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Iraqi Diplomats Defect to The United States
WASHINGTON, July 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two Iraqi diplomats have defected from their country and requested asylum in the United States, news sources report.
One was Iraq's deputy ambassador to the U.N., and the other was a senior diplomat - the 2nd and 4th highest-ranking officials at the U.N. mission, according to an online news report by NBC.
Deputy Ambassador Mohammed al-Humaimidi and senior counselor Fela Hesan al-Rubaie were identified by anonymous police sources in a CBS News report.
The defectors were two of a handful of diplomats who were supposed to return home to Iraq this month, but diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity said that al-Rubaie disappeared two weeks ago in New York, and the police sources said that al-Humaimidi requested political asylum alone at a police station on Friday, according to the CBS report.
But the BBC online service reported that al-Humaimidi went into the police station accompanied by his wife and at least one child, according to news agencies.
Only al-Rubaie's defection has been confirmed by a U.S. official, reported NBC.
The two men sought political asylum for themselves and for their families, both the BBC and CBS said.
Iraq's ambassador to the U.N., Mohammed al-Douri, would not confirm or deny the reports, saying that he had seen both diplomats recently and that he did not know if any of those who were scheduled to go home had arrived in Iraq.
One of the most publicized defections in recent years was that of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's two sons-in-law, in 1995. The two brothers, who were married to Hussein's daughters, returned six months later on the promise of pardons, but were executed within hours of their arrival.
And during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the man who held the Iraqi flag during the opening ceremonies slipped off in a getaway car and never returned, NBC News said.
In 1999, Hussein offered amnesty to Iraqi nationals who left the country illegally after the Gulf War in 1991, NBC News said.
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