Proved innocent
Observer reporter Farzad Bazoft was hanged by Saddam in 1990. Now we have
tracked down his interrogator who admits: 'He was no spy'
Ed Vulliamy in Nasiriya
Sunday May 18, 2003
The Observer
His eyes are like stone, but his smile is a ready one, his handshake is firm.
This is the face and greeting of the man who arrested and interrogated The
Observer' s correspondent Farzad Bazoft, so starting a process that would send
the journalist to the gallows in March 1990. His name is Kadem Askar. Back then
he was a colonel in Saddam Hussein's intelligence service.
Now, tracked down 13 years after Bazoft's barbaric execution, Askar admits
that he knew the 31-year-old reporter was innocent of the charge of espionage
for which he was hanged - and claims Bazoft was murdered on the orders of
Saddam Hussein himself.
Askar was himself welcomed into Saddam's presence at least three times during
his career in Iraq's intelligence agency. But he says he tried - half-heartedly
- to defy the Iraqi dictator over the murder of Bazoft.
This is what Askar said at his home in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah
last week: 'Bazoft was not a spy. He was obviously innocent. He was not a spy,
and from my interrogation I could tell he was not, that he was simply chasing a
story. And I submitted my report saying that.
'But,' said Askar, grinding a row of prayer beads in his fist as he sat by
the light of a paraffin lamp in his front room, 'the order came down from
Saddam Hussein himself: that Bazoft was a spy for the Israelis and British.
Once Saddam took that position, there was nothing I could do to help this young
man. Yes, it went all the way to the top, to Saddam himself. Bazoft was a
foreigner - both English and Iranian - and that made this an important case for
Saddam.'
The Observer 's road to Askar this time around - in a cruel echo of Bazoft's
steps - was a curious one. The family of Askar's first wife, in Baghdad, was
located. She was a former actress and television presenter on Basra TV, who
removed herself from the public glare when word came that Uday Hussein,
Saddam's sadistically lecherous son, had noticed and desired her.
Once an address for her estranged husband was discovered, The Observer
offered a lift to Askar's son, Ali, by way of reuniting him with his father
after the disruption of war.
Ali accepted and, a few days later, was waiting with packed bag, complete
with the pictures of Britney Spears and Celine Dion he takes everywhere. The
road wound south, littered with its deadly debris, to his father's home in
Nasiriyah.
This time The Observer entered Askar's presence not through the door of an
interrogation room at Abu Graib jail, on the outskirts of Baghdad, but through
the evening light and humid heat and into his home. Instead of the harsh light,
the interrogator's desk and plastic chair that would have greeted Bazoft, there
is the lamplight and hot, sweet tea.
Askar was not aware he was speaking to a reporter and photographer - let
alone from Bazoft's newspaper - although by the end of the conversation he may
have guessed his visitors were likely to be from the press.
Notes of his remarks were taken immediately after they were translated, and
confirmed at a gathering, including the Arabic translator, by all three of
Askar's guests after the visit.
First, there is an introduction to his daughter who, in fluent English,
discusses her studies of Beowulf, Chaucer and the Romantic poets, Coleridge
being a favourite.
We move on to Askar's relief that Saddam's regime has gone. Askar is a Shia
Muslim from this town in the heartland of Iraq's persecuted religious majority.
He writes poetry, he says, 'about love and gentle things'. He is now without
work or income. Despite his studies at the Academy of Arts in Baghdad, his
father, he claims, forced him into military service in 1969. 'To be an artist
was to be a beggar under Saddam,' he says.
In 1975, Askar the soldier spotted 'an opportunity to rise' and transferred
to the intelligence service, reaching the rank of colonel by the time Bazoft
returned in September 1989 to the country he had previously visited several
times.
Bazoft left London with a group of colleagues to join an Iraqi
government-organised convoy to cover Kurdish elections and rebuilding after the
Iran-Iraq war. But, on the day he departed, newspapers in Britain reported a
different story: an explosion at the Iraqi military facility of al-Iksandria,
in which 700 people were reported killed. The Iraqis said only 17 lives had
been lost.
Bazoft called his editor and agreed to investigate the story. Along with a
team from ITN, he tried to give the Iraqi security forces the slip; the ITN
team was stopped, Bazoft got through.
He worked diligently and professionally - perhaps too much so. He took
photographs of the installation and collected soil samples to provide evidence
supporting his research.
At the Mansur Melia and other hotels in Baghdad, Bazoft would work the casino
to continue his questioning - sources now tell The Observer - asking military
personnel at the tables just what they knew. 'He was reported by the hotel
security,' says Askar. He sent his agents to arrest Bazoft, who was charged
with being a spy for the Israeli Mossad and British intelligence.
Now Askar takes up the story, of how Bazoft was brought before him at the
infamous Abu Graib jail, which has been the end of the line for thousands of
Saddam's victims. 'Bazoft's hotel room was searched for some things I'd expect
to find, but we did not find them,' says Askar.
'However, he had done some stupid things. There were 34 pictures on a film of
36, all of military installations - a dangerous thing to do. But I could see
clearly from examining the film he had shot that Bazoft was not a spy. No spy
would take such pictures - it was obvious he was just trying to get a story.
The things he shot were of no use to anyone; nowhere near as much use as what
could have been got from any satellite picture.
'I interrogated Bazoft for a day,' recalls Askar. 'He was not tortured, but
yes, he was beaten. Even though it made no difference to the outcome, it would
have helped some people to get a confession; it would have helped their careers
to have a piece of paper to give to Saddam to prove his point.
