US Forces caught up with Tariq Aziz
TARIQ AZIZ
U.S. forces in Iraq have taken custody of Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister of Iraq. He was the eight of spades in the military's card deck of top Iraqi leaders and No: 43 on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted members of the former government.
Aziz could provide information on the fate of Saddam and his two sons, and locations of any hidden weapons of mass destruction.
He was the only Christian in Saddam's inner circle; born Mikhail Yuhanna to a Chaldean Catholic family, he later changed his name to Tariq Aziz. He was born in Tell Kaif, Iraq, in 1936. He studied English at the Baghdad College of Fine Arts and became a teacher and then a journalist, rising to chief editor of al-Thawra, the Baath Party newspaper. After the party took power in 1968, he took a series of ever more powerful posts. He joined the Baath Party in 1957, working closely with Saddam to overthrow British-imposed monarchy.
He served as foreign minister during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and was a frequent spokesman at that time. Aziz last appeared in public March 19, when he held a news conference in Baghdad to quash rumors he had fled the Iraqi capital. "I am carrying my pistol to confirm to you that we are ready to fight the aggressors," Aziz said then. "American soldiers are nothing but mercenaries and they will be defeated."
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