IRAQ. AL-MALIKI WANTS 'CHEMICAL ALI,' OTHERS EXECUTED

Iraq's prime minister wants the American military to hand over "Chemical Ali" and two other convicted officials from Saddam Hussein's regime for execution, an Iraqi official said, but the move could widen the divide between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities.
Ali Hassan al-Majeed (aka "Chemical Ali"), Sultan Hashem Ahmed and Hussein Rashid were sentenced to death in June for their roles in the 1988 Anfal campaign, an Iraqi army operation in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq that killed tens of thousands of people.
The three were to be executed in October, 30 days after their appeals were exhausted, but the three members of Iraq's presidency council have not signed the execution orders, as Iraqi law requires. Many Sunni Arabs and US officials don't think Ahmed and Rashid should be executed because such a move could anger Sunnis.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki wrote a letter to President Bush last week asking him to order the military to hand over the three men, but it was unclear if Bush replied, the official in al-Maliki's office said.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told reporters in Baghdad that there are disagreements on what to do about the situation.