The Telegraph (UK) is all over Syria providing asylum for fugitive Iraqi leaders -- they report that "thousands" went to Syria in return for big payments. And they corroborate that France is facilitating further escapes. One can only hope that Syria's footdragging on turning them over is mainly for show. If not, things will go badly for them in due time.
The king of clubs from America's card deck of most wanted Iraqis is being sheltered at a military base in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to a Gulf diplomat. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former vice-president of Iraq and one of Saddam Hussein's closest henchmen, is said to be under the protection of Syria's Republican Guard in the decrepit military base near the airport. He is among thousands of regime figures who are believed to have slipped into Syria before Damascus sealed the border. Izzat had been put in charge of defending northern Iraq but in the absence of a northern front, he decided to flee.
Many other Iraqis are making plans to move on from Syria. Last week, American intelligence officials accused France of providing passports to fleeing regime officials who want to come to western Europe. The French government denied the charges, but a Syrian employee of the French embassy in Damascus claimed that eight Iraqi officials from the oil and finance ministries had been given passports in the middle of April. "The commercial section of the embassy received passports for eight Iraqi officials and members of their families," he said. He claimed that Paris also ordered that a passport issued for Tahir Jalil al-Habbush, a former head of Iraq's Mukhabarat intelligence service who is on America's wanted list, should be cancelled soon after it had arrived. It remains unclear whether al-Habbush is in Syria.
Posted by Alan at May 10, 2003 09:14 PM