Omar Ismael

Omar Ismael is an Iraqi Mukhabarat officer who defected from Saddam Hussein's regime in 2000.

In Ismael's last year one name kept emerging in torture sessions: Amar Turki, said to be an opposition leader based in London. Iraq had no file on him. Part of Ismael's mission was to find Turki. He was also ordered to get close to Arras Habib, of the Iraqi National Congress, and Mohammed Safie, another opposition leader. Habib is not surprised. "I was told Saddam offered 40m dinars (Pounds 17,000) for my death," he said yesterday.

Ismael was sent on his mission last August and, having sought sanctuary, says he can never return to Iraq. His story would be amazing had other former mukhabarat agents not provided similar accounts.