Show rf - A2 — The Herald Journal Logan Utah Monday April 14 2003 Q America at war Ddfl ©©aMffiiro WASHINGTON (AP) — Several top officials of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq including the presi- dent’s half brother and a former science adviser have been captured by allied forces The Iraqis are being interrogated about Iraq’s suspected chemical biological and nuclear weapons programs US officials said Sunday They also are being pressed for details on where Saddam is if he is alive as well as the whereabouts of other former Iraqi leaders The captured Iraqis include Wat-ba- n Ibrahim Hasan one of Saddam’s three half brothers who once served as lraq’s interior minister Hasan was the five of spades in the deck of playing cards the US military issued with pictures of wanted Iraqis The war’s commander Gen Tommy Franks said Sunday dut the United States was holding several Iraqi prisoners in western Iraq Neither he nor Pentagon officials would say how many leading Iraqis have been captured As tire fighting in Iraq winds down American forces are stepping up the search) for the chemical and biological weapons the United States high-ranki- : IhidDllcDaim accuses Saddam’s government of having stashed away So far no caches of weapons of mass destruction have been confirmed in Iraq military officials said Sunday US forces have a list of 2000 to 3 000 sites in Iraq that need to be checked and weapons teams are checking up to 20 sites a day Franks said Iraqis ranging from common ' g officials have people to suggested other possible hiding places to be searched Ranks and ' other military officials said “There are so many sites we are not able to get to all of them right high-rankin- away” a senior Pentagon official said Sunday speaking on condition of anonymity “It’s fur to say there arealotof places US forces are adding to the list” One fornrer Iraqi official who could provide major help for the hunt is Li Gen Amer who surrendered to American forces on the seven of diaSaturday monds in the US deck of cards was Saddam’s point man on weapons of mass destruction Pentagon officials said Sunday was drey did not know if sticking to his prewar assertions that Al-Saa- di al-Sa- Bush tells Syria not to harbor top Iraqi - WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush warned Syria on Sunday not to harbor Iraqi leaders and charged that Dam- ascus has chemical weapons but was careful not to threaten military action “They just need to cooperate” Bush said He sought to strike the kind of measured tone he has used when discussing tire North Korea crisis “We expect cooperation and I’m hopeful we’ll receive cooperation” he told reporters after returning to the White House from Camp David ' However some top administration officials made plain the administration is increasingly frustrated by Syria Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said the majority of foreign fighters in Iraq were from Syria brought in by the “busloads” On one bus military authorities found leaflets that offered rewards for killing Americans and several hundred thousand dollars Rums- -: feld said on the CBS program “Face the Nation ” Rumsfeld also said top members of Saddam’s government had fled to Syria US-le- d forces captured one of Saddam Hussein’s half brothers in northern Iraq and said he was planning to cross the border to Syria Rumsfeld last month warned Syria to stop sending military equipment — includgoggles — to ing night-visio- n Iraqi forces saying “We consider such trafficking as hos- tile acts and will hold the - Syrian government accountable for such shipments" Bush and Rumsfeld were ambiguous about what price Syria might pay for defying the United States but seemed eager to make sure that Damascus understood the message in the coalition’s toppling of Saddam “People have got to know that we are serious about stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction” Bush said Noting during an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press” that Syria is on the State Department's list of al-Sa- i ' family Iraqi prison feared by many now lies empty Iraqis shout anti-U- S slogans on Sunday at a square near the Palestine Hotel where foreign journalists are staying in expressed increasing frustration over the lawlessness that has gripped the capital since the arrival of US troops j ABU GHRAIB Iraq (AP) — Falah Hassan spent five years behind the walls of Abu Ghraib prison before he was freed in a mass pardon last fall On Sunday he strolled around what was once one of the world’s most feared prisons playing guide to a visitor while looking for a power generator to loot “They tortured me every day in my first six months hoe After that it was a beating hoe a beating there” recalled Hassan who said he jail term in 1998 got a for stealing a pair of trousers and a shirt off a laundry line Abu Ghraib a sprawling compound 12 miles west of Baghdad was considered one' of the most potent symbols of AP photo Saddam Hussein’s regime a tales source of horror and of Baghdad Iraqis despair It’s eerily empty now stripped clean by looters who hauled off desk chairs computers sewing machines and inmates’ belongings Many cell doors locked for so long 15-ye- ar Hope and worry grip Baghdad ' By Charles JT Hanley AP Special Correspondent On the Karada district’s commercial street Karim dumped fresh bags of beans into