Ignoramus14990
05-28-2004, 08:10 PM
A notable article by "Alyssa Rubin".
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&e=20&u=/latimests/20040528/ts_latimes/suspicionsurroundsdeathofiraqiscientistinuscustody
Suspicion Surrounds Death of Iraqi Scientist in U.S. Custody
Fri May 28, 7:55 AM ET
Add Top Stories - Los Angeles Times to My Yahoo!
By Alissa J. Rubin Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD ? The death certificate issued by the U.S. military indicated
that a prominent Iraqi government scientist in American custody for
nine months had died of natural causes.
? Latimes.com home page
? Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times
Latest headlines:
Reports of Polish Abuse of Iraqis Denied
AP - 6 minutes ago
Allawi Nominated As Transitional Iraq PM
AP - 8 minutes ago
Attackers Shell American Base in Najaf
AP - 8 minutes ago
Special Coverage
Doubtful, his family ordered an independent autopsy, which concluded
that blunt-force injury caused the 65-year-old man's death.
And Mohammed Abdelmonaem Mahmoud Hamdi Alazmirli's body bore
suspicious marks: He had a bruise on his nose, an abrasion on his
cheek, a cut near his eye and a fractured skull.
The Pentagon (news - web sites) has named 23 of 37 detainees who died
while in U.S. custody in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news
- web sites). Alazmirli was not among those named, and the military
declined to say whether he was among the other 14.
Responding to a Times query, the Pentagon's criminal investigation
division declined to comment on Alazmirli's death. A spokesman for the
Army's Criminal Investigative Division, Christopher Grey, issued a
six-word response: "No releasable information at this time."
Alazmirli's case raises questions about whether similar ones exist ?
suspicious deaths that are not on any official U.S. lists ? and what
method the military is using to determine which cases are worthy of
review.
But Alazmirli's family members say they believe that the U.S. military
is engaging in a cover-up. They noted that although Alazmirli died on
Jan. 31, the military waited for more than two weeks before
U.S. soldiers delivered his body ? naked in a zipped black body bag ?
to a Baghdad hospital.
"Why did they leave him in the morgue for 17 days before they told
us?" asked his daughter Rana, 23, a medical student at Baghdad
University. "I think they didn't inform us because they were trying to
hide something, and they kept him to make the evidence disappear."
The U.S. military's death certificate omits any reference to the
injuries cited in the Iraqi autopsy.
Dr. Qaiss Hassan, who performed the autopsy at Iraq's Forensic Medical
Institute, noted in his report that Alazmirli had a massive amount of
blood under his scalp.
Flipping through photographs and diagrams of Alazmirli's head, Hassan
said: "It was definitely a blunt-trauma injury. There's no
question. You can get this kind of injury if you are in a car accident
or if you fall from a height or if someone hits your head hard."
The U.S. military undoubtedly considered the scientist a "high-value
target." In making its case for invading Iraq, the Bush administration
said that President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had amassed
weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. officials appeared to have suspected initially that the
Egyptian-born Alazmirli was involved with Hussein's purported nuclear
weapons program; Alazmirli had worked in the office of the presidency,
serving as a science advisor to Hussein's feared intelligence
agency. He retired from government work in 1995 to teach at Al Haithem
University.
On April 24, 2003, about two weeks after the Americans captured
Baghdad, U.S. soldiers burst into Alazmirli's home. The scientist was
not there. His wife, Saharaa, recounted that a U.S. soldier demanded,
"Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" She said she replied that
she did not know.
"He did not have anything to do with weapons of mass destruction," she
said, adding that U.N. weapons inspectors interviewed Alazmirli during
the 1990s and found that he was not involved in any arms program.
According to Saharaa and TV coverage at the time, the U.S. military
came prepared for a fight.
Tanks and armored vehicles moved into the neighborhood, closing off
streets. Dozens of soldiers leaped over her garden wall, blasted locks
off the doors and broke into every cupboard, she said. They carted
away boxes of belongings, she said, including all of Alazmirli's
books, Saharaa's perfumes and all her gold jewelry ? the Iraqi
equivalent of a life's savings.
Saharaa said she was frightened, but an interpreter for the soldiers
assured her that "we only want to talk to your husband for one hour
because we know he's busy, and we'll even pay him because his time is
important."
A day after the soldiers arrived, Alazmirli returned home and
surrendered. The troops handcuffed and hooded him and put him in a
military vehicle.
Reluctant to be parted from her husband, Saharaa said, she told the
soldiers that she was a chemist too. They detained her as well. She is
a retired high school chemistry teacher. She was taken to the airport
detention center but was released after U.S. interrogators apparently
concluded that she was of no use to them.
Alazmirli's whereabouts remained a mystery to his family.
