Saddam's Nephew Arrested

(Beirut, Lebanon) Good news! Another member of the ousted Saddam Hussein regime is apprehended.

From DailyStar.com:

Police in Lebanon have arrested the son of Saddam Hussein's half-brother on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol. According to sources close to the security forces, Bashar Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti, identified by the international policing organization as a "dangerous wanted terrorist," was nabbed at the Malibu Bay Hotel in the Jounieh neighborhood of Maameltein.

Tikriti had been planning to board a flight from the Lebanese capital to Brazil later in the day.

Police were tipped off when members of the hotel's staff suspected that Takriti's passport had been tampered with to alter his name.

The sources added that the wanted Iraqi had originally entered Lebanon through Syria after escaping Iraq. An international warrant for Tikriti's arrest on terrorism charges, including leading a group to fight US forces in Iraq, was later discovered once authorities realized who they had in custody.

Bashar Sabawi is the son of Saddam's half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti, who was a former presidential assistant and the six of diamonds (No. 36) on the deck of 55 most-wanted Saddam loyalists. It's evident that Basher was quite close to the seat of power in the government of Saddam and I'd speculate not much different in character from Uday and Qusay. Good riddance.

On a different note, it would be nice to know what connection Basher Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti has with Brazil. Business or pleasure? Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if there were an expatriate group of exiled Baathists in Brazil. After all, the country is comfortably socialist.