Former Iraqi minister escapes prison

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's former electricity minister, a dual U.S.-Iraqi citizen, has escaped from police custody, an Iraqi official said Monday.

Ayham al-Samaraie escaped Sunday with help from members of a security company he had hired to protect him before his arrest, said Faris Kareem, deputy head of Iraq's Public Integrity Commission. The anti-corruption panel had brought charges against him.

Al-Samaraie was convicted in October of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_escaped_official

[Greeby]

1. Oh well, maybe now he can get the power back up

:shrug:

[Cocoa]

2. here's a PBS interview with the escapee

from 2004

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec04/rebuilding_11-10.html#

[Cocoa]

3. he's linked to the same crook Obama is linked to

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/158001,CST-NWS-rezko03.article

Feds probe Rezko's Iraq contract

Want to ask jailed power chief how gov's pal got deal

December 3, 2006

Federal authorities are investigating an Iraqi power plant deal involving Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a former top fund-raiser for Gov. Blagojevich charged with defrauding Illinois taxpayers.

Investigators want to talk to Iraq's jailed former electricity minister, Aiham Alsammarae, about how Rezko landed the potentially lucrative contract, a source familiar with the probe told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Alsammarae, who holds dual U.S.-Iraqi citizenship and has a house in Oak Brook, helped Rezko get the deal, another source said.

Rezko and others in the venture were to own the plant and sell electricity back to the Iraqis, but the Iraqi government still was to pay a substantial portion of construction costs, that source added.

more...



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600729.html


CHICAGO. Dec. 16 -- Antoin "Tony" Rezko is a political insider, an energetic Chicago dealmaker and campaign fundraiser often in the headlines for being on the wrong side of good government. Indicted in October on influence-peddling charges, he also has a habit of befriending prospective political stars.

One of them was Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was offered a job by Rezko in the early 1990s while a top student at Harvard Law School. Obama did not take it, but over the years, the two men stayed in touch, and Rezko backed Obama's successful 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, raising money and contributing his own.

In June 2005, in what Obama now describes as a "boneheaded" mistake, Obama and Rezko's wife bought adjacent properties on Chicago's South Side, closing the deals on the same day. Seven months later, wanting a bigger yard for his $1.65 million house, Obama bought a slice of the Rezko property for $104,500.

After news of the deal broke last month in the Chicago Tribune, Obama said he had erred by creating the appearance that Rezko had done him a favor by selling him a portion of the lot. For the first time since he entered the national spotlight, the 45-year-old freshman senator found himself on the defensive, discussing a personal decision he had come to regret.

more...

[bahrbearian]

4. What is it with these Ivy Leaguer's?

[rodeodance]

5. Gunmen spring former Iraqi minister from jail (inside Green zone)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/18/iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_topstories&eref=yahoo




http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/18/iraq.main/index.html?section=cnn_topstories&eref=yahoo

Gunmen spring former Iraqi minister from jail



Gunmen spring former Iraqi minister from jail

POSTED: 9:06 a.m. EST, December 18, 2006
Story Highlights
• NEW: Former Iraqi official on trial for corruption escapes from jail
• Three bombings in Baghdad kill six, wound 25
• 91 bodies found across Baghdad on weekend
• Iraqi Red Crescent suspends work to protest mass kidnappings


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A former Iraqi government official awaiting trial on corruption charges escaped from a Baghdad jail Sunday with the help of Western gunmen, an Iraqi official said Monday.

The gunmen seized former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Sammarae from his cell at a police station inside the Green Zone, according to the head of Iraq's Public Integrity Commission, Judge Radhi Hamza.

Another official with the Commission told The Associated Press that the gunmen were members of a non-Iraqi security company al-Sammarae had hired to protect him before his arrest.

Al-Sammarae, who holds American and Iraqi citizenship, was scheduled to appear in court on Saturday but refused to present himself, saying he was "very ill," Hamza said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said U.S. officials had been providing counsel services to al-Sammarae and are looking into the reports of an escape............

[maddezmom]

6. this is the second time he's escaped

Lou Fintor, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said U.S. officials were aware of reports of al-Samaraie's escape and had been in touch with him in prison to provide basic consular services.

A Sunni Arab political figure, al-Samaraie was a member of the transitional government set up after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

The former minister, who was convicted of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison, is believed to have had contacts with Sunni Arab insurgents and has tried to persuade them to put down their weapons and join the political process.

After al-Samaraie's first escape, a few days after his conviction, Iraqi officials caught him at the Baghdad airport with a Chinese passport, Kareem said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061218/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[Drum]

7. The phrase that keeps jumping out at me is

"inside the Green Zone."

WTF???

Why is Baghdad reminding me of "Deadwood"?

From HBO's page:
"The outlaw camp of Deadwood marches slowly towards civilization, facing its first elections. But the power struggles continue over everything in Deadwood—influence, money, and whores—as the founding camp members form strategic alliances to face down the threat of a powerful newcomer, seeking to remake Deadwood in his image."

[endarkenment]

9. They f'ing cancelled deadwood, the cocksuckers.

That was one of my favorite shows ever. Now how about cancelling the fucking cocksucking green zone?

[endarkenment]

8. Hmmm... lot of recent 'escapes' of prominent sunnis.

Didn't one of Saddam's relatives just make a miraculous escape too?

Deal?

[Eugene]

10. Reuters: US working with Iraq over minister freed from jail

US working with Iraq over minister freed from jail
19 Dec 2006 13:20:01 GMT
Source: Reuters

-snip-

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was cooperating
with Iraq to find out how a former Iraqi minister with dual U.S. citizenship was
sprung from his Baghdad jail cell, reportedly by armed, plain-clothes Americans.

"We are co-ordinating with the Iraqi government, which is currently investigating
the case. There are conflicting reports surrounding his disappearance and we can't
comment further," U.S. embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said.

Ayham al-Samarraie, an electricity minister in the former government of Prime Minister
Iyad al-Allawi, has not been seen since Sunday, when he walked out of a police station
in the company of a group of armed men.

-snip-

Interior Ministry officials said the armed Americans arrived at the station in Humvee
four-wheel drive vehicles and removed Samarraie, who had been allowed to move freely
around the building by the station commander.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL945865.htm

American "contractors" tried to spring him before according to the article,
but al-Sammarraie was kept under very loose security. Interesting.

[maddezmom]

11. High-profile suspect escapes Chicago man was reportedly helped by Americans

12-19) 04:00 PST Baghdad -- A once-prominent Iraqi American, jailed on corruption charges, was sprung from a Green Zone prison this weekend by U.S. security contractors he had hired, several Iraqi officials said.

Ayham al-Samaraie, a Chicago-area businessman, returned to Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and assumed the position of electricity minister in the interim government of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

~snip~
Neither the security contractors nor their company were named by Iraqi officials Monday.

There have been no suggestions that U.S. officials had a role in al-Samaraie's escape Sunday afternoon. But the B-movie scenario of a rich businessman hiring armed muscle to bust himself out of jail from inside the fortress-like U.S.-protected enclave could further contribute to Iraq's image of instability and lawlessness. The flamboyant former government minister's arrest and prosecution was held up by Iraqi and U.S. officials as an example of good government prevailing in the new Iraq.

His high-profile escape, splashed across Iraqi television channels Monday night, also could further damage the reputation of the United States, which is believed by many Iraqis to have wasted and stolen billions of dollars in Iraqi revenues.

Iraqi officials were enraged by his escape and the suggestion that any Americans had a hand in it.

more:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/19/MNGMAN25JP1.DTL&feed=rss.news