Wife, Daughter of Top Iraqi Fugitive Arrested

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=C02BB33D-DFF8-4E69-9A2D5FB54059C415

U.S. forces in Iraq say they have arrested the wife and daughter of a top Iraqi fugitive suspected of masterminding attacks against coalition forces.
A military spokesman says the wife and daughter of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri were taken into custody Tuesday in the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad. Mr. al-Douri was a longtime associate of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He was deputy leader of Iraq's ruling Revolutionary Command Council and reportedly played a key role in cracking down on political dissent and in overseeing Iraq's use of chemical weapons against ethnic kurds in 1988.

The United States has offered a reward of up to $10 million for his capture. He is number six on the 55 most-wanted officials from the former Iraqi regime.
<snip>

Related story: http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V0201.AP-Iraq.html;COXnetJSessionID=1EDS11INkt10to8h8uRSNo2h21Jt86UjaoXUo80N01e1FOUj5ARd!289567689?urac=n&urvf=10698432187500.892303250523442

U.S. Arrests Wife of Saddam Deputy
By NIKO PRICE
Associated Press Writer


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)--U.S. troops arrested the wife and daughter of a top Saddam Hussein deputy suspected of masterminding attacks on U.S. troops, and a major pipeline linking northern Iraqi oilfields to the country's biggest refinery was ablaze Wednesday.

Hours after large explosions shook the center of Baghdad near U.S. headquarters, the visiting British foreign secretary said Iraq will be a safer place once the U.S.- and British-led coalition hands over power to an Iraqi government.

Troops of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division in Samarra, 70 miles north of Baghdad, arrested the wife and daughter of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a top Saddam associate, division spokesman Lt. Col. William MacDonald said Wednesday.

Under Saddam, al-Douri was vice chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council, and shortly before the war began March 20, Saddam placed him in charge of defenses in northern Iraq.

U.S. officials have said they believe al-Douri has planned some of the attacks against U.S. forces, and last week offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. Al-Douri is No. 6 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

MacDonald said a man he identified as the son of a physician was also taken into custody in the raid Tuesday. He had no further information about the man.

<snip>

I guess if we can't get the bad guys, we'll get the families. Now who in history does that sound like?

[plurality]

1. It sounds like something only the most moral of armies would do!

I know that for the longest time the title of most moral army in the world belonged to the IDF. Now unless Israel all of a sudden became a member of the coalition of the bought...wait, uh, foolish, no that wasn't it, uh insane...damnit, willing! that's it! Could it be that our soldiers have overtaken the IDF as the most moral army in the world! Yeah! I'm sooo proud! USA! USA! We're number 1!

/if you didn't catch the sarcasm you need to lighten your ass up/

[prolesunited]

6. Seems to me I read something

about bulldozing or bombing residences in Iraq as well or was that just a figment of my nightmare?

Have they looked at Israel? Do they really think these "solutions" are working over there?

[J B]

2. The US, sadly, now has a history of this

A colonel did something similar and a wanted Iraqi man turned himself in to free his family from being held hostage.

[teryang]

3. Arrested for what?

Let's admit it. We take hostages.

[IndianaGreen]

4. An accurate headline would say: US takes civilian hostages

We are the Nazis of the 21st century, all the way down to concentration camps (Guantanamo).

[Drifter]

5. Arrested ???

Don't you mean kidnapped ?

Doesn't this make Laura and the girls fair game for terrorists ?

Cheers
Drifter

[ConcernedCanuk]

20. "Doesn't this make Laura and the girls fair game for terrorists ?" Zactly

. . my thoughts as soon as I read the Headline

. . $hrubCo has opened another door

- "Pre-emptive Kidnapping"

[atreides1]

7. The New 2nd SS, Das Reich

Taking hostages, arresting family members without charges, and destroying homes.

The only thing left for the 4th ID to do is to wipe out an entire Iraqi town, or massacre Iraqi civilians. But there's still time for
that.

I know that these troops think that they are following orders, but
there are legal orders and illegal orders. The taking of hostages is
illegal, and the chain of command knows this.

