Reports: CIA candidate to lead Iraq assassinated

www.albawaba.com ^ | 4/14/03

[BCrago66]

Nizar Khazraji, a prominent Iraqi general who defected to the West, was assassinated Monday on his way to attend a U.S.-called meeting of opposition groups in the southern city of Nassiriya.

Khazraji was sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to Saddam Hussein. In February last year, London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat quoted opposition sources in Syria as saying the US had chosen Khazraji to run Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam.

The CIA was reported to have helped him escape to Kuwait from house arrest in Denmark, where prosecutors were investigating his alleged role in gas attacks on the Iraqi Kurds.

A former Iraqi military chief-of-staff, who turned against Saddam in 1996, he has publicly declared that he was prepared to lead a rebel army into Iraq. "All real Iraqis want to overthrow this regime and I am one of them," he declared from his home in Denmark.

General Khazraji first came to prominence during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, and by the end of that decade had been made head of the country's armed forces. He claimed to have warned Saddam during the Gulf War that the invasion of Kuwait had been a mistake.

He subsequently fell from favour and in 1995 fled to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, travelling on from there to Jordan. In 1998, he applied for political asylum in Denmark and since the late 1990s he has lived there.

In late 2001, Danish police launched an investigation into allegations that General Khazraji had been involved in the poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabjah in March 1988.

The general has rejected these allegations, dismissing them as black propaganda spread by Baghdad in order to discredit him. (Albawaba.com)

[Valin]

THE IRAQI PEOPLE WILL SELECT WHOM THEY WISH TO LEAD THEIR COUNTRY.

Radical Concept ALERT!!!

[BCrago66]

Didn't Al Bawaba own that diner on Happy Days?

[stuartcr]

Best guess so far, probably promised all sorts of stuff.

[jjm2111]

If true, I certainly wouldn't weep for this guy. There is some pretty strong evidence that Kharazji (or however his name is spelled) WAS involved in the massacre of Kurds at Halabja and other places. Even if this guy was NOT a mass murderer, he enjoyed the benefits of Saddam's regime. My guess is that he did not rise to his position of prominence within Iraq's military due to dis daring victories over Iran, but his loyalty and toadying to Saddam.

The U.S. gov't should be leery of letting ex-Ba'athists share power in Iraq. Additionally, we should be wary of allowing power hungry types like Chalabi into power.

[sarasota]

That reflects quite poorly on the CIA--both the escape and the lack of security. Wonder what security the DOD is providing to Chalabi...?

[dighton]

Hmmmm. The wire services reported on two killings at that Najaf mosque, but General Khazraji wasn't one of the dead.

[Captain Kirk]

Will you "allow" the Iraqis to conduct their own election to "choose" their leaders or aren't they "ready" for that yet?

[Dog]

There is no other article at Gooogle News confirming this story..

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

What I read here on FR a few days ago, he sounded like a real bad person.

[Valin]

What you need to understand is in this ongoing war we have/are/will be dealing with some very unsavory people.
We only need to look at Pervez Musharraf to understand this.

[jjm2111]

Why not let the Iraqis choose their own leaders?

[BCrago66]

Just read the article you linked to. Good news - the clerics were killed for being pro-Saddam shills.

:)

[ez]

I'll say it since no-one else has...

Arkincide.

[frosty snowman]

Albawaba is an Arab station like Abu Dhabi, Al-Jaz, etc. So take this with a BIG grain of salt until confirmed.

[BCrago66]

You're very harsh. Albawaba probably has more credibility than CNN these days...

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Let me say that over again. He didn't sound like a bad person...He was a real bad person.

[RISU]

CIA tends to attract Bad people.

[theFIRMbss]

> as our president has a different and most radical notion ...

The way politics
works these days, they may end
with someone like this:

[Valin]

We either do that or keep 100,000 troops there for a loooong time.
IMO one of the reasons we took so long to take out sadam and his thugs is President bush and his team were/are getting there ducks in a row for post-sadam Iraq.

Is Iraq going to have an advanced liberal(in the old sense of the word) democracy next week, next month next year? No! Democracies are very difficult touchy things to set up, but what are the options? Another sadam?