Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Saddam - still Iraq's most wanted
The Iraqi rumor mill is going crazy lately:
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Iran rejected claims by Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer that unnamed Iranian-backed Iraqi politicians were plotting to assassinate the ousted dictator in his Baghdad prison cell.Hey, maybe now that he's out of a job, Iyad Allawi can shoot Saddam? And maybe they decided to off Saddam because he wouldn't play along:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi's comments followed claims by a Jordanian lawyer that a former Iraqi government official, identified as Hazem al-Obeidi, had warned Saddam's defence team a man was being trained to work as Saddam's personal guard before killing him.
"Saddam has been dead since a long time ago, he doesn't need to be assassinated," Asefi told reporters, poking fun at the claims.
"Iran considers such accusations ridiculous and not compatible with any sort of logic."
Iraqi national security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie also scoffed at the accusations by Ziad al-Khasawneh, describing them as a ploy to have Saddam moved to another country to face an international court.
US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld paid a secret visit to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and offered him his freedom and a possible return to public life if he made a televised request to insurgents in Iraq to call a ceasefire with allied forces, according to the pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.The first story comes from a Jordanian lawyer, the second one via Iraqi officials in Jordan - is there something in the water in Amman?
Saddam rejected Rumsfeld's proposal out of hand, according to Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Rumsfeld offered to strike a deal with Saddam two weeks ago when he paid a ‘surprise’ visit to Iraq. The offer was known to just a few Iraqi officials in Jordan, the Arab daily reported, quoting anonymous sources.
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