AMMAN, Jordan — Izzedine Mohammed Hassan Majid was once a valued source of information on his former boss and first cousin, Saddam Hussein.
Ousted from the army after being linked to an abortive coup in 1992, Majid -- a nephew of the notorious Ali Hassan Majid, or Chemical Ali -- used his contacts in the Iraqi military and Sunni Arab tribes to supply intelligence to U.S., British and Jordanian spies, said his wife and a former Jordanian security official.
But instead of basking in triumph over Hussein's overthrow, the 47-year-old has spent the last 21 months languishing in various U.S.-controlled prisons in Iraq.
American officials, citing Geneva Convention restrictions, won't talk about his case.
But friends, family and the former security official fear Izzedine Mohammed Hassan Majid is the victim of a bureaucratic mess they say is all too common today in Iraq, where suspects may be detained on unsubstantiated charges and held indefinitely as their cases wend their way through layers of paperwork.
Majid was a major in Hussein's Republican Guard until he, his brother Hussein Kamal Majid and others turned against the regime and became involved in the 1992 coup attempt.
His brother was executed after the incident, and Hussein purged the military of 1,500 officers, including Majid.
Majid, his family and two of Hussein's daughters and their husbands went into exile in August 1995.
In Jordan, Majid began supplying information to Western intelligence, often through Jordanian handlers at the Amman headquarters of the country's General Intelligence Directorate, said the former Jordanian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Izzedine dealt with Americans and other intelligence officials around the world," the former official said. "I met him many times. He used to come in daily at some point."
The Tikrit-born military officer became a rising star in the Iraqi opposition, along with U.S. favorites Ahmad Chalabi and Iyad Allawi.
But unlike Chalabi or Allawi, Majid vehemently opposed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, instead advocating a coup. Still, he returned to Iraq in the autumn of 2004 to help persuade fellow Sunnis to take part in the Jan. 30, 2005, parliamentary elections, his wife said. He was detained by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint near Fallouja in November 2004.
