Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and The Washington Post
DATELINE: AMMAN, JORDAN LENGTH: Medium
Saddam's son followed them to plead for their return, but he was rebuffed Thursday by Jordan's king.
The flight of Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid and Lt. Col. Saddam Kamel Hassan al- Majid, both sons-in-law of Saddam and his distant cousins, provided a potential intelligence bonanza for the United States and the United Nations in their efforts to learn more about Iraq's nuclear and chemical weapon programs and about Saddam's secretive, family-based government.
Hussein Kamel until recently headed the Iraqi military industrialization program, putting him in charge of weapon procurement and Iraq's covert effort before the 1991 Persian Gulf War to develop weapons of mass destruction. He is married to Saddam's daughter Raghda. Saddam Kamel, his younger brother, commanded the security detail that provides close protection to the Iraqi leader. He is married to another of Saddam's daughters, Rana.
The two drove to Amman on Tuesday with their wives and families - reportedly in official Mercedes sedans - and were granted political asylum Thursday by Jordan's King Hussein. With them came a number of military officers and aides.
Their departure marked the most serious and embarrassing defection from Saddam's iron-fisted regime since the uprising of Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish minorities right after the war. Hussein Kamel, 37, was considered one of the most powerful men in Baghdad after Saddam.
Hussein Kamel declared Thursday, in the only statement he has issued since his arrival in Amman, that he was in contact with opposition leaders in and out of Iraq to launch a plan aimed at ending the suffering of the Iraqi people ``and drawing up a plan of action that will lead to a change in the situation in the country.'' While this led some observers to predict he would seek to lead or join an opposition movement, he was not specific.
``Iraq has lost its credibility on the international and Arab scene,'' he said in remarks to the French news agency Agence France-Presse. ``[Iraqi leaders] are not telling the truth, which is aggravating the misery of the Iraqi people.''
Saddam's eldest son, Odai, and a cousin of the al-Majids, Maj. Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majid, went to Amman on Thursday and appealed to King Hussein to return the defectors. Jordan's foreign minister, Abdul-Karim Kabariti, said the response was ``a big no.''
There was no sign that Iraq planned any action against Jordan.
In Washington, President Clinton said King Hussein showed ``real courage,'' and pledged to protect Jordan against any Iraqi retaliation.
The brothers' departure, coupled with the dismissal last month of Ali Hassan al-Majid as defense minister, indicate the al-Majid clan is losing power.
The clan, related to Saddam on his father's side and long a pillar of the regime, appears to have been unseated in a power struggle with Saddam's sons and half-brothers.
That would mean Saddam's sons, hard-liners who oppose diplomatic efforts to lift the crippling United Nations trade sanctions, may be gaining influence - and that Iraq will isolate itself even more.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.