Posted on 04/23/2008 5:27:31 PM PDT by blam
Saddam Hussein's ally Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri 'captured' in Iraq
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:57am BST 24/04/2008
American forces have captured Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party heir, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most wanted former regime official still at large, it has been reported.
A Middle Eastern television channel said Douri, a key force in the country's devastating insurgency, had been seized in a mountain raid in Saddam's home province of Salahaddin.
Most wanted: Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri
Douri was King of Clubs in the deck of cards of most wanted Iraqis issued to American soldiers after the war.
But he was almost unique in evading capture within the top rungs of the regime deposed by the US-led coalition in 2003.
A US spokesman said the Baghdad command was unable to confirm his capture, but the television reports said he had been handed to US forces and DNA tests would be carried out to confirm his identity.
Abu Mohammed, described as Douri's representative in Syria, claimed the reports were fabricated, saying Douri was free and "leading the resistance and jihad in Iraq".
Western intelligence credited Douri, whose name derives from the neighbouring village to Saddam's native town, with a continuing important role in the insurgency.
A wizened bureaucrat with red hair, the former vice-chairman of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council was not cut out for the underground but he survived for five years on guile and a broad range of connections.
Mowafaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's National Security adviser, told a Saudi newspaper that Syria was sheltering Douri and accused the 65-year-old of playing a key role connecting former regime officials with al-Qa'eda followers.
As the last recognised leader of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, he found post-war support in Syria and used his position in Damascus to frustrate attempts by moderates to start negotiations with democratic regimes.
Known since childhood as the Ice Man, his state of health was rumoured to be fragile and several reports had said he died of leukaemia.
But he enjoyed strong tribal support among Sunni Muslim sympathisers as well as Al-Qa'eda sympathisers.
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An Iraqi court announced that Tariq Aziz, the urbