Word: kamel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Baghdad has rushed to confess because Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam's son-in-law and the senior general in charge of his nuclear and biological weapons programs, defected to Jordan on Aug. 8. Saddam knew he couldn't keep Hussein Kamel quiet, so he decided to try to make points with the U.N. by producing a flood of information on the weapons program. The day after Hussein Kamel defected, the chairman of the U.N. special commission on Iraq, Rolf Ekeus, received a letter from Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz summoning him to Baghdad for "new and important revelations...
Ekeus met with Aziz, and then, on Aug. 20, as he was heading to a Baghdad airport, his Iraqi escorts suddenly diverted his car to a farm purportedly owned by Hussein Kamel. Ekeus was presented with 150 metal trunks and boxes crammed with documents that the Iraqis claimed the general had hidden from the government in his chicken house. American officials laughed at the notion that Hussein Kamel ever kept any records secret from Saddam. The steel cases, Ekeus said, "had not a speck of dust on them," a clear clue that they'd been quickly planted...
...presidential election season, during which they believe Clinton would never lift the embargo for fear of appearing soft. So the regime is promising "100%" cooperation with the U.N. , according to Ekeus. But the Iraqis have been playing cheat and retreat skillfully for years, and even if Hussein Kamel's defection makes it much harder, they will still no doubt find some ways to continue the game...
...lost, killed or driven away most of his supporters who have shown any brains or ability. And now Saddam's family itself is torn by betrayals and blood feuds. Many of its members have also been sacked, exiled or executed. The latest example is Hussein Kamel al-Majid, the former Armaments Minister, who fled to Jordan in early August with his brother Saddam Kamel, the head of Saddam Hussein's personal guard, and their wives, two of Saddam's daughters...
...view of some Iraq watchers, Hussein Kamel, whose teeter-totter fortunes looked to be on the upswing again recently, has been advocating a more aboveboard treatment of U.N. monitors, whose job is to search out and police the destruction of Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. According to this line, the general, who in the first place had presided over the stockpiling of Iraq's most dangerous arsenals, argued that the sooner the regime comes clean, the quicker the country might resume oil exports and normal economic life. At bottom, though, the quarrel seems to have been over spoils...