Ayham al-Samaraie

This is the strange story from the 19th of December about Ayham al-Samaraie, the Iraqi ex minister of electricity. Arrested and convicted for corruption (a one and a half billion dollar caper!) and then scooted out of custody by the "security contractor" he hired. From sfgate with an LA Times byline...

Ayham al-Samaraie, a Chicago-area businessman, returned to Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and assumed the position of electricity minister in the interim government of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
A Sunni Arab who claimed ties to the insurgency, al-Samaraie was arrested and charged two months ago with a dozen counts of misallocating $1.5 billion of Iraqi government money. At that time, security contractors took him to the U.S. Embassy before he could be jailed, but American officials handed him over to Iraqi authorities.

He's now disembarked from an American plane in Jordan . From AP...

A former Iraqi Cabinet minister who escaped from a Baghdad prison this month has arrived in Jordan on a U.S. plane, Jordan's prime minister said Tuesday.

Ayham al-Samaraie, a former minister of electricity with dual U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, had been serving time for corruption when he escaped mid-December.

One of these articles refer to the story as a B movie plot, this Townhall article reinforces that image with a picture...tell me this guy doesn't belong in one!
This is a report from Townhall of a recent telephone interview...

In telephone interviews earlier this week with the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times, al-Samaraie said a "multinational" group helped him escape. He also sent an e-mail to the Chicago Sun-Times, saying, "Hi, I am OK and out of their reach."
He did not reveal his location, but told the Times he was outside Iraq. He told the Tribune he was "now in a very safe place. ... They cannot touch me anymore."