Iraq Notebook
Saddam aide captured? Maybe not

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No television footage of the man suspected of being Saddam's right-hand man was released. Inundated with questions, the U.S. military announced it knew nothing about a capture and did not have al-Douri in custody.

"We are sure he is Izzat Ibrahim," said Ibrahim Janabi, a top adviser to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Janabi said the man was captured after an armed raid on a medical clinic near al-Douri's hometown of Ad Dawr. He said a DNA check was being performed to confirm his identity.

Later, however, Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said reports that al-Douri was captured were "baseless."

The 2-month-old Iraqi interim government has wrongly reported al-Douri's capture before.

U.S. defense officials have told Congress that al-Douri is thought to have played a role in organizing attacks on U.S. troops, a campaign of car bombings and the transfer of cash throughout the insurgency.

Saddam, top aides face trial within weeks

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — Iraq's toppled leader Saddam Hussein and his top aides will go on trial within "a period of weeks," Iraqi Minister of State Kasim Daoud said yesterday.

He said he was referring to those on the U.S. list of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam's administration, most of whom are either in custody or have been killed. More time will be needed to prepare the files of junior officials accused of crimes, he said.

Asked if the United States would play a role in the trials, Daoud replied: "We have barred the Iraqi government from playing a role; how can we allow a foreign faction to have a role in Saddam Hussein's trial? No ... Saddam Hussein will be tried by the Iraqi judiciary, and it will issue its just sentence against him."

Saddam, deposed in April 2003 by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and captured last December, has been charged with crimes against humanity. He and several top aides are being held in secret locations by U.S. forces under Iraqi jurisdiction.
 
U.N. doubts Iraq developed drones

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N.'s chief weapons inspector has concluded there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein's government ever developed unpiloted drones capable of disbursing chemical- and biological-weapons agents on enemy targets.

The Bush administration cited the threat that Iraqi drones could be used in such attacks on U.S. cities in making its case for invading Iraq, and the CIA's top weapons expert in Iraq, Charles Duelfer told Congress in April that the group overseeing the U.S.-led hunt for Iraqi weapons had found evidence of advances in the development of drones that were not reported to the United Nations.

In the 15-page report obtained by The Washington Post, the U.N.'s Dimitri Perricos said Iraq admitted pursuing a 1990 effort to convert a MiG-21 fighter jet into a remotely piloted vehicle capable of spraying biological-warfare agents at a target.

The covert program, he said, "showed some progress" but was halted by the beginning of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Although Iraq developed several other drones, U.N. inspectors have "found no technical evidence" that Iraq built such aircraft "for the delivery" of chemical or biological weapons, according to Perricos.

He also said there was no proof that Iraqi drones could travel beyond the 93-mile range allowed by the United Nations.

Also

An influential Sunni Muslim organization yesterday said insurgents had asked for a fatwa, or religious edict, on whether Islam allows the kidnapping of foreigners who work for occupation forces in Iraq. A spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars said the issue was "not easy" and needed "profound study."

Renay International, a Turkish transportation company, said yesterday it was withdrawing from Iraq after a group called the Islamic Resistance Movement-Al-Noaman Brigades threatened to behead Turkish truck driver Mithat Civi unless Renay pulled out.