the boxes at his corner stand “I stayed open through all the bombing” the vegetable vendor said story in a way tells the two sides of the lightning conflict in Iraq: “It’s good that they’re gone” he said of the authoritarian Baath Party regime of President Saddam Hussein Now he said he may be able to find his brother in a ' political prison 12 years after his arrest Then 30 made note of the bad — two teenage cousins killed by aq American bomb south of Baghdad as they stood in their doorway And he turned back to his beans Beneath the stained-glas- s windows at Our Lady of Deliverance a church of Iraq's tiny Christian minority parishioners collected their Palm Sunday olive branches representing the palm frtmds that welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem Their welcome for the US Marines in east Baghdad is less than a hosanna however “We’re happy the Americans have ended the regime” said Msgr Raphael Qutiimi the pastor “But that’s not enough They need to quickly return ih BAGHDAD Iraq — Handfuls of Baghdad’s Christians gathered to grasp a bit of greenery and a message of hope this Palm Sunday in a city and nation struggling to restore the rhythms of the calender of commerce and of their lives But war dragged on and lawlessness reigned Four days after US forces claimed control of Baghdad gunfire crackled somewhere in the city center in the early 'morning darkness Drifting palls of smoke blackened the dawn sky the legacy of looting Chinook helicopters clattered past the blue-til- e domes of Baghdad’s mosques Mysterious thuds and rumbles resounded through the warm afternoon A prewar visitor coming back to Baghdad was surprised to find traffic thick on Amiriyah a main boulevard Baghdadis said movement was growing more normal by the day But almost every shop remained shuttered to guard against looting or because owners had emptied the shelves themselves post-bombi- Al-Flei- ' ih security'fthdstaln dopTacLMIogii Speeding in to Baghdad on the expressway from Jordan the contrasts and contradictions of victory and defeat unfolded beyond the windshield At 13 miles out where some median guardrails had been crushed under the treads of tanks a fat pillars of smoke could be seen climbing skyward in distant Baghdad sites of arson fires set by looters But off to the side cows grazed in pastures people cleared irrigation ditches farmers worked their fields — open' exposed and apparently unwonied as they tried to resume their lives Iraqi farmers should be planting their tomatoes cucumbers and onions this month and harvesting their winter Wheat Closer to Baghdad children in uniform up and down a grassy field a school soccer game under way On a nearby bridge overpass hulking US tanks stood guard The final run of the highway in from Baghdad’s western outskirts was a strip of metallic roadkill charred carcasses of Iraqi tanks and other military vehicles nd even more destroyed civilian cars half-doz- en zig-zagg- ed M-1- stand wide open Critics of Saddam’s regime have long told of the disappearances torture and executions without trial that befell those suspected of plotting against the Iraqi leader or challenging his policies Much of that allegedly took place in Abu Ghraib By the standards of tire fallen regime the punishment recalled by Hassan — nails in the back of his hands beatings with wooden clubs and iron bars — was moderate Fornrer inmates have told of chemical and biological weapons experiments on prisoners and the execution of hundreds in the 1990s as part of a campaign by Saddam’s son Qusai to ease crowding ' an Qassem who Iraqi journalist spent time at Abu Ghraib on espionage wi See PRISON on A8 fCUSTOM SHUTTERS countries'that sponsor terrorism Rumsfeld said: “Being on the terrorist list is not some place I’d want to be The (Syrian) government’s making a lot of bad mistakes a lot of bad judgments calls in my view and they’re associating with the wrong people” Following Rumsfeld on the NBC show Syria's deputy ambassador to the United States I mad Moustapha said tire administration’s flurry of charges was a “campaign of misinformation and disinformation” meant to divert attention from the “human catastrophes” taking place in wartime Iraq ' Moustapha called the : administration’s charges “false accusations’ No member of the Iraqi leadership has fled into Syria he' said However Iraq’s UN : ambassador Mohammed Al- Douri arrived in Syria Saturday a day after leaving New York It was not immediately ’ clear when or whether he would return to Iraq Iraq no kmger had any chemical or biological weapons Shortly before leaving his Baghdad villa Saturday with ms German wife Helga and surrendering to an American warrant insisted Iraq has no officer such weapons' Also unclear was how helpful Hasan Saddam’s captured half brother could be Hasan was dismissed as interior minister the offi--1 dal inchatge of Iraq’s domestic ' security and was shot by Saddam’s son Odai in 1993 amid one of the many squabbles within Saddam’s IFL& standard delivery Enhance your home or office with the warm stately character of finely finished shutters Trend Interiors has Cache Valley’s largest ’ selection of custom plantation shutters i Prefinished or custom stained wood shutters ' - 4'” Vane Sizes 1 Vinyl shutters Specialty shapes Polywood shutters '” Worid’s Only Spa WithJetRaks! 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