'But we could not get such a confession. Bazoft said nothing in answer to our
questions. He had shouted a bit when he was arrested, saying he was nothing to
do with any intelligence service, but he did not appear afraid. In answer to
our questions, he said only "I am not a spy", and nothing more'. [Bazoft did
later make a televised 'confession', by which time Askar was off the case.]
Askar wrote his report, he claims, affirming Bazoft was not guilty of
espionage. The report has not been recovered. Askar entered into a Faustian
bargain with his superiors, to escape his moral dilemma about his future as a
member of the elite.
He explains: 'They were strange times in our intelligence service. These had
been the years of the Iran-Iraq war and our service was in close contact with
Mossad and the CIA. That is something I cannot talk about. But I can say that,
as a Shia Muslim, and because of what I had been doing, I was not in favour
with the intelligence command.
'Bazoft was of course not the only one accused of spying,' says Askar. 'There
were thousands of them. If the intelligence saw anything strange or wanted
people out of the way, they called them a spy. Agents were paid by the number
of people they arrested, maybe two million dinars ($1,250) for a spy.
'And this,' he continues, 'was especially the case for Iranians living in
Iraq. They and the Iraqi Shias were easy picking. Since I am from the Shia,
they were always watching what I was doing.
'But this was my job, to interrogate people whom I knew were innocent. I said
so often in my reports. This was why I was out of favour and they were willing
for me to leave the intelligence service - because I had written reports on
many Iranians and Iraqi Shias saying I knew they were innocent. I had tried to
help them, but there was nothing I could do, and I wanted to get out.'
He secured his exit, because of the Bazoft case. Soon after the
interrogation, he says: 'I knew Saddam Hussein was taking a direct and personal
interest in the case. There was nothing I could have done to help him.
'I had very good contacts in the military, and they were my protection. I was
told by these same friends that, if I did not make objections in the Bazoft
case, then I could get out of the intelligence service and back to the
military.
'I was also told that if I did press on Bazoft's innocence, they would not be
able to protect me any further. So I submitted my report and left it at that. I
joined the military soon after, and even then I was watched, everywhere I
went.' The Bazoft case was handed over to members of Saddam's 'kinsfolk', says
Askar, meaning the inner sanctum of clansmen from Tikrit, Saddam's bastion home
town.
The rest of the story is well documented - how, despite international
pressure, Bazoft was taken to the gallows on 15 March, 1990, and hanged after
being sentenced to death for spying by a 'revolutionary court' the previous
weekend.
Bazoft was last seen during a half-hour visit by Robin Kealy, consul general
at the British Embassy. Bazoft thought Kealy had come to tell him he was to be
released. Instead Kealy was obliged to tell him he had come to say his last
farewell. He reported the condemned man to be 'hollow-eyed and subdued' as he
passed on a written message and verbal farewells to his family, friends and
colleagues, before being delivered to the hangman.
Askar now lives in the ruins of his career, amid the ruins of his home town.
He left the military in 1996 to take a mid-ranking job in the oil-for-food
programme. That, too, collapsed along with the Saddam regime.
Nasiriyah has exchanged the terror of tyranny for another tribulation. It was
among the communities pummelled most thoroughly by the Americans as they surged
north, with some 800 of its citizens being killed. The site of the heart of the
ancient kingdom of Sumer, six millennia ago, Nasiriyah is now a desert shanty
of disease and poverty, where children beg for water.
'Is the life of Farzad Bazoft on your consience, colonel?' The former
interrogator drops his prayer beads on the floor beside the armchair. 'I'm an
old man now and a poor man. I don't want to be in a bad situation over this
case. But I have bad feelings about it now, yes. These things hurt me, as a
human being, with children. I wanted to leave the intelligence; it is very hard
to leave the intelligence. But I knew this man was innocent, and I feel bad
there was nothing I could do to help him.'
David Bier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support"
"As we see more of these Iraqi forces in the lead, we will be able to
continue with our stated strategy that says as Iraqi forces stand up,
we will stand down," President Bush said last month."
Oh well, looks like the troops will be home for Christmas...2008.
More bad news in Bushland.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/24/iraq.security/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded
No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting
without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to
fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.
The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has
repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing
independence of the Iraqi military.
The competence of the Iraqi military has been cited as a key factor in
when U.S. troops will be able to return home.
"As we see more of these Iraqi forces in the lead, we will be able to
continue with our stated strategy that says as Iraqi forces stand up,
we will stand down," President Bush said last month. (Full story)
(http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/04/bush.iraq/index.html)
The battalion, according to the Pentagon, was downgraded from "level
one" to "level two" after a recent quarterly assessment of its
capabilities.
"Level one" means the battalion is able to fight on its own; "level
two" means it requires support from U.S. troops; and "level three"
means it must fight alongside U.S. troops.
Though officials would not cite a specific reason for downgrading the
unit, its readiness level has dropped in the wake of a new commander
and numerous changes in the combat and support units, officials said.
The battalion is still deployed, and its status as an independent
fighting force could be restored any day, Pentagon officials said. It
was not clear where the battalion is operating within Iraq.
According to the congressionally mandated Iraq security report
released Friday, there are 53 Iraqi battalions at level two status, up
from 36 in October. There are 45 battalions at level three, according
to the report.
Overall, Pentagon officials said close to 100 Iraqi army battalions
are operational, and more than 100 Iraq Security Force battalions are
operational at levels two or three. The security force operations are
under the direction of the Iraqi government.
The numbers are roughly the same as those given by the president last
month when he said 125 Iraqi combat battalions were fighting the
insurgency, 50 of them taking the lead.
"In January 2006, the mission is to continue to hand over more and
more territory and more and more responsibility to Iraqi forces," Bush
said. "That's progress."
CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report.
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