A month after his detention, the family received the first
communication from him via letter delivered by the International
Committee of the Red Cross. He was not permitted to write anything
other than his name. A stamp in the middle of the page declared, "SAFE
and WELL."
Later, Alazmirli sent letters regularly to his family. Occasionally he
requested clothes, but often he complained that he was not receiving
letters from his family members even though they wrote every week.
Saharaa, her daughters and a son spoke about Alazmirli's death as they
sat in their neat living room. The scientist ? a tall, thin, balding
man with a thin mustache and a serious look ? stared from photographs
on the wall and a side table.
"I went to the Red Cross and complained that our letters weren't
reaching him, and they said, 'We're hearing this all over and we're
trying to get the Americans to do something about it,' " Saharaa
said.
The Red Cross declined to comment on the case.
The family received its first phone call from Alazmirli four months
after his arrest. He spoke for about three minutes, just enough time
to inquire about family members' health.
Rewarding detainees with letters and telephone calls was typical of
the treatment high-value inmates received from interrogators. Twice
during the fall of 2003, the family received telephone calls from
Alazmirli.
Then, family members said, an American who identified himself on the
phone as Mr. Jeeki told them to show up at 2 p.m. Jan. 11 at a
checkpoint near Baghdad international airport.
At least two detention facilities are located at the airport,
including a separate prison for many of those detainees the Pentagon
had identified among its 55 most-wanted Iraqis. When the family
members arrived, they were blindfolded, driven around in loops for
about 10 minutes and brought to a building where they were told that
Alazmirli would meet them.
The family asked "Mr. Jeeki" why Alazmirli was being held and with
what crimes he had been charged.
"They said, 'Your father doesn't have any charges,' " said his son
Ashraf, 21, a college chemistry major. " 'He is only needed as a
witness because he was a member of the Mukhabarat [intelligence
agency]. On the contrary, your father is a nice man, a scientist, and
he's useful to the United States and to the Iraqi people.'
"From that we concluded he was cooperating with them," Ashraf said.
When Alazmirli came into the room, he was surprised to see them,
family members said.
Rana said she learned then that although her father was a diabetic,
the military had taken away his insulin and substituted an oral
medication.
"You cannot take away insulin from someone who has taken it for many
years. He took three injections per day; the pills are not
sufficient," she said. "I think they were trying to kill him slowly."
Nonetheless, all four family members said that Alazmirli looked like
his old self. But one thing worried them. On his wrist was a plastic
band with the now infamous photograph of a disheveled Saddam Hussein w
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&e=20&u=/latimests/20040528/ts_latimes/suspicionsurroundsdeathofiraqiscientistinuscustody
Suspicion Surrounds Death of Iraqi Scientist in U.S. Custody
Fri May 28, 7:55 AM ET
Add Top Stories - Los Angeles Times to My Yahoo!
By Alissa J. Rubin Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD ? The death certificate issued by the U.S. military indicated
that a prominent Iraqi government scientist in American custody for
nine months had died of natural causes.
? Latimes.com home page
? Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times
Latest headlines:
Reports of Polish Abuse of Iraqis Denied
AP - 6 minutes ago
Allawi Nominated As Transitional Iraq PM
AP - 8 minutes ago
Attackers Shell American Base in Najaf
AP - 8 minutes ago
Special Coverage
Doubtful, his family ordered an independent autopsy, which concluded
that blunt-force injury caused the 65-year-old man's death.
And Mohammed Abdelmonaem Mahmoud Hamdi Alazmirli's body bore
suspicious marks: He had a bruise on his nose, an abrasion on his
cheek, a cut near his eye and a fractured skull.
The Pentagon (news - web sites) has named 23 of 37 detainees who died
while in U.S. custody in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news
- web sites). Alazmirli was not among those named, and the military
declined to say whether he was among the other 14.
Responding to a Times query, the Pentagon's criminal investigation
division declined to comment on Alazmirli's death. A spokesman for the
Army's Criminal Investigative Division, Christopher Grey, issued a
six-word response: "No releasable information at this time."
Alazmirli's case raises questions about whether similar ones exist ?
suspicious deaths that are not on any official U.S. lists ? and what
method the military is using to determine which cases are worthy of
review.
But Alazmirli's family members say they believe that the U.S. military
is engaging in a cover-up. They noted that although Alazmirli died on
Jan. 31, the military waited for more than two weeks before
U.S. soldiers delivered his body ? naked in a zipped black body bag ?
to a Baghdad hospital.
"Why did they leave him in the morgue for 17 days before they told
us?" asked his daughter Rana, 23, a medical student at Baghdad
University. "I think they didn't inform us because they were trying to
hide something, and they kept him to make the evidence disappear."
The U.S. military's death certificate omits any reference to the
injuries cited in the Iraqi autopsy.
