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To: lurqer who wrote (18170)	4/28/2003 10:20:49 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

Aziz says Saddam survived airstrikes (Ps..its saddam's birthday..........) Former Iraqi deputy prime minister is speaking with U.S. interrogators April 28 — Defense department officials confirmed to NBC News that former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told American interrogators Saddam Hussein survived two U.S. airstrikes against him on March 19 and April 7. OFFICIALS SAY Aziz also claims that Iraq destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction. One official says Aziz is “chit-chatting” but not providing a lot of useful information thus far. There has been no confirmation of his claims. On Sunday, Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, chief Iraqi liaison with U.N. weapons inspectors, was taken into coalition custody, the U.S. Central Command announced. Amin, the former Iraqi National Monitoring Director, was No. 49 on the U.S. list of the 55 most wanted figures from the regime of Saddam Hussein and was captured near the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad on the road that leads to Syria and Jordan. Amin, also known as Hossem Mohammed Amin al-Yasin, was among the key figures in Saddam’s weapons programs and would have detailed knowledge of any illegal armaments, if Iraq still posses them. For more than a decade as head of the monitoring commission, the former air force communications engineer has earned a reputation as a loyal officer who has fulfilled Saddam’s expectations. The general and his troops refused to allow U.N. inspectors into presidential palaces and other “sensitive sites” during the first round of U.N. inspections that ended in 1998. He was also one of the few Iraqis authorized to comment on weapons of mass destruction. Like most of Saddam’s most trusted lieutenants, he is from a prominent Sunni Muslim family from northern Iraq, in Mosul. Early in his career, he was assigned to different air bases and radar installations. His career took off when Saddam established the military’s Technical and Scientific Committee, a weapons research and development think tank, in 1980. Others on the committee included Gen. Amer Rashid, Iraq’s minister of oil, and Amir al-Saadi, Saddam’s senior weapons adviser who is also in coalition custody. The committee was later expanded into the Military Industrialization Organization which produced all of Iraq’s most lethal weapons. Amin was also believed close to Saddam’s son Qusai, who was the commander of the Republican Guard, and Saddam’s personal secretary, Gen. Abide Hmoud. That made Amin one of the best-connected insiders in the Iraqi ruling establishment. Amin was also believed to have been among the Iraqi officials the Baghdad government claimed were encouraged by U.S. intelligence agents to defect last year. Iraq claims the attempt was made when an Iraqi delegation traveled to Vienna, Austria, last year to discuss the resumption of weapons inspections with U.N. officials. Among other former Iraqi officials who have either surrendered or been captured by coalition forces in recent days are Farouk Hijazi, who once helped run Saddam’s intelligence service, and Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister and the regime’s most public face.

To: lurqer who wrote (18170)	4/28/2003 2:28:39 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 89467

Pakistan Makes Peace Overture to India Monday, April 28, 2003 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan made a major peace overture to nuclear rival India on Monday, proposing visits between their leaders in an effort to ease decades-long tensions over the disputed Kashmir (search) region. Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali (search) called Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (search) and asked "to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue," according to Pakistan Television. Jamali also said Pakistan officials are willing to visit India and invited Indian officials to visit Pakistan "in the cause of peace," the report said. Jamali made his offer after Vajpayee last week proposed talks between the two nations while visiting the troubled Indian-Kashmir capital of Srinagar. The South Asian neighbors have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan but which both claim in its entirety. So far, India has refused to negotiate with Pakistan, instead demanding that Islamabad first end cross-border infiltration into Indian-ruled Kashmir by Muslim militants, who have been fighting since 1989 for the region's independence or merger with Pakistan. Pakistan says it is doing all it can to seal the border and has asked for an increase in international monitors to verify New Delhi's claim. Islamabad says it only gives political and moral support to the militants. The dispute over Kashmir attracted international attention only after India conducted a 1998 nuclear test and Pakistan followed with its own. Both countries have declared themselves nuclear powers and there are fears that another conflict could escalate into a nuclear confrontation. foxnews.com