Kurds capture cruel Saddam henchman

BAGHDAD — Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former Iraqi vice president known as “Saddam’s knuckles” for his ruthlessness against regime enemies, was captured by Kurdish fighters yesterday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and turned over to U.S. forces.

Ramadan once was considered Iraq’s second-most-powerful man, but his influence declined in the later years of Saddam Hussein’s regime. He was No. 20 on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqi fugitives and the “10 of Diamonds” in the Pentagon’s deck of cards depicting former regime figures.

Pentagon spokeswoman Diane Perry confirmed that Ramadan was turned over to the U.S. Army yesterday.

President Bush expressed pleasure over Ramadan’s capture, saying, “Slowly but surely, we’ll find who we need to find. It’s just a matter of time.”

Asked if the capture made him hopeful that Saddam would be nabbed soon, Mr. Bush said: “We’ll find him and we’ll bring him to justice.”

Fighters from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) captured Ramadan, 65, said Kasrat Rasouli, a PUK official in Sulaymaniyah. He gave no further details. The capture took place in Mosul, Ramadan’s hometown.

Ramadan was disguised in traditional Arab peasant clothes when PUK fighters captured him with his family, a Kurdish source said on the condition of anonymity.

PUK spokesman Latif Rashid said from London that Mr. Ramadan “was hiding among his relatives or colleagues.”

Mosul was also where Saddam’s sons, Qusai and Uday, were hiding when U.S. forces raided their hide-out, sparking a furious gunbattle that killed the two brothers, a bodyguard and Qusai’s son.

Ramadan, who became vice president in March 1991 and was a Revolutionary Command Council member, was widely considered to be as ruthless as Saddam. He headed a 1970 court that executed 44 officers for plotting to overthrow the regime.

During a visit to Jordan in the 1980s, he was asked by Muslim fundamentalists about the Ba’ath Party’s attitude toward Islam.

Ramadan replied that Muslims were free to pray and follow their faith, “but if they try to harm the Ba’athist regime or ridicule its slogans, the regime will break their necks.”

Ramadan is high on the list of regime figures who Iraqi opposition groups say should be tried for war crimes.

Born in 1938, he joined the underground Ba’ath Party in 1956 and became close to Saddam. After the 1968 coup by the party, he held several posts and became a member of the regional command in 1969.

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