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The former ambassador, who was captured by U.S. troops in Iraq, was like other members of Hussein's family, glorying in power and violence.
©Associated Press
April 18, 2003
Saddam Hussein's half brother exulted in power, wealth and violence -- all the things that came naturally to many of the Iraqi leader's relatives.
Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, captured Thursday in Baghdad by U.S. Special Forces, "might have been more diplomatic, more financially astute," than other members of Hussein's immediate family, "but that's not saying much," said Charles Forrest of the International Campaign to Indict Iraqi War Criminals.
"He was a thug," Forrest said.
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks of the U.S. Central Command said the 53-year-old Hasan was captured alone in Baghdad on Thursday, and no casualties were sustained by the special forces who detained him or the U.S. Marines who supported them.
Hasan's career illustrates another fact of life in Hussein's Iraq: Being close to the president did not always mean being safe -- over the years, the first family's feuds and rivalries have meant detention and even death for Hussein's brothers, sons or cousins -- and it certainly doesn't mean they are safe now.
The U.S.-led coalition is "relentlessly pursuing" fugitives, Brooks said. Rights groups say they should stand trial for crimes against humanity.
Barzan Hasan was the second of Hussein's three half brothers to be taken into custody; former Interior Minister Watban Ibrahim Hasan was apprehended last week in Mosul in northern Iraq. The third, former security chief Sabawi Ibrahim Hasan, is being sought, as are Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay.
Hasan, a former fare collector on a Baghdad minibus, directed dozens of operations in Europe and elsewhere against Iraqi dissidents as head of Hussein's intelligence service from 1979 to 1983.
He later fell out of favor. His often unruly behavior, as well as his drinking and womanizing, sometimes embarrassed Hussein.
Nonetheless, he served in the 1990s as Iraq's ambassador to U.N. agencies -- including the U.N. human rights committee -- in Geneva.
And he remained a presidential adviser at the time of his capture; he is one of 52 notorious members of Hussein's regime depicted on a deck of playing cards distributed to American soldiers. Brooks said Hasan has "extensive knowledge" of the toppled regime's inner workings.
Hussein, the only child of his mother's first marriage, "trusted the family more than anybody else, so he relied on them" said Bakhtiar Amin, an Iraqi exile. "It wasn't a government, it was more a group of thugs running the country."
Forrest said Barzan Hasan -- the chief organizer, it is said, of a clandestine group of companies and funds that handled Hussein's wealth -- likely can provide information on billions of dollars Hussein is believed to have hidden outside Iraq.
Last week, the U.S. military issued a most-wanted list in the form of a deck of cards. The cards showed 52 former leaders in Saddam Hussein's regime to be pursued. Here are some of those who have surrendered, been captured or killed.
BARZAN IBRAHIM HASAN, captured Thursday: The youngest of Hussein's half brothers at 53, he served as head of Iraq's secret police, the Mukhabarat, and as Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. In that position, he reportedly ran Iraq's intelligence operations in Europe. While in Switzerland, Hasan is widely believed to have played a key role in Hussein's clandestine acquisition of nuclear and military technology. He was the chief organizer of a clandestine group of companies and funds handling Hussein's wealth, according to the Coalition for International Justice, a nonprofit organization based in The Hague, Netherlands.
AMIR AL-SAADI, surrendered. Iraqi science adviser and special weapons chief who had met often with U.N. weapons inspectors gave himself up Saturday. He still insists that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and that the war was unjustified.
WATBAN IBRAHIM HASAN, captured earlier. Hussein's eldest half brother, he served as Iraq's interior minister in the early 1990s, during which he played a role in suppressing the Shiite Muslim rebellion in the south of the country. U.S. officials said earlier this week that Watban had been captured near Mosul, apparently trying to flee to Syria. Watban's first senior position in government was as chief of the Amnal-An, or internal security department, in the late 1980s. Hussein then appointed him head of the Estikhabarat or military intelligence.
ALI HASAN AL-MAJID, believed killed. Known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in Iraq's alleged use of chemical weapons against Kurds in 1988, he is believed to have been killed in an airstrike on his home on April 5.
JAFFAR JAFFER, surrendered: The former nuclear program chief in Iraq, Jaffer fled to an undisclosed Middle Eastern country and turned himself in. U.S. intelligence officials have met with him.