55
wanted Iraqis on the "deck of cards" list issued by the Pentagon ahead
of the invasion. They also included Dr. Khaliq, the nuclear physicist,
who was No. 54; Mr. Amin, the former general, who was No. 49; and Dr.
Taha, who was not included in the deck of cards.
The statement said of the detainees that "it was determined through a thorough review process that they
no longer pose a threat to the security of Iraq, were not currently
subject to any valid charges under Iraqi law, and possessed no
information of value in fighting the insurgency and terrorists."
said their cases had been reviewed by a "board proceeding" that
involved American and Iraqi representatives, and added, "The Iraqi
government was involved in the process and informed that we have no
cause to continue holding these individuals."
said some of the 24 freed – 16 of them not classified as high-value
detainees, but still high-ranking officials under Mr. Hussein – had
already left Iraq.
whether those who had gone abroad included Dr. Ammash and Dr. Taha, but
contended that the scientists were at risk of attack by Iraqis seeking
revenge for Mr. Hussein’s repression. Both women have been
depicted in harsh terms in sections of the Iraqi press, and by tabloid
newspapers around the world. Dr. Taha has been commonly referred to as
"Dr. Germ," and Dr. Ammash as "Mrs. Anthrax."
days before American troops captured Baghdad, a stern-faced Dr. Ammash
was shown on television attending a command council meeting with Mr.
Hussein.
A doctoral graduate of the
University of Missouri-Columbia, she was accused by American
investigators of managing a secret biological weapons program until the
mid-1990’s that involved the attempted weaponization of anthrax,
smallpox and botulin toxin. But she told foreign reporters that her
scientific work in the 1990’s had concentrated on the cancer-causing
effects of the depleted uranium used in American bombs and missiles
during the 1991 war that drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
Taha, now in her late 40’s, graduated from East Anglia University in
England and worked on germ warfare from the late 1980’s until 1995. United Nations weapons inspectors reported that she had admitted producing germ warfare agents, but that she said they had been destroyed.
Copyright 2005The New York Times