US Central Command (CentCom) announced early last week the surrender of Iraq's former oil minister, Amir Mohammed Rashid, described as number 47 on the US most-wanted list of 55 fugitives from the toppled regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"Amir Rashid Mohammed al-Ubaydi surrendered [Apr. 28] and is currently in coalition custody," CentCom said in a statement, using Rashid's rarely used full name but giving no further details. A CentCom spokesperson told OGJ Online that reasons for the arrest had not been made public, saying "that information was put together by the Defense Intelligence Agency and not made available at CentCom level."
Rashid's history
As oil minister since 1995, Rashid led a determined campaign to end the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council. As part of his effort, Rashid wielded oil as a diplomatic weapon, using it to gain support for Baghdad within the Security Council itself.
In April 2002, Iraq and Russia agreed to more than 60 projects—17 of them in the oil and gas sector—valued at more than $40 billion. Interfax, however, cited Rashid as saying the projects could be fully implemented only "outside the framework" of the UN oil-for-aid program.
Even as early as 1996, Rashid was already expressing "gratitude" to France for its "important role" in the partial lifting of the oil embargo, and he promised French companies preferential treatment when signing contracts for the purchase of Iraqi crude oil.
Addressing an assembly of businessmen gathered at the National Council of French Employers headquarters, Rashid said Iraq would sign the first contracts for the sale of crude oil "in 1 or 2 weeks" and that "French companies will be given priority."
Rashid was also responsible for setting up other deals to sell oil outside of the UN oil-for-aid program, such as cross-border trade with Jordan, Turkey, and Syria, as well as smuggling via Iran, which enabled Baghdad to bypass UN supervision of its finances.
Such unsupervised finances, however, led to the possibility that Iraq was using the funds to purchase arms or continuing to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD). That puts Rashid at the epicenter of Iraq's illicit weapons program since, besides serving as oil minister, he also headed Saddam's Military Industrialization Organization, the group responsible for producing all of Iraq's most lethal weapons.
No less important, Rashid is married to Rihab Taha, a microbiologist known as "Dr. Germ," who was in charge of the secret Iraqi facility that weaponized anthrax and other toxic substances.
Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix last month said that Taha and Rashid would be among "the most interesting persons" for American investigators to interrogate due to their familiarity with a range of Saddam's secret weapons programs.
Taha, Rashid kept out of public eye
Iraq was keen to keep Taha and Rashid out of the public eye following plans by UN weapons inspectors last year to interview scientists connected with Iraq's WMD program.
On Dec. 27, 2002, Rashid revealed the extent of his own familiarity with Iraq's WMD program, as well as the prominence he held in the Hussein regime, by giving an interview on WMD over the country's official media. "Iraq has been free of all that is called weapons of mass destruction and the prohibited long-range missiles under Resolution 687 since late 1991, when a decision by the leadership to destroy all these banned weapons and their components was implemented," Rashid said.
The next day, Rashid and Taha were both named of interest to weapons inspectors. On Dec. 28, 2002, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat Arabic newspaper quoted Iraqi opposition sources as saying the scientist most sought after by UN inspectors "will be Dr. Rihab Taha, wife of Iraqi Oil Minister Gen. Amir Rashid."
In apparent response, on Jan. 7, Baghdad issued Presidential Decree No. 9—signed by Saddam Hussein—stating that "Oil Minister Amir Muhammad Rashid shall be transferred to the Reserve Service Department at the Presidential Office since he has reached the legal retirement age."
The announcement came as a surprise to some outside observers, and it fueled speculation that Rashid was out of favor for ending a lucrative oil contract with OAO Lukoil of Russia. One commentator, however, suggested the reason behind the apparent dismissal was more to do with UN inspectors, who might want to speak with Rashid.
On Jan. 8, in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, Randah Taqiy-al-Din wrote that the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) stressed that its right to question employees in the field of WMD "does not exclude anyone."
The paper continued, "This came in response to a question on whether Amir Rashid was liable to be questioned," noting that Rashid was the main person in the talks on missiles when Unmovic's predecessor, the United Nations Special Commission (Unscom), was established in 1991 until its demise in 1998.
Just days after the Al-Hayat report, independent Iraqi Al-Sulaymaniyah Hawlati newspaper, based in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, reported that Taha had been murdered in Baghdad "by the regime's men in order to prevent the UN inspectors from interviewing her and revealing the information she had about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."
Rashid himself was last seen shortly after the outbreak of the US-led war at a press conference in Baghdad's Doura refinery (OGJ Online, Apr. 14, 2003), vowing that Iraq would defeat the US and UK. "We shall win it, and we will rid the world of their poison," he said.
At the time, Rashid had been in his post just 2 weeks following his appointment as acting oil minister under Presidency Decree No. 11, signed by Hussein and issued on Mar. 10.
Rashid took over the position from Samir Abd al-Aziz al-Najim, a senior figure in Hussein's Baath Party, who had replaced him on Jan. 7 under Presidential Decree No. 10. Also on the US most wanted list, at No. 24, al-Najim has since been captured and, like Rashid, is now in CentCom custody.
