Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - (AP) The Saudi king has asked U.S.
President George W. Bush to release Saddam Hussein's half brother on
humanitarian grounds, the daily Al-Riyadh reported Wednesday.
The paper quoted unidentified sources as saying that King Abdullah
had sent a letter to Bush asking him to release Barazan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
because he is suffering from an advanced stage of cancer.
The paper, which is state guided, did not say when the letter was
sent.
Saudi government officials could not be reached for comment
Wednesday, the eve of a Muslim feast. However, last Friday, the Saudi-owned
newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported that al-Tikriti had written to the
leaders of Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates asking
them to help free him and saying he had nothing to do with Saddam's 35 years
of brutal rule.
Al-Tikriti is one seven former officials of Saddam's regime who are
standing trial with the former dictator for the massacre of nearly 150
people in Dujail, central Iraq, in 1982. He was chief of intelligence at
time of Dujail killings, and later served as Iraq's ambassador to the United
Nations in Geneva.
He was captured days after Saddam's regime fell in April, 2003, and
is held in U.S. custody in Baghdad.
President George W. Bush to release Saddam Hussein's half brother on
humanitarian grounds, the daily Al-Riyadh reported Wednesday.
The paper quoted unidentified sources as saying that King Abdullah
had sent a letter to Bush asking him to release Barazan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
because he is suffering from an advanced stage of cancer.
The paper, which is state guided, did not say when the letter was
sent.
Saudi government officials could not be reached for comment
Wednesday, the eve of a Muslim feast. However, last Friday, the Saudi-owned
newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported that al-Tikriti had written to the
leaders of Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates asking
them to help free him and saying he had nothing to do with Saddam's 35 years
of brutal rule.
Al-Tikriti is one seven former officials of Saddam's regime who are
standing trial with the former dictator for the massacre of nearly 150
people in Dujail, central Iraq, in 1982. He was chief of intelligence at
time of Dujail killings, and later served as Iraq's ambassador to the United
Nations in Geneva.
He was captured days after Saddam's regime fell in April, 2003, and
is held in U.S. custody in Baghdad.