Word: amman
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...oversaw Iraq's program to develop weapons of mass destruction and, as he indirectly admits below, was responsible for brutal repression of Shi'ites and Kurds after the Gulf War. In his first major interview with a Western journalist, Hussein Kamel talked to diplomatic correspondent Dean Fischer in Amman. On one matter he was almost certainly dissembling: though he denies it, authoritative sources say he has met with CIA officials since his defection...
Hussein Kamel: We left Baghdad at around 8 p.m. on Aug. 7. We said we planned to attend a conference in Bulgaria [and would travel there via Amman], so it was an official motorcade with security. When I arrived at the Iraqi border crossing, they never even asked me for my passport. We arrived in Amman at 3:30 in the morning of Aug. 8. I don't know Amman very well because on previous trips all our arrangements were taken care of by Jordanian protocol. It was rather difficult to reach a hotel. We found a taxi...
...Meanwhile, Hussein Kamel's younger brother, Colonel Saddam Kamel al-Majid, headed the President's elite corps of personal bodyguards. The U.S., thirsting for what a Pentagon official called a potential "intelligence bonanza," pledged at once to defend Jordan against any reprisals and sent Arabic-speaking CIA specialists to Amman in hopes of debriefing the defectors. A senior Administration official exulted, "Outside of Saddam's two sons, there is probably no one closer to him. This could be the most serious setback he's suffered since the mutinies immediately after the Gulf...
...hour desert trek to evade detection. Water was their first request. "They drank tens of bottles," related a high Jordanian security official. Though the inadequately provisioned party had seemingly departed on the run, the journey was not quite spontaneous. The Jordanian official said Hussein Kamel had visited Amman 10 days earlier to warn of his coming. According to another security officer, U.S. agents met with him at that time, although Washington officials said they had no knowledge of such contacts...
...evening of their arrival last week, King Hussein of Jordan received Al-Majid's band of fugitives in his palace and granted asylum. Insiders say King Hussein struck up a warm friendship with Hussein Kamel about a year ago when the Iraqi commander underwent surgery in Amman for the removal of a noncancerous brain tumor. The King reportedly visited the hospital nearly every day, and the two hit it off. At the same time, it seems, the invalid's absence from Iraq presented a golden opportunity for Saddam's eldest son, Uday, 33, who has recently ascended in power...