Free Republic

Sunday June 13, 6:28 AM Top Iraqi diplomat assassinated as three hostages butchered BAGHDAD (AFP) - Violence and bloodshed revisited Iraq with the assassination of a top Iraqi diplomat, an attempt on the life of a security official and the slaughter of three hostages. The controversy also continued over abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US forces with a newspaper report that a top US general had given the nod for pressure tactics on Iraqi inmates. Bassam Kubba, Iraqi undersecretary of foreign affairs, was shot dead outside his Baghdad home as he left for work, in an assault condemned by the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Assailants killed an Iraqi deputy foreign minister in an ambush Saturday as he traveled to his Baghdad office, the Foreign Ministry said. Gunmen shot Bassam Salih Kubba in Baghdad's Azimiyah district, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein's regime had been strong. He died later of his wounds, said Thamir al-Adhami, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. Kuba is one of several deputy foreign ministers. He was the ministry's most senior career diplomat. The attack was the second on members of the interim government in the last four days. On Wednesday, the deputy health minister,...

Nick Berg, the American beheaded by terrorists was allegedly working in Iraq as a spy for American intelligence. It is suspected by some Washington insiders that Berg's links with espionage may have led to his gruesome execution that was filmed on a videotape by terrorists. "Washington is rife with rumors that Berg had a connection to U.S. intelligence. Fuelling the suspicion is that he had Arab language capabilities and he's said to be a computer genius," The National Enquirer quoted a source as saying. "Someone who was prepared to brave the dangers of traveling to Iraq on an apparently legitimate...