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CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz has started calling his youngest son - named Saddam after Iraq's ousted leader - by the name Zuhair instead, according to letters obtained by the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat. "My regards to everybody, how is your mother? And your youngest brother Zuhair?" Aziz said in a July letter to his two daughters, Zeinab and Maysaa. He also referred to the son as Zuhair in an October letter, the paper said in its Wednesday editions, which reproduced several of Aziz's letters. The widely read Arabic daily said it got the...

One of Saddam Hussein's most obsequious henchmen, who named his son after the Iraqi tyrant, has now urged him to change his name by deed poll. Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, asked his youngest son to change his name from Saddam to Zuheir in letters passed on by his American jailers. Aziz, who has been held since he surrendered in April, is in contact with his children via the Red Cross, his eldest son Zeiyad Aziz told the London-based daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat. He said his father made the appeal last summer to Saddam Aziz, 20, a student...

Case ClosedFrom the November 24, 2003 issue: The U.S. government's secret memo detailing cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.by Stephen F. Hayes 11/24/2003, Volume 009, Issue 11     Email a Friend   Respond to this article OSAMA BIN LADEN and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by...

Report: CIA Seizes Iraqi Intelligence Records A published report says the U.S. Central Intelligency Agency has seized a large cache of records in Iraq about its intelligence service, weapons procurement and paid foreign agents. The Washington Post says the documents are spurring U.S. investigations into how Iraq purchased weapons and paid foreign nationals to work on behalf of Saddam Hussein's government. The newspaper quotes unidentified U.S. officials as saying Iraqi files include names of nearly every Iraqi intelligence officer, names of foreign agents, agent reports and evidence of payments made to buy influence in the Arab world and elsewhere. The...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 2 — Saddam Hussein refused to order a counterattack against U.S. troops when war erupted in March because he misjudged the initial ground thrust as a ruse and had been convinced earlier by Russian and French contacts that he could avoid or survive a land invasion, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told interrogators, according to U.S. officials.AZIZ, WHO surrendered to U.S. authorities on April 24, has also said Iraq did not possess stocks of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons on the eve of the war, an assertion that echoes the previously reported statements of other...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 2 — Saddam Hussein refused to order a counterattack against U.S. troops when war erupted in March because he misjudged the initial ground thrust as a ruse and had been convinced earlier by Russian and French contacts that he could avoid or survive a land invasion, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told interrogators, according to U.S. officials.

Saddam Hussein refused to order a counterattack against U.S. troops when war erupted in March because he misjudged the initial ground thrust as a ruse and had been convinced earlier by Russian and French contacts that he could avoid or survive a land invasion, former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told interrogators, according to U.S. officials. Aziz, who surrendered to U.S. authorities on April 24, has also said Iraq did not possess stocks of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons on the eve of the war, an assertion that echoes the previously reported statements of other detained Iraqi leaders...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein incorrectly believed U.S. forces would not launch a ground war last March, according to interrogations of his former deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, a U.S. official said Monday. Saddam may have been convinced by his Russian and French contacts that diplomatic actions in the United Nations would forestall a U.S. invasion, Aziz said, according to the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Aziz, who surrendered in April, has some credibility due to his position within Saddam's regime; at the same time, American interrogators aren't certain whether to believe him. Aziz...

Senior Iraqi diplomats have confirmed to NewsMax correspondent Stewart Stogel that former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz suffered a heart attack several weeks ago. It would be the second attack suffered by the former Iraqi official since he surrendered to the U.S. military in Baghdad on April 24. While his location has not been revealed by Coalition officials, it is believed that he is sequestered at one of the former presidential palaces in the environs of the Iraqi captial. Diplomatic sources tell NewsMax that Aziz has been trying to "cut a deal" with Washington since his arrest, but that the...

Former inmates tell of inhumane conditions inside Baghdad cage - even for its most senior 'guests', reports Olga Craig'He looked old, very old. And slightly stooped," says Adnan Jassim. "I stared at him for a long time. He was trailing a long-handled shovel with him as he shuffled along. I knew exactly what he was going to do. He was going to dig what the American soldiers call a latrine. Yes, really - Tariq Aziz was digging his own latrine."Jassim pauses, unable to hold back a smile. "It amused me to think of it. It didn't surprise me that the...

"Western journalists and Iraqi families looking for the remains of vanished loved ones seem to be the primary visitors so far to Iraq's political prisons and graveyards. Maybe it would be useful for the U.S. military to arrange a tour of these facilities for Tariq Aziz and other captured regime leaders while we still have the world's attention. Afterward, Mr. Aziz could sit down for a 'Nightline'-style town meeting with Iraqi citizens, explaining why the murders, torture and conspicuous consumption of Saddam and his cronies was necessary and good for Iraq. Al Jazeera could provide TV coverage. U.S. Generals Eisenhower...

