mrzurnaci
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100714/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
BAGHDAD ? The U.S. this week handed over nearly 30 former members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, including the longtime international face of the regime, Tariq Aziz, officials said Wednesday.
Aziz, 74, is the most high-profile of the remaining former regime members who were rounded up by U.S. forces in the weeks and months after the 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam. He was acquitted in one trial but was sentenced last year to 15 years is prison for his role in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants found guilty of profiteering.
The only Christian in Saddam's mainly Sunni regime, Aziz became internationally known as the dictator's defender and a fierce American critic as foreign minister after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which led to the Gulf War, and later as a deputy prime minister who frequently traveled abroad on diplomatic missions.
His meeting with Secretary of State James A. Baker in Geneva in January 1991 failed to prevent the 1991 Gulf War. Years later, Aziz met with the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican just weeks before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion in a bid to head off that conflict.
"Mr. Aziz told me the following: 'The Iraqi government will certainly kill me. I fear for my life. I expect I won't live except for days. I'm afraid they'll poison my food or won't give me my medicine to silence me. President Obama is no different from Bush, who has Iraqi blood on his hands'," Aref said.
BAGHDAD ? The U.S. this week handed over nearly 30 former members of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, including the longtime international face of the regime, Tariq Aziz, officials said Wednesday.
Aziz, 74, is the most high-profile of the remaining former regime members who were rounded up by U.S. forces in the weeks and months after the 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam. He was acquitted in one trial but was sentenced last year to 15 years is prison for his role in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants found guilty of profiteering.
The only Christian in Saddam's mainly Sunni regime, Aziz became internationally known as the dictator's defender and a fierce American critic as foreign minister after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which led to the Gulf War, and later as a deputy prime minister who frequently traveled abroad on diplomatic missions.
His meeting with Secretary of State James A. Baker in Geneva in January 1991 failed to prevent the 1991 Gulf War. Years later, Aziz met with the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican just weeks before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion in a bid to head off that conflict.
"Mr. Aziz told me the following: 'The Iraqi government will certainly kill me. I fear for my life. I expect I won't live except for days. I'm afraid they'll poison my food or won't give me my medicine to silence me. President Obama is no different from Bush, who has Iraqi blood on his hands'," Aref said.
