Aziz gives up; Bush thinks Hussein hit

As an ex-Baghdad spokesman surrenders, the president says evidence suggests the deposed leader was killed or injured.

Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi deputy prime minister who often served as the public face of Saddam Hussein's government, surrendered Thursday to American forces in Iraq, U.S. officials said.

Meanwhile, President Bush said on TV that evidence suggests Hussein is dead or severely injured.

Looking toward the structure of postwar Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the country will not become a theocracy like

[Times photo: Kinfay Moroti]

SUPPLIER OF LIFE: Marawa Fawzi, 8, a second-grader who loves going to school, helps her family meet its need for water by making countless trips to a small well near her home in Baghdad, Iraq. The water pipes that ran to her family's home were damaged during the war.

neighboring Iran, and the American picked to manage the country said some government ministries will be operating by late next week.

Aziz, who had been in hiding since the fall of Baghdad, is one of the few Iraqi leaders widely recognizable in the West because of his history as a diplomat at the United Nations. He was the highest-ranking official in Hussein's government to give himself up.

Aziz, No. 43 on the U.S. military's 55 most-wanted list and the eight of spades in its card deck, is the 12th of the 55 most wanted members of the regime put in custody. Florida Sen. Bob Graham, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday night that the arrest of another top Iraqi official, in Syria, would be announced shortly.

The Washington Post, quoting an unnamed senior U.S. official, reported that Aziz made several inquiries through intermediaries about his fate before being taken in by U.S. officials. He was detained at an undisclosed place for interrogation about Hussein, his two sons and other top Iraqi leaders.

Aziz served on the Revolutionary Command Council, the ultimate authority in Iraq, but was not part of the ruler's inner circle.

Hussein took charge in 1979; Aziz was deputy prime minister a year later when he was injured in an assassination attempt by the Iranian-backed Dawa Islami.

He took over the foreign ministry in 1983. In 1990, when Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait, Aziz was given the job of justifying the move to the world.

In the years since, Aziz was not nearly as visible as he had been. When Hussein promoted him to deputy prime minister after the Gulf War, he was forced to relinquish the foreign ministry.

Bush said in a TV interview Thursday that evidence he did not detail suggests Hussein is either dead or "at the very minimum was severely wounded." Bush also said U.S. troops would remain in Iraq "as long as necessary."

Could that take as long as two years? Bush was asked by NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw. "Could - or less," Bush said. "Who knows?"

"People say the United States should leave. And we want to leave as soon as we've accomplished our mission," Bush said.

Some U.S. officials have suggested that Hussein may have survived attempts that targeted him and his sons. However, Bush said the strike the first night of the war might have done the job.

He said Hussein's death might "explain why dams weren't blown up or oil fields weren't destroyed, even though we found them wired potentially to be blown up."

"There is some evidence that suggests he might be" dead, Bush told Brokaw.

"We would never make that declaration until we are more certain," he added. "But the person who helped direct the attacks believes that Saddam at the very minimum was severely wounded."

Bush also:

- Said the United States has "no military plans" to move against either Iran or Syria.

- Cautioned France, which opposed the war, not to use its position "within Europe to create alliances against the United States," Britain or other coalition partners. As for French President Jacques Chirac, "I doubt he'll be coming to the ranch any time soon," Bush said, referring to his Texas ranch.

- Said looting and vandalism, particularly in hospitals and museums, was "the absolute worst part" of an otherwise successful military campaign. "It's like uncorking a bottle of frustration," Bush said.

- Said he believes that hidden weapons of mass destruction will still be found, although some may have been destroyed or moved in advance out of the country.

Iraqis will be free to form their own government as long as it is not an Iranian-style theocracy, Rumsfeld said.

"If you're suggesting, how would we feel about an Iranian-type government with a few clerics running everything in the country, the answer is: That isn't going to happen," he said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Rumsfeld also said that U.S. and British forces are searching for many more former members of the Hussein regime than the 55 on a "most wanted" list.

"In fact we have a list of some 200," he said. "That original list was purposely kept low at the outset because we wanted to separate the worst people from the regime, hoping that others would come forward."

Rumsfeld said more of the top 55 have been captured than have been made public. He said their identities will be revealed as soon as they are confirmed.

The American administrator of Iraq, retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, announced that some government ministries will reopen next week. He said the new government ministries will be led by Americans or Britons during an interim period.

Garner appealed to civil servants to return to work. Those who show up will be given an emergency payment next week, he said.

In a month, salaries will be paid, he said. The United States will disqualify "anyone who was a crony of Saddam Hussein or violators of human rights."

Many government buildings were so badly looted and burned that they now lack phones, fax machines, computers and files.

"If we have a ministry with no furniture, we'll pay for it," he said.

Garner made a point of saying that Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile who arrived in the capital before Garner and has been asserting himself in the last 10 days, is not the coalition's official candidate.

Despite Garner's words about Chalabi, he was having dinner with him Thursday night.

A self-styled new mayor of Baghdad, however, went ahead with meetings and the appointment of city officials in defiance of a U.S. order to stop his activities. Garner suggested he might force out Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi.

"If the people of Baghdad are unhappy with him, all they have to do is come tell us," Garner said after a four-day tour of the country. "We'll ask him to leave and show him how."

- Information from the New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post and Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.

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