[Rumor] Tareq Aziz defected/shot dead?

[Grojlach]

The BBC News ticker is apparently saying that a UK minister is trying to "clarify rumour Tariq Aziz has defected." More soon.

The only site with some information on what's the rumour all about so far was the newssite Debka.

DEBKAfile exclusive: Kurdish sources confirm that Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz is in their hands and is being questioned by US intelligence officials. Earlier, as American and British forces began invasion of Iraq, DEBKAfile’s military sources reported persistent rumor that two leading powerbrokers of Saddam’s regime had fled Baghdad: deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz, who is thought to be hiding in Kurdistan in northern Iraq, and vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan who has not been seen for three days.

But this is still just a rumour, not facts... We'll have to wait for CNN or BBC to come up with more info on what happened. Haven't seen anything about it on CNN myself so far...

[ 03-19-2003, 09:34 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

[Sir Taliesin]

The Jersulem Post is reporting he was also wounded.

[Grojlach]

Someone on another site claimed that the BBC, Aljazeera, and Kuwaiti TV are all saying different things.
They claim he is resp. either "missing", crossing into Jordan, or dead.
No idea what to make of all this... We'll learn about it soon enough, we'll just have to wait for the rumours to be denied or confirmed.

[Grojlach]

Even more on the subject... Not defected, but killed?

Unconfirmed opposition reports: Tareq Aziz shot dead

The Iraqi opposition is trying to verify reports indicating that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz may have been killed on his way to the Kurdish part of the country.
Ismail Zayer of the Iraqi opposition broke the news Wednesday, interviewed for Radio Free Europe.
According to BTA, Zayer expressed hope that this news will be confirmed by an independent source by Thursday. "The Iraqi opposition has reasons to believe that Aziz has attempted to escape into the Kurdish region of Iraq," Zayer said.
"We have received no confirmation of such information," Iraqi Charge d'Affaires in Sofia Yahya Mahdi told BTA.
"This is not true. Mr Tariq Aziz is a well-known patriot, he will stay in Iraq and he will be in Iraq till his last moment," the charge d'affaires said. He conveyed that the murder allegation is "cheap propaganda against Iraq."
"They are aggressors and have no grounds whatsoever in terms of international law or the practice of international relations," the diplomat said in connection with the planned military operation against his country.
"We have no concrete information about Tareq Aziz," Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Lyubomir Ivanov said.
"We have lost the direct channels of information from Iraq because we have pulled out our embassy officers from that country. We are now trying to obtain information by cooperating with other services," Ivanov said.

Source:Albawaba

[Ronn_Bman]

"This is not true. Mr Tariq Aziz is a well-known patriot, he will stay in Iraq and he will be in Iraq till his last moment," the charge d'affaires said.

That sounds pretty ominous.

If he was trying to defect, I'd say that a damn good sign that the higher levels of government are not as pro-Saddam, as Saddam would have us think.

I hope it's true that he defected, but I hope he's alive for a number of reasons.

[Donut]

He's just appeared at a press conference in Baghdad! Squelch another rumour.

[Wutang]

Maybe having the secret police tailing him changed his mind

I doubt he could possible make a getaway until US forces closes on Baghdad and chaos ensues.

[Grojlach]

Originally posted by Donut: He's just appeared at a press conference in Baghdad! Squelch another rumour.

Well, it's the BBC who started the rumour... Are there any updates on that UK Minister who was supposedly trying to clarify that rumour?