Dr. Qaiss Hassan, who performed the autopsy at Iraq's Forensic Medical
Institute, noted in his report that Alazmirli had a massive amount of
blood under his scalp.
Flipping through photographs and diagrams of Alazmirli's head, Hassan
said: "It was definitely a blunt-trauma injury. There's no
question. You can get this kind of injury if you are in a car accident
or if you fall from a height or if someone hits your head hard."
The U.S. military undoubtedly considered the scientist a "high-value
target." In making its case for invading Iraq, the Bush administration
said that President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had amassed
weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. officials appeared to have suspected initially that the
Egyptian-born Alazmirli was involved with Hussein's purported nuclear
weapons program; Alazmirli had worked in the office of the presidency,
serving as a science advisor to Hussein's feared intelligence
agency. He retired from government work in 1995 to teach at Al Haithem
University.
On April 24, 2003, about two weeks after the Americans captured
Baghdad, U.S. soldiers burst into Alazmirli's home. The scientist was
not there. His wife, Saharaa, recounted that a U.S. soldier demanded,
"Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" She said she replied that
she did not know.
"He did not have anything to do with weapons of mass destruction," she
said, adding that U.N. weapons inspectors interviewed Alazmirli during
the 1990s and found that he was not involved in any arms program.
According to Saharaa and TV coverage at the time, the U.S. military
came prepared for a fight.
Tanks and armored vehicles moved into the neighborhood, closing off
streets. Dozens of soldiers leaped over her garden wall, blasted locks
off the doors and broke into every cupboard, she said. They carted
away boxes of belongings, she said, including all of Alazmirli's
books, Saharaa's perfumes and all her gold jewelry ? the Iraqi
equivalent of a life's savings.
Saharaa said she was frightened, but an interpreter for the soldiers
assured her that "we only want to talk to your husband for one hour
because we know he's busy, and we'll even pay him because his time is
important."
A day after the soldiers arrived, Alazmirli returned home and
surrendered. The troops handcuffed and hooded him and put him in a
military vehicle.
Reluctant to be parted from her husband, Saharaa said, she told the
soldiers that she was a chemist too. They detained her as well. She is
a retired high school chemistry teacher. She was taken to the airport
detention center but was released after U.S. interrogators apparently
concluded that she was of no use to them.
Alazmirli's whereabouts remained a mystery to his family.
A month after his detention, the family received the first
communication from him via letter delivered by the International
Committee of the Red Cross. He was not permitted to write anything
other than his name. A stamp in the middle of the page declared, "SAFE
and WELL."
Later, Alazmirli sent letters regularly to his family. Occasionally he
requested clothes, but often he complained that he was not receiving
letters from his family members even though they wrote every week.
Saharaa, her daughters and a son spoke about Alazmirli's death as they
sat in their neat living room. The scientist ? a tall, thin, balding
man with a thin mustache and a serious look ? stared from photographs
on the wall and a side table.
"I went to the Red Cross and complained that our letters weren't
reaching him, and they said, 'We're hearing this all over and we're
trying to get the Americans to do something about it,' " Saharaa
said.
The Red Cross declined to comment on the case.
The family received its first phone call from Alazmirli four months
after his arrest. He spoke for about three minutes, just enough time
to inquire about family members' health.
Rewarding detainees with letters and telephone calls was typical of
the treatment high-value inmates received from interrogators. Twice
during the fall of 2003, the family received telephone calls from
Alazmirli.
Then, family members said, an American who identified himself on the
phone as Mr. Jeeki told them to show up at 2 p.m. Jan. 11 at a
checkpoint near Baghdad international airport.
At least two detention facilities are located at the airport,
including a separate prison for many of those detainees the Pentagon
had identified among its 55 most-wanted Iraqis. When the family
members arrived, they were blindfolded, driven around in loops for
about 10 minutes and brought to a building where they were told that
Alazmirli would meet them.
The family asked "Mr. Jeeki" why Alazmirli was being held and with
what crimes he had been charged.
"They said, 'Your father doesn't have any charges,' " said his son
Ashraf, 21, a college chemistry major. " 'He is only needed as a
witness because he was a member of the Mukhabarat [intelligence
agency]. On the contrary, your father is a nice man, a scientist, and
he's useful to the United States and to the Iraqi people.'
"From that we concluded he was cooperating with them," Ashraf said.
When Alazmirli came into the room, he was surprised to see them,
family members said.
Rana said she learned then that although her father was a diabetic,
the military had taken away his insulin and substituted an oral
medication.
"You cannot take away insulin from someone who has taken it for many
years. He took three injections per day; the pills are not
sufficient," she said. "I think they were trying to kill him slowly."
Nonetheless, all four family members said that Alazmirli looked like
his old self. But one thing worried them. On his wrist was a plastic
band with the now infamous photograph of a disheveled Saddam Hussein w