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush expressed unshakable confidence Saturday about finding banned weapons in Iraq and complained that Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam Hussein's closest deputies, is not cooperating with U.S. forces who have him in custody. Bush said the deputy prime minister, the most visible face of the former Iraqi government other than Saddam, "still doesn't know how to tell the truth." The president, at a news conference on his ranch with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard, expressed confidence that the United States will locate the suspected cache of biological and chemical weapons. "Iraq's the size of the...

Tariq Aziz too much of a squish for Helen Thomas? Apparently so. Back in 1984 when Thomas was still UPI's White House reporter, at a party in Washington, DC she asked Iraq's then Foreign Minister, "Why didn't you retaliate" against Israel "when [it] destroyed your nuclear reactor?" When Aziz "tried to brush away the question," Jerusalem Post reporter Barry Rubin recalled, "Thomas did not find the response acceptable, 'Just yellow, I guess,' she complained." OpinionJournal.com's "Best of the Web" column ( http://www.Opinionjournal.com/best) on Monday by James Taranto highlighted Rubin's recollection as published in an April 26 article. An excerpt from...

He'll live like a king SADDAM Hussein’s key aide Tariq Aziz is set to live like a king in Britain — at one of Prince Charles’s mansions. Security chiefs want to give the brute a royal hideaway in return for spilling the beans on the whereabouts of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, The Sun can reveal. They reckon one of the remote homes on the prince’s sprawling estates could be perfect for keeping Aziz tucked away. But the idea will sicken British taxpayers left to foot the bill for his life of luxury here. It would also mean giving in...

The Home Office has sought to scotch speculation that former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz may be granted asylum in Britain in exchange for information on Saddam Hussein's regime. According to a report in The Sun, Aziz told his American interrogators he was willing to tell all if he could have asylum in the UK. However, a Home Office spokeswoman made clear that a home in Britain for the 67-year-old was not on the negotiating table. "It is ridiculous to suggest asylum will be granted to an individual who has been involved in activities that have abused the human...

<p>BAGHDAD — U.S. military officials yesterday said Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister in Saddam Hussein's deposed regime, had surrendered in Baghdad. He is the most widely known member of the regime yet captured.</p> <p>America's top civilian official in Iraq, meanwhile, distanced the United States from returned exile leader Ahmed Chalabi while promising that Iraqi government ministries would begin to reopen next week.</p>

ABC reporting Tariq Aziz is in custody!

Saddam Hussein rejected a request from George Galloway for more money, saying that the Labour backbencher's "exceptional" demands were not affordable, according to an official document found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad. The letter from Saddam's most senior aide was sent in response to Mr Galloway's reported demand for additional funds. This was outlined in a memorandum from the Iraqi intelligence chief disclosed yesterday in The Daily Telegraph. Mr Galloway denies receiving any money from the regime. He claims that any documents purporting to show this are forgeries planted by western intelligence agencies to try to discredit him. The...

George Galloway, the Labour backbencher, received money from Saddam Hussein's regime, taking a slice of oil earnings worth at least £375,000 a year, according to Iraqi intelligence documents found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad. A confidential memorandum sent to Saddam by his spy chief said that Mr Galloway asked an agent of the Mukhabarat secret service for a greater cut of Iraq's exports under the oil for food programme. He also said that Mr Galloway was profiting from food contracts and sought "exceptional" business deals. Mr Galloway has always denied receiving any financial assistance from Baghdad. Asked to explain...

Senior Iraqi officers have scattered across the Middle East after fleeing Baghdad as the assault on the city began, according to some senior Iraqis in London who have kept close links with key figures within the country. All of them have false passports and could try to later hide in countries like Pakistan or Malaysia or Indonesia, said Ali Haitham Rashid Wihaib, who was Saddam Hussain's former head of protocol. He added that the Syrian authorities were keeping some of their "embarrassing guests" including generals and ministers hidden because of the US pressure. He, claimed in a daily, that Saddam...

Translation by me from Hebrew to English: The Iraqi Information Minister, Saeed al-Sahaf, put an end to his life - according to a report yesterday in the Iranian newspaper "Al-Ofak". The newspaper, that comes out in the United States in the Arabic language, based its claim on Iraqi civilians who ran away from Baghdad towards the border with Iran. To their words, Sahaf hung himself last Wed., a few hours before Baghdad was conquered by US marines. This report has no official confirmation. Sahaf, a 63 year old, turned during the war to a media star for his appearances and...

Aziz, born Mikhail Yuhanna in 1936 near Mosul in northern Iraq, left behind a riverfront home full of personal effects that shed light on the grandeur and the normality of his everyday life. The contents indicate that, with all his denunciations of the United States, he had a vivid interest in American authors and popular culture, from political memoirs to the personality profiles of Vanity Fair. The four-story home sits on an oxbow of the Tigris River, near a highway overpass. Outside the front door is a worn woven mat that reads "welcome." Throughout the home are understated pieces of...