The US no longer has any moral ground to stand on. You can't arrest
someone without charging them with a crime, and you can't "arrest"
family members just because someone else in a family is leading a
resistance movement. These are the same tactics of the Nazis and all
other tyranical governments.

I wonder how Lt. Col. MacDonald would feel if the police aressted his
family for a crime he committed, I guess then it wouldn't be fair.

[LiberalFighter]

17. It is no different when..

Bush was upset that the Iraqis fought back when he invaded Iraq and upset that Iraqis are attacking and killing US troops after the war was declared over.

But of course it is okay for dimwad to have the troops kill and attack Iraqis.

[Snellius]

8. Will they torture them on TV?

Now that's a civilized way to bring freedom to the world!

[DuctapeFatwa]

10. It would be a popular move with the voting class

Most of the affluent classes would have no problem with it - they are Muslims, after all.

And when the strategy is expanded to include Americans who are critical of the regime, many here may be surprised to see how quickly the flurry of mild objections dies down.

[Robb]

9. Wife, daughter arrested...

...puppy tortured. Heads ripped off dolls.

Man, I LOVE the moral high ground. Feels good up here!

[theHandpuppet]

11. Doesn't this violate the Geneva Convention?

A serious question... I'm wondering if anyone here knows.

[DuctapeFatwa]

13. Many things the bush and sharon regimes do violate 4th Geneva

Which countries have formed a coalition to disarm these pariah regimes and bring the leaders to justice?

[TacticalPeek]

12. We had to destroy our Constitution in order to destroy Iraq.

We had to destroy Iraq in order, of course, to save it.


got family?

[underpants]

14. How is #6 the "Top fugitive"? Uh.....Saddam anyone?

Aside form Saddam who they haven't caught yet he could be the last REMAINING fugitive (have they caught 2-5?) Aside form Saddam who they haven't caught yet.

[Sapphocrat]

15. And lest we forget...

Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said, because, "It's an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info." They would have been released in due course, he added later. ...

More here:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002551/2003/07/28.html#a313

I blogged it in July, along with the tale of how the 7- and 9-year-old sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were kidnapped in Pakistan and handed over to our very own CIA, which brought the boys to the U.S., and "interrogated" them (!??!!!) at a "secret address." That was in the fall of 2002. Don't know whatever happened to those kids.

Also included: Just which part of the Geneva Conventions the U.S. is spitting on.

Makes me even sicker than American treatment of prisoners as Bagram.

[markses]

16. Here's what the report doesn't tell us

Were these people even on the run, or in hiding? How long have we known where they were?

If this family is simply living openly in the same place they have been living, then this is very obviously a kidnapping and hostage taking operation.

Even, however, if the family was "on the run," the operational logic is hostage-taking, since it is unlikely that the wife or daughter had anything to do with what this man is being "sought" for.

This is not even to raise the obvious: The so-called "coalition forces" have no juridical ground to detain anybody for anything, and are little more than a pack of pirates, or bandits.

[0007]

18. Who falls for this kind of propaganda?

A big scare tactic that may not work.

If the U.S. indeed wanted this man why wouldn't they just put the wife and daughter out for bait, and then Step back and wait.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

22. Go to freeper land. They do.

[Fleshdancer]

19. Keep Neil Bush away from the daughter n/t

[IndianaGreen]

21. Taking of hostages violates the Geneva Convention

This is why Bush and the rightwing have fought to keep the US from being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

We condemned Milosevic, Saddam, and North Korea for taking civilian hostages, but when it comes to American actions, we are supposed to shut up and blindly support the troops.

I won't shut up, and I won't support the troops. I will support war crimes trials against Bush & Co, and the immediate withdrawal of all US troops and personnel from Iraq.

PART 2. JURISDICTION, ADMISSIBILITY AND APPLICABLE LAW

Article 5
Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court

2. For the purpose of this Statute, "war crimes" means:

(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:

(i) Wilful killing;

(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;

(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;

(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;

(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;

(vi) Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;

(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;

(viii) Taking of hostages.

http://www.un.org/law/icc/statute/romefra.htm