Hussein Loyalist in U.S. Hands

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz turned himself in to U.S. forces in Baghdad on Thursday, handing the United States a top regime figure who could know whether Saddam Hussein and other members of his inner circle survived the war in Iraq, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Even so, U.S. officials said for the first time that other former Iraqi leaders arrested since Baghdad fell are staunchly defending the former regime and denying the existence of banned weapons when questioned by American interrogators.

Aziz had been close to Hussein for decades and was the public face of the regime for more than a decade, widely recognized for his thick-framed glasses, crop of white hair and superb English.

U.S. intelligence officials said Aziz could provide a wealth of information. Because of his ties to Hussein and the fact that he surrendered in Baghdad, officials said he may know Hussein’s fate.

“He might well be in a position to know about some regime members who did or didn’t survive various bombings in Baghdad,” a U.S. official said. “He may not know the whereabouts of [unconventional weapons], but he probably does know about the existence of [banned weapons] programs.”

Still, officials said that so far, none of the dozen or so senior Iraqi officials in custody has provided meaningful information.

“The senior officials who have been captured are sticking to the party line: ‘We don’t have any WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. This is a fine regime. We never did anything nasty in our lives,’ ” the U.S. official said. “They’re all sticking to the story.”

The denials add to the pressure on U.S. teams to find proof that Iraq had chemical or biological weapons -- an allegation that underpinned the Bush administration’s case for invading Iraq.

After weeks of fruitless searches of suspected weapons sites by U.S.-led forces, senior administration officials have been trying to lower expectations and argue that the hunt could take a year or more.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld recently said that he does not expect U.S. teams to find evidence of illegal weapons materials and equipment unless Iraqi officials involved in the programs point the way.

U.S. officials had hoped they would get cooperation from Iraqis already in custody who would presumably know a great deal about illegal weapons programs, including Gen. Amir Saadi, Hussein’s top scientific advisor.

But Saadi and others may have little incentive to cooperate because they are suspected of running the weapons programs, and furnishing evidence would only bolster war crimes cases against them.

“The people who are most likely to point you to where the WMD are hidden are not the top 55 guys,” the official said, “but people below that level, physically involved in hiding it and who are not considered war criminals.”

The official said one low-level Iraqi scientist has provided some cooperation, pointing U.S. military search teams to suspected sites. But he said that although the United States has found some precursor materials, “we have not found an actual chemical weapon.”

Aziz was the eight of spades on the mug shot “playing cards” distributed to U.S. troops to help them identify regime leaders.

Iraq experts said Aziz is a significant catch, with deep and long-standing ties to Hussein. But they also said that although he clearly had Hussein’s trust, his influence at times seemed limited.

“He’s the highest ranking of the government inner circle caught,” said Judith Yaphe, an instructor at National Defense University who was the CIA’s top Iraq analyst during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

“He was one of the most important [regime figures] because he was the mouthpiece of the regime and a real loyalist,” Yaphe said. “He carried out many policies. He was perfectly amenable to be Saddam’s yes man.”

There was some speculation that Aziz had defected in the weeks before the war began. But he later appeared before the press alongside other senior regime figures in Baghdad.

He was last heard from on March 24, several days after an airstrike reportedly targeted his home, warning that U.S. troops would be met with “bullets, not flowers,” if they entered the Iraqi capital.

Aziz was born Mikhail Yuhanna in 1936 near the northern city of Mosul, later changing his name to sound more Arabic. He was the only Christian in Hussein’s inner circle. Some thought his religious background was an important reason that Hussein trusted him, because Aziz could not develop a loyal following of his own in a nation dominated by Muslims.

His urbane manner and effectiveness as a speaker led Hussein to cast Aziz as the country’s main diplomat.

Aziz met with President Reagan in the Oval Office in the 1980s and helped persuade the administration to assist Iraq in its war with Iran.

“He was an interpreter of the outside world for Saddam,” said Pat Lang, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst and specialist on Iraq. “He didn’t have independent authority, but he was Saddam’s link to the outside world.”

Aziz was also the main link between Iraq and the first Bush administration. Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, recalled that Aziz seemed oddly out of the loop the day Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990.

“It was the one time that he was flustered by events,” Wilson said, “leading me to believe he was not in on the chain of events that led to the invasion.”

Wilson said Aziz also failed to deliver on promises that U.S. diplomats in Kuwait would be allowed to evacuate through Baghdad. Instead, many diplomats were held temporarily as hostages, showing Aziz’s lack of influence.

“He’s bright and can defend the position of his country well,” Wilson said. “[Former Secretary of State] Jim Baker said he played a bad hand very aptly. But I’d never buy a used car from that man.”

It is not clear whether Aziz will face war crimes trials, unlike other figures already in custody such as Muhammad Hamza Zubaydi, another longtime Hussein loyalist who reportedly led a brutal crackdown on Shiites in southern Iraq in 1991.

Officials in Washington could not provide details on where and how Aziz surrendered.

Several weeks before the war began, Aziz was defiant. “We are not the kind that will surrender to them [allied forces] just to live a wretched life for two or three years,” he told Britain’s ITN news network in late January.

“Do you expect me, after all my history as a militant and as one of the Iraqi leaders, to go to an American prison -- to go to Guantanamo? I would rather die,” he said.

After Baghdad fell, reporters visited Aziz’s riverfront home in Baghdad. Among the items not yet snapped up by looters were numerous books by American authors, a box of his favorite Cuban cigars and DVD titles, including “The Godfather” and “Sleepless in Seattle.”

An Aziz aunt who lives in Qaraqosh, Iraq, was recently interviewed by a New York Times reporter. “Let them arrest him,” Selma Dawood, 75, said. “Saddam is finished, and we are OK.”

Times staff writer Esther Schrader contributed to this report.

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Iraq’s Most Wanted

Saddam Hussein’s deputy prime minister, Tarik Aziz, was in U.S. custody Thursday, the 12th senior Iraqi official to be detained. Following is a list of those reported in custody:

April 12: Gen. Amir Saadi -- Saddam Hussein’s top scientific advisor surrendered in Baghdad. Saadi, who acted as chief liaison to U.N. weapons inspectors, arranged his surrender after learning he was No. 55 on the list.

April 13: Watban Ibrahim Hasan -- Hussein’s half brother was turned over to the U.S. military. Hussein removed him as interior minister in 1995, but he remained a presidential advisor. Hasan was No. 51 on the list.

April 17: Barzan Ibrahim Hasan -- Hussein’s half brother was captured by U.S. special operations units in Baghdad. Hasan ran Iraq’s Intelligence Service from 1979 to 1983 and was Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1997. He was No. 52.

April 17: Samir Abdulaziz Najim -- The Baath Party regional command chairman for east Baghdad was handed over to U.S.-led forces by Iraqi Kurds near Mosul. He was No. 24.

April 19: Hikmat Mizban Azzawi -- Hussein’s finance minister, also a deputy prime minister, was taken into custody in Baghdad by Iraqi police. He was No. 45.

April 19: Humam Abdul-Ghafur Hamid Yusuf Hammadi -- Hussein’s minister of higher education and scientific research was taken into custody by U.S.-led troops. He was No. 54.

April 21: Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan -- The Iraqi National Congress said Sultan had returned from Syria to surrender and was handed over to U.S. forces. The INC said he had served as Hussein’s private secretary until his overthrow. He also was Hussein’s only surviving son-in-law. He was No. 40.

April 21: Mohammed Hamza Zubeidi -- The Iraqi National Congress said this regional commander and former Iraqi deputy prime minister had been captured by Free Iraqi Forces and handed over to U.S. forces. He was No. 18.

April 23: Zuhayr Naqib -- The general who headed military intelligence surrendered to U.S. forces in Baghdad. He was No. 21 on the U.S. list of wanted Iraqi officials and the seven of hearts on the deck of cards.

April 23: Muzahim Sa’b Hassan -- The Air Defense Force commander was No. 10 on the U.S. military’s list and queen of diamonds in the deck of cards.

April 23: Mohammed Mahdi Saleh -- The Iraqi minister of trade was No. 48 on the list and six of hearts in the deck.

April 24: Tarik Aziz -- He was a deputy prime minister and No. 43 on the U.S. list and eight of spades in the deck.