The paper hinted that Aziz “betrayed Saddam” before the invasion was launched

LONDON, April 27 ( Islamonline.net & News Agencies )- Iraq's former Deputy Prime Minister, now in U.S. hands, was the urbane public face of the Saddam regime. But he may have helped the allies to target his ex-boss, a British daily hinted Sunday, April 27, indicating Aziz was “a mole”.

The Telegraph claimed that Saddam Hussein's security chiefs placed members of Tariq Aziz's family under arrest shortly before the start of the war to make sure that the former Iraqi deputy prime minister did not defect to the West.

Concerns about the fate of his family - in particular his eldest son - if he surrendered to “coalition forces” was Aziz's primary concern during the lengthy negotiations that finally resulted in his decision to give himself up at the end of last week, according to the paper.

"Tariq was still terrified of what the remnants of Saddam's regime would do to his family if he surrendered to us," said a Western security officer, the paper reported. "Even if Saddam were dead, he knew that there were still Ba'ath Party loyalists who would want to exact revenge on his family."

As part of Aziz's surrender terms, “coalition” commanders agreed to place the Iraqi politician's immediate family under the equivalent of protective custody to ensure that they were safe from revenge attacks by Saddam loyalists.

However, the favorable surrender terms agreed between coalition commanders and Aziz prompted speculation that Saddam's trusted foreign policy adviser may in fact be the Iraqi ‘spy’ who provided the intelligence responsible for the cruise missile attack on the Iraqi dictator's bunker in southern Baghdad in the opening salvoes of the conflict, the paper stressed.

Intelligence officials have claimed that the information they received that allowed them to target Saddam's bunker came from a "senior official" within the Ba'ath regime, and as one of the leading members of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) Aziz would have prior warning that Saddam was planning to hold a meeting at one of his heavily-fortified bunkers.

"You get the feeling, now that Aziz is safely in American custody, that he will be getting re-acquainted with people he has known for quite some time," said a former CIA officer who specializes in Iraq, Telegraph reported.

"The information that enabled the coalition forces to target Saddam in the opening hours of the war could only have come from someone like Aziz who had access to Saddam's inner circle," the paper alleged.

There has been intense speculation about Saddam's fate since the attack on the bunker in the early hours of March 20. At first, it was reported that Saddam had been killed in the attack, then it was suggested that he had suffered non-life threatening injuries that had been treated by a specialist team of Russian doctors.

“Coalition” officials appeared to confirm that Saddam had survived the initial strike when they bombed a restaurant complex in central Baghdad on April 7 at which the Iraqi dictator had been seen arriving with his younger son, Qusay, and other Ba'ath Party officials.

“Brave Soul“

At the end of last week, however, President George W Bush claimed he believed that Saddam had either been killed or critically injured in the March 20 attack, and paid tribute to the "brave soul" who provided Cent.com with the intelligence that enabled the attack to take place. Asked if the Iraqi spy was still alive, Bush replied: "Yes he is. He is with us. Thank God."

Whether or not Aziz was responsible for providing intelligence about Saddam's whereabouts during the conflict, there is no doubt that the Iraqi dictator had become deeply suspicious about his deputy prime minister's intentions.

Relations between the two men had become strained in the aftermath of the Gulf war in 1991 when Saddam became concerned that Aziz, who was then his foreign minister, enjoyed too much popularity among Iraqis as a result of his well-publicized international diplomatic activities.

As the only Christian among the Sunni Muslim clique that controlled the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, Aziz has always been regarded as an outsider since he came to Saddam's attention in the 1970s for his staunch anti-Communist views, which he regularly aired in the columns of al-Thawra (The Revolution), the Ba'ath Party newspaper that he edited, the British daily said.

In the weeks preceding Iraq invasion, Saddam (allegedly) ordered the detention of several members of Aziz's family following suspicions that he was preparing to defect to the West.

When, shortly after the conflict started, however, Washington officials dropped heavy hints that the Iraqi official had defected, Aziz appeared before journalists in Baghdad angrily denouncing the claims, saying that he would "rather die" than be taken into custody by the Americans.

 “Denial”

Aziz surfaced at a news conference Wednesday, March 19, to personally deny he had defected.

“The rumors (of my defection) are part of the psychological war being waged by the United States ... to sap the morale of the Iraqi people," he said

“The rumors speak for themselves. As you see, I am with you in the great city of Baghdad," Aziz said in a reference to allegations that he had gone to Kurdish-held northern Iraq.

"We expect many such rumors in the coming days and months" about defections in the Iraqi leadership, he added.

The Sun, Britain's best selling daily tabloid, earlier  reported on April 26  that Aziz had told his American captors he was willing to sell them his information in exchange for a new identity and residence in Britain.

Quoting an unnamed "insider", the paper said Aziz feared being executed by Iraqis or being detained by U.S. authorities.

Commenting on the report, a spokeswoman for Britain's Home Office said it "is ridiculous to suggest asylum will be granted to an individual who has been involved in activities that have abused the human rights of others."