Iraqis Nab Alleged Top Terror Financier

Like father, like son.

Iraqi police on Wednesday arrested Saddam Hussein’s nephew in Baghdad, charging that he served as the top financier of Iraq’s rampant insurgency, senior Iraqi security officials said.

Yasir Sabhawi Ibrahim, son of Saddam’s half brother Sabhawi Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, was arrested in a Baghdad apartment, several days after Syrian authorities forced him to return to Iraq, the officials told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Cairo. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to deal with the media.

One of the officials, who works as a coordinator between Iraqi authorities and U.S. military intelligence, described the purported financier as the most dangerous man in the urgency. The other official, who is a senior member of the Iraqi Defense Ministry, said the arrest was a serious blow to terrorist networks.

Both officials said Syrian authorities “pushed” Ibrahim into Iraq but did not hand him over to authorities.

The Syrians were aware of his whereabouts in Baghdad and informed U.S. authorities, who then passed the information to Iraq security forces who carried out a “fast, easy” raid on the fugitive’s apartment, the Defense Ministry official said.

Chad Evans at In the Bullpen looks at the news as possible good turn in Syrian policy.

Is this a possible sign Syria may be starting to turn the corner from allowing terrorists and Saddam-linked insurgents to operate freely from their soil? Let us hope.

Sorry, Chad, but it’s no change from less than eight months ago when, on Feb. 27, the Syrians actually handed over Ibrahim’s daddy to Iraqi authorities. At that time, I harbored the same hope about the Syrians. Nope, they haven’t changed much yet.