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Posted on 04/29/2003 2:47:07 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Former Iraqi Oil Minister Surrenders
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16 minutes ago
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By NIKO PRICE, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s former oil minister, a trusted adviser who earlier oversaw Iraq (news - web sites)'s top-secret missile programs, has surrendered to U.S.-led forces, the U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.
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Amer Mohammed Rashid, known to U.N. weapons inspectors as the "Missile Man," turned himself in Monday. A former general with expertise in weapons delivery systems, he was ranked No. 47 on the U.S. military's list of the 55 most-wanted officials from Saddam's regime.
Rashid is married to Dr. Rihab Taha, a microbiologist known as "Dr. Germ" who was in charge of the secret Iraqi facility that weaponized anthrax and other toxic substances. She also is sought by the United States, and her house in Baghdad was raided by U.S. forces last month, but there was no word on her whereabouts.
The Arab television channel Al-Jazeera reported that 12 Iraqis were killed and about 50 wounded when U.S. forces fired on a demonstration late Monday in the town of Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad. U.S. Maj. Gen. Glenn Webster, the deputy commander of U.S. ground forces, said he had received no information about any such incident.
"I get complete reports in the morning of activities, and I have received no report," Webster said.
Seeking to curtail looting and lawlessness in Baghdad, the U.S. Army announced that it will deploy up to 4,000 additional military police and infantrymen over the next 10 days.
Webster outlined the plans prior to a meeting Tuesday with about 100 Baghdad city officials and other Iraqis to discuss the law and order (news - Y! TV) problems. He said U.S. forces have detained more than 5,000 lawbreaking Iraqis, including looters, in two large holding facilities in Baghdad.
As part of the security initiative, U.S. forces are broadcasting detailed instructions to Baghdad residents. Among the directives: People cannot be in the streets from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.; government employees must return to their jobs; all members of Saddam's Baath Party must identify themselves to coalition forces; and hospitals must stay open 24 hours a day.
In London, curators from some of the world's major museums met to draft a recovery plan for Iraq's pillaged art works. Organized by the British Museum and UNESCO (news - web sites), the meeting drew experts from the Louvre in Paris, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Russia's Hermitage and the Berlin Museums.
They were hearing a report from British Museum Near East curator John Curtis, who returned Monday after a week in Iraq, and from Iraqi Donny George, director of research at the looted National Museum in Baghdad.
Thousands of items, some dating more than 6,000 years, were stolen from Iraq's National Museum in Baghdad and other cultural institutions. Among the missing items are the Sacred Vase of Warka from 3200 BC. and other treasures from the Assyrian and Sumerian civilizations.
The commander of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, Gen. Tommy Franks, said Monday that his troops are making progress in efforts to recover the looted items. Over the weekend, U.S. forces began broadcasting radio announcements offering rewards for looted art.
"Over the last 96 hours we have had a whole lot of Iraqis contact our people up in Iraq and say actually we know where a great many of these artifacts are," Franks said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press from his command headquarters in Qatar.
Other U.S. military officials said Tuesday that the United States has moved a regional air operations center to Qatar from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who was visiting the Prince Sultan base as part of a swing through the region, has said the United States is refocusing its military relationship with Saudi Arabia to training Saudi forces rather than stationing large numbers of U.S. troops.
Rumsfeld spoke to U.S. troops in a hanger Tuesday morning after flying from Qatar and landing in the middle of a sandstorm. He thanked them for their role in overthrowing Saddam.
Rashid, the former Iraqi oil minister, was a member of Saddam's Military Industrialization Organization, the group responsible for producing all of Iraq's most lethal weapons. Others members included Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, Iraq's chief liaison with U.N. weapons inspectors, and Amir al-Saadi, Saddam's senior weapons adviser, both of whom are also in custody.
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said last month that Rashid and his wife would be among "the most interesting persons" for American investigators to interrogate because of their familiarity with a range of Saddam's secret weapons programs.
U.S. military officials have accounted for the last American soldier listed as missing in Iraq. A body found March 24, the day after a convoy was ambushed in southern Iraq, was identified as Army Spc. Edward John Anguiano, 24, of Los Fresnos, Texas.
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