Saddam’s Half-Brother Captured

• February 27, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi security forces captured Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and former adviser, government officials said Sunday, dealing a blow to an insurgency that some Iraqi officials claim the former fugitive was helping organize and fund, perhaps from Syria. The U.S. military also said two American soldiers were killed Sunday in an ambush in the capital.
Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan was No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis released by U.S. authorities after American troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, and he also was named one of the 29 most-wanted supporters of insurgents in Iraq. The United States had a $1 million bounty on his head.
Officials in interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed al-Hassan’s capture but gave no details on where it took place or when. Capt. Ahmed Ismael, an intelligence officer in the Interior Ministry, said al-Hassan was detained early Sunday.
In a statement, Allawi’s office said the arrest “shows the determination of the Iraqi government to chase and detain all criminals who carried out massacres and whose hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people, then bring them to justice to face the right punishment.”

This is great news both in that he was captured and that Iraqi security forces were the ones who did the capturing. The insurgency will no doubt continue in Iraq buts its leaders and supporters are killed/captured it will continue to weaken especially in the new environment of freedom which has taken hold in Iraq, a place where they will find it increasingly difficult to recruit troops.
That aside, what’s with the bolded sentence above? Why is it that every time good news is reported out of Iraq the reporters feel the need to insert little tid-bits of bad news into the story? Its as though the hundreds of negative stories about Iraq filed every day weren’t enough, they need the negativity to leak over into positive stories as well.
I realize that its important for us to know about every story out of Iraq, but when positive news from that region is reported in this fashion I can’t help but feel that the reporting is biased.
Update:
It would appear as though al-Hassan was detained and handed over by Syria. Which, if true (and we have no reason to doubt it), we can probably assume that al-Hassan was operating out of that country with Syria’s blessing. Given that, how can one not conclude that Syria’s about-face and sudden spirit of cooperation is the direct result of President Bush’s policies in that region?

Tags: General

http://Array Gary Gunnels

Rob,

The individual would not likely have been at hand to turn over, no; he would have been in Baghdad one assumes.

But I think you critically confuse what happens in Iraq with what happens in the rest of the Middle East.
Gary Gunnels

Rob,

Given that, how can one not conclude that SyriaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s about-face and sudden spirit of cooperation is the direct result of President BushÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s policies in that region?

Maybe because he wasn’t playing ball in some way? Maybe as a tokenist response? Given your raging TBism though you are always going to assume anything that occurs in the Middle East is a result of the Bush policies, no matter how tagential.

Here we have an example of such; first its you praising the Iraqi military, and when that story went south, you are now spinning the story in a different way so as to make “Dear Leader” Bush look good.
Gary Gunnels

Rob,

BTW, given my political ideology, dislike of the socialist Bush, and his fellow Republican socialists, is the perferred option. There is absolutely no reason to support his administration in any substantive fashion.

Shit, I might as well as ally with the Green party as get behind Bush; they are cut largely from the same statist cloth after all.
JG

The middle east has seen a significant amount of progress since the U.S. began operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, whether youÃ¢â‚¬â„¢d like to acknowledge it or not.

Progress in the wrong direction.

Let’s take Afghanistan, for instance. Virtually everyone on the right and left supported the war in Afghanistan.

Yet, what’s been accomplished? Well, we removed the Taliban from power. But what took the Taliban’s place? Warlords. The leader of Afghanistan, Karzai, is not so jokingly referred to as ‘the mayor of Kabul’ because his power extends to about the city limits.

Warlords and the Taliban rule the rest of the country.

Heroin production has skyrocketed.
JG

To say that warlords now rule Afghanistan is a blatant misrepresentation

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501faessay83305/kathy-gannon/afghanistan-unbound.html

In Afghanistan women are being taught to read for the first time.

In certain urban areas of Kabul, this is true. Out in the countryside, it is not.

One has to have a sense of history in these matters. How did the Taliban come to power in the first place? Well, they didn’t seize power; they were invited to take power. That’s because Afghans were sick of warlords robbing them blind at every turn and abusing their women (this is how Mullah Omar became powerful–he rescued a pair of young girls who had been seized by warlords).
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

To say that warlords now rule Afghanistan is a blatant misrepresentation.

In Afghanistan women are being taught to read for the first time. The government is in the process of setting up a court system and criminal code. Things are getting better all the time.

Sure its slow, but when you start with a society still in the stone age its going to take a while.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Given your raging TBism though you are always going to assume anything that occurs in the Middle East is a result of the Bush policies, no matter how tagential.

Perhaps, but given your raging opposition to the current administration I’m guessing you’re willing to assume anything positive that occurs in the Middle East is not a result of Bush policies.

But that aside, can you say that this still would have hapened absent Bush’s influence in the region?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Shit, I might as well as ally with the Green party as get behind Bush; they are cut largely from the same statist cloth after all.

Doesn’t mean you’re any less capable of separating your feelings about the current administration from your opinions about current events.

But I think you critically confuse what happens in Iraq with what happens in the rest of the Middle East.

The middle east has seen a significant amount of progress since the U.S. began operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, whether you’d like to acknowledge it or not.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

In certain urban areas of Kabul, this is true. Out in the countryside, it is not.

One step at a time. Though I’m sure that as soon as the education centers reach the country you’ll move the goalposts again.

One has to have a sense of history in these matters. How did the Taliban come to power in the first place?

What possible evidence do we have to suggest that Afghanistan’s new government will become anything like the Taliban?

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