The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
White House gets Iraq case reviewed
BAGHDAD (AP) — The White House has asked Iraq to review the case of a Hezbollah commander who was accused of masterminding a 2007 attack that killed five American soldiers or hand him over to the United States, a senior Obama administration official said Thursday, though two Iraqi courts have declared him not guilty.
The case is a tricky aftermath of the long U.S. military campaign in Iraq that ended last year and has elements of both Iraqi and U.S. internal politics.
Ali Mussa Daqduq has been released from prison but is being held under house arrest in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone as Washington considers bringing U.S. charges against him. Daqduq, a Lebanese citizen, is considered a top threat to Americans in the Middle East and was detained for more than four years by the U.S. military before it left Iraq last December.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Antony J. Blinken, the national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, said the U.S. wants to keep Ali Mussa Daqduq locked up for as long as legally possible.
Blinken said the Obama administration also will file a request on behalf of the victims’ families for Iraq’s highest appeals court to review and correct its June 25 order to free Daqduq. But he said the U.S. asked to extradite Daqduq even before the final court ruling declaring him not guilty.