THE MOST ARTICULATE IRAQUI SPOKE PERSON HAS NOT UTTERED A WORD SINCE -3-30-03. WHERE IS HE?

There will be more suicide attacks on US-led forces seeking to topple the regime of President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told the US television network ABC.In an interview from Baghdad, Aziz told ABC News that people who are being threatened by an invasion have "the right to fight by all means" to defend themselves."This is one of the means to defend Iraq against the invaders," he said. "So it is welcome."When you fight an invader by whatever means available to you, you are not a terrorist, you are a hero," he told ABC News, describing them...

Mark Steyn National Post Thursday, March 27, 2003 I see my column on Monday flushed the late Tariq Aziz out of hiding. No sight of Saddam, though Baghdad's leading taxidermists have now had a week to patch him up. Nevertheless, Mr. John Black writes to chide me for my quaintly passé optimism: "Your column," he says, "seemed so out of date with developments over the weekend, so seemingly out of touch with the current situation, so, as you would say, so September 10th. You see Mark, as you well know, the story of the day was not precision weapons but...

I see my column on Monday flushed the late Tariq Aziz out of hiding. No sight of Saddam, though Baghdad's leading taxidermists have now had a week to patch him up. Nevertheless, Mr. John Black writes to chide me for my quaintly passé optimism: "Your column," he says, "seemed so out of date with developments over the weekend, so seemingly out of touch with the current situation, so, as you would say, so September 10th. You see Mark, as you well know, the story of the day was not precision weapons but the growing bluster and embarrassment of the U.S....

Does anybody know? I can't remember the last time he appeared on TV.

The Iraqi crisis develops on the scenario, which can hardly be called the best for the current world order. If the UN Security Council was a board, which could assist in coming to a certain consent, the current world order would be preserved for long, in spite of the fact that it seemed to be rather anachronistic after the events of September 11th. However, the UN proved its inefficiency again: this organization is incapable of finding a compromise to stop a superpower. It can be clearly seen that Russia and China realized their risk, when they rejected the American administration’s...

FNC says that multiple news services are reporting this; but that they cannot confirm yet.

During the News Conference in Italy, Tariq Aziz(representative to Iraq) was asked a question from a Jewish reporter from Israel. After the question(which questioned the distance of the newly discovered long range missile), Aziz said he would not answer any questions from the Jewish press. The media in the room hissed and booed and some of them left. Any one hear that?? Was shocked how blunt he said that after BS..ing the other questions.

Feb. 13, 2003 Iraqi FM tells French TV his country lacks means to attack Israel By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PARIS - Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz said in a televised interview Thursday that his country lacks the means to launch a military operation against Israel should a conflict erupt. "We don't have the means to attack Israel that we had in 1991," Aziz told France-2 television, referring to the year that the Gulf War took place. "We aren't a threat to anyone." "We can't talk of reprisals when we don't have the means," Aziz said, speaking in an interview live...

Jan 29, 11:54 AM EST Congress Divided on Bush's Iraq Rhetoric By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans are closing ranks, Democrats voicing doubts, after President Bush's State of the Union vow to use the "full force and might of the U.S. military" if needed to disarm Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "Unless we stand fast and stand strong, the forces of evil will not disappear," House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Tuesday night after Bush's speech before Congress and a global television audience that included U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf. "This is not the time for the...

Defiant Aziz in ITV exclusive In an exclusive interview with ITV News, President Saddam Hussein's right hand man has said that Iraqis will fight to the last bullet should the Americans launch an attack on their country. Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz seemed resigned to the possibility of another Gulf War, but he told Trevor McDonald he won't go into exile and he will never allow himself to be taken prisoner. Tariq Aziz said Iraq will not give UN weapons inspectors all the help they have asked for. He said they will answer every question but they won't give...

Saddam Hussein's right-hand man Tariq Aziz, officially Iraq's deputy prime minister, has been far less to the fore in recent weeks, in marked contrast to previous crises when he has been the voice of Iraq on Western television. His much lower profile has had some tongues wagging in Washington, New York City and elsewhere, with diplomats questioning whether he has fallen out of favor with his boss, a possibility some discounted considering he boasts one of the most impressive survival records in Iraqi politics. Even last year, when his son was arrested for taking bribes from a foreign importer, he...

WASHINGTON: Lt Michael Speicher, a US Navy pilot whose plane was downed in Iraq in 1991, was dead, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said yesterday. The pilot's fate after the downing of his F18 on January 16 1991 has been the subject of conflicting reports. The Washington Post, quoting US Senate investigation sources, said in June he was still alive. "An American team in [the] mid-'90s came with the help of the Iraqi authorities and with the presence of the Red Cross," Mr Aziz told CNN yesterday. "They checked the site where his plane crashed, and they concluded that...