MONDAY,APRIL14,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
U.S.-led coalition captures top Iraqi officials
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Several top officials of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, including the president's half brother and a former science adviser, have been captured by allied forces.
The Iraqis are being interrogated about Iraq's suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs, U.S. officials said yesterday. They also are being pressed for details on where Saddam is, if he is alive, as well as the whereabouts of other former Iraqi leaders.
The captured Iraqis include Watban Ibrahim Hasan, one of Saddam's three half brothers, who once served as Iraq's interior minister.
Hasan was the five of spades in the deck of playing cards the U.S. military issued with pictures of wanted Iraqi officials.
The war's commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, said yesterday
that the United States was holding several high-ranking Iraqi prisoners in western Iraq. Neither he nor Pentagon officials would say how many leading Iraqis have been captured.
As the fighting in Iraq winds down, American forces are stepping up the search for the chemical and biological weapons the United States accuses Saddam's government of having stashed away.
So far, no caches of weapons of mass destruction have been confirmed in Iraq, military officials said yesterday.
U. S. forces have a list of 2,000 to 3,000 sites in Iraq that need to be checked, and weapons teams are checking up to 20 sites a day, Franks said.
Iraqis ranging from common people to high-ranking officials have suggested other possible hiding places to be searched. Franks and other military officials said.
"There are so many sites, we are not able to get to all of them right away," a senior Pentagon official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It's fair to say there are a lot of places U.S. forces are adding to the list."
One former Iraqi official who could provide major help for the hunt is Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi, who surrendered to American forces on Saturday. Al-Saadi, the seven of diamonds in the U.S. deck of cards, was Saddam's point man on weapons of mass destruction.
Pentagon officials said yesterday they did not know if al-Saadi was sticking to his prewar assertions that Iraq no longer had any chemical or biological weapons. Shortly before leaving his Baghdad villa Saturday with his German wife, Helga, and surrendering to an American warrant officer, al-Saadi insisted Iraq has no such weapons.
Also unclear was how helpful
Hasan, Saddam's captured half brother, could be. Hasan was dismissed as interior minister, the official in charge of Iraq's domestic security, and was shot by Saddam's son Odi in 1995 amid one of the many squabbles within Saddam's family.
Saddam did not trust Hasan and was having him watched, a U.S. official said yesterday. He was captured near Mosul in northern Iraq, apparently as he tried to escape to Syria, the official said.
Another half brother, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, was targeted by a coalition airstrike Friday on a building in central Iraq. Military officials said Sunday they had not confirmed Barzan Hasan's fate.
Other top Iraqi officials have escaped to Syria, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said. Some have moved on to third countries, he said.
"We certainly are hopeful Syria will not become a haven for war
"There are so many sites, we are not able to get to all of them right away."
Senior Pentagon official
criminals or terrorists," Rumsfeld said.
President Bush also issued a vague warning Sunday to Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying the Syrians should avoid harboring "any people who need to be held to account."
Syria's government and Saddam's regime both belonged to the Arab Baath Socialist Party until a bitter split in 1960. In recent years the two factions seemed to have worked out some of their differences.
A Syrian diplomat who followed Rumsfeld on NBC's "Meet the Press," Imad Moustapha, denied that Syria was giving Iraqis refuge.
Casino
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Minimum bets increased on each floor. In the Penthouse, or seventh floor, the minimum bet was $50 of fake money in chips, and there were bouncers in place to ensure the gamblers had at least that much money.
The floor even turned its study room into a back room for private, high stakes games.
Prizes such as stereos, DVD and CD players were raffled off throughout the night. Students could purchase additional chances for $200 worth of chips.
Some students left because they ran out of chips. The only way to earn more chips was to bring more canned goods.
Many students were going in and out of Templin after rounding up or purchasing food for charities.
"It's like life — you can either go to the ATM or you're done," said J.D. Boyle, Shaker Heights, Ohio, senior.
Family, church thankful for Wichita soldier's rescue
—Edited by Anne Mantey
The Associated Press
WICHITA — The congregation at Olivet Southern Baptist Church erupted into applause after Pastor Ron Pracht announced during Palm yesterday services that Army Pfc. Patrick Miller had been found alive.
"For the good news about Patrick ... let there be great rejoicing," Pracht told parishioners.
Pracht said Miller's wife, Jessa, received a call from the military early yesterday confirming that her husband was among seven POWs recovered by Marines south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
Pacing the halls outside the
church sanctuary was Cheryl Phipps, a cousin of Jessa's.
"He is healthy. He is strong. He is fine. Praise the Lord," Phipps said. "I'm just kind of numb."
Phipps was still wearing a yellow ribbon, pinned by an American flag, on her lapel — something Miller family members plan to wear until all U.S. soldiers come home, she said.
"I'm praying some good will come out of this," she said.
Miller's mother, Mary Pickering, said she was elated at the images of her son she saw on television.
"I saw him transferring from the helicopter to the ambulance," Pickering said from her home in Farmington, N.M. "This time I wasn't mad at the TV."
Miller's half-brother, Thomas Hershberger of Derby, said their mother had spent the day crying "tears of joy."
"I don't think they can get him home soon enough," he said.
Pracht married Patrick and Jessa Miller shortly before Miller's deployment and has been acting as a spokesman for the family since Miller was captured.
Jessa Miller has declined all interviews and is not yet ready to make a statement, Pracht said.
Pracht said Jessa Miller is now
Jessa Miller and the couple's two young children moved from Texas, where Patrick Miller was based at Fort Bliss, to Park City to be closer to family after he was sent overseas in December.
focused on when she can see her husband.
Patrick Miller, 23, was captured March 23 when his 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed near Nasiriyah.
Unexpectedly released by Iraqi troops, the seven U.S. POWs were declared in good shape after their 22 days of imprisonment.
In Valley Center — the small, south-central town of 5,000 people north of Wichita where Miller grew up — the news of his safe return spread quickly. Miller graduated from Valley Center High School in 1998.
At a Valley Center convenience store, clerk Rita Kerr told customers coming in early Sunday that Miller was safe.
"I'm just thrilled. That's just fabulous. I couldn't be happier," she said.
The seven were taken by helicopter to a base near Kut and flown to a military airport south of Kuwait City.
They "are in good shape," although two have gunshot wounds, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said.
After his capture, video footage on Iraqi TV showed Miller answering questions in a shaky voice, his eyes darting back and forth between an interviewer and another person who couldn't be seen on camera.
Miller was with a convoy of the 507th Maintenance Company that was ambushed and was
among five POWs later shown on Iraqi television.
Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital earlier this month and returned to the United States on Saturday, was in the same convoy. Several others who had been with them were killed.
Miller's brother, Shane Parker, said from his home in Valley Center, that he had been avoiding television since his brother was captured and that he was looking forward to seeing him in person.
"It really upsets me to see Pat on TV. I didn't want to upset myself more than I already was." Parker told CNN. "I just want to see him now. I can't quit crying."
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