Say Anything Blog

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?