17 April 2003
CENTCOM Reports Capture of Another Hussein Half-Brother
(General Franks gathers Coalition commanders in Baghdad) (1030) By Jacquelyn S. Porth Washington File Security Affairs Writer Washington -- Demonstrating the coalition's commitment "to relentlessly pursuing the scattered members of a fractured regime," a U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) official says Saddam Hussein's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, is now in coalition hands. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters at the daily press briefing in Qatar that Barzan was taken into custody in Baghdad on April 17 by Special Operations Forces with Marine support. Helpful Iraqis supplied information that aided in the capture. Barzan, who is on the list of 55 Iraqi regime members that the coalition is seeking, is being questioned now about information that he --- as an Iraqi presidential adviser and Ba'ath Party member -- may possess about the inner workings of the former regime, Brooks said. As each day goes by and additional regime leaders are taken into custody and information is gathered, Brooks said, details about the location of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction could come to light rapidly, but in the meantime coalition teams are working deliberately to examine suspect sites. Asked if coalition forces might pursue Saddam Hussein into a third country such as Syria, Brooks said "Operation Iraqi Freedom" will remain focused inside Iraq. Providing a situational update of recent military operations, Brooks said coalition forces continue to seek and remove foreign fighters, aided by information from local Iraqis "who don't need them for defense and don't seek their presence." Brooks said members of the 4th Infantry Division found a surface-to-surface missile warehouse and computers among other items following a brief firefight to the north of Baghdad. The computers will be examined for leads to other stashes of weapons and clues about movements by senior military leaders, he said. Brooks advised that there is evidence of individuals in Iraq "who either desire a state of lawlessness, who are looting things that are of value to the Iraqi people, or who are engaging in violent acts in a number of places," stating that as long as that is occurring, "our work is not complete." He also said that there are still conventional weapons and munitions in many areas of the country "that need to be removed from the hands of those that might seek to continue actions." Brooks pointed to Mosul as a city where the security situation is still classified as "uncertain." He said a firefight erupted on April 16 when Iraqi police -- working with coalition forces -- confronted a group of local bank robbers. Coalition forces continue to have the inherent right of self-defense, he said. "That hasn't changed and will continue to be something that is a first guiding principle for our work," he added. "I think what that tells us," Brooks said, "is that there are still pockets that would seek to have instability as a better solution than stability." As a result, he said: "Our efforts have to be directed against locating such individuals, taking away their capability, and simply applying a system of justice that puts an end to it." Iraqi police and coalition forces must disarm local agitators and bring them to justice, he noted, in order to bring stable conditions to Mosul, as has been achieved in other cities in the north. As yet, Brooks said, coalition forces have been unable to declare Baghdad a "permissive" environment. But the number of attacks are decreasing daily, he said, "with the assistance of the Iraqi local population, who give us more and more information, and also who really create the conditions of what is permissive and what's peaceful and stable." He also noted that Iraq "is more stable today than yesterday." Coalition forces fundamentally want local leaders "to develop and take ownership of the actions that are happening inside of towns, villages and cities throughout the country," Brooks said. Leaders are emerging, he said, adding: "We want Iraq to be governed by Iraqis." Over time, he said, "we want to see an integrated relationship of those regional governments with national-level governments." Brooks spent a long time detailing work underway in various locations to restore electrical power. Electricity is back on in Kirkuk, he said, which will allow a natural gas complex there to pump to an inoperable gas facility in Mosul. Once that is back in operation, the briefer said, there will be stable power to run the hydroelectric station at the Mosul Dam, formerly known as the Saddam Dam. With those connections, he said, power can be pushed toward Baghdad and beyond to Tikrit. In other CENTCOM developments, Command Army General Tommy Franks made his first trip ever to the Iraqi capital on April 16. He gathered his commanders at the Abu Ghurayb North Palace for a meeting in one of many of Saddam Hussein's former residences. After touring its ornate rooms, Franks described them as a product of Saddam Hussein's "the oil-for-palace program," according to a press pool report issued by CENTCOM on the day of his visit. "I wanted to get our commanders together in Baghdad because that's been, of course, the center of gravity for this regime while it stood. And, as we all recognize, it stands no longer," Franks said. "I think there's an expectation that our forces will be here operating in this country for some period of time in order to provide more stability so a new government, a government chosen by the Iraqi people, can take its place," he remarked. Franks, too, made reference to Arab or foreign fighters who came into Iraq to try to prop up the regime or agitate in other ways, but said coalition forces are now in "the business of rooting them out." While in Baghdad, the CENTCOM commander engaged in a video conference with President Bush, providing his current assessment of Operation Iraqi Freedom and his vision of what will likely unfold in the coming week to 10 days. "I actually believe," Franks said, "it'll be better seven days from now by quite a bit than it is today." (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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