Kurd chief who taught mercy to Saddam's men (Jailed militia leader

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Jailed militia leader counselled ex-foes)

When Sheikh Ali Bapir saw his fellow prisoners at the US-run detention centre near Baghdad airport he was angry. They were the men he had fought against most of his life. Now he was in prison with them.

He knew their faces from TV: Ali Hassan al-Majid, aka Chemical Ali, the alleged mastermind of gas attacks on the Kurds and of the brutal suppression of the Shia; Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former Iraqi vice-president and a confidante of Saddam Hussein; Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister in the Ba'athist regime; and Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother.

In the near distance, separated from the others by a barbed wire fence, was Saddam.

Released without charge at the end of last month after 22 months in custody, Sheikh Ali, 44, the leader of the Komala Islami Kurdistan (Kurdistan Islamic group), spoke to the Guardian about his encounters with the former Iraqi leadership

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1493643,00.html

[countmyvote4real]

1. An astonishing story that will never be told in US MSM.

"When I was in prison I tried to tell the Americans not to always engage the Islamic world through a process of conflict," he said.

"It's like spring water. You should allow this spring water to come out from the ground in a natural way. But if you try to push it and oppress it, it will take another course and come out of the ground in a very unnatural way."

[Roland99]

2. Yes. A great read. Truly shows the ignorance and arrogance

of how this war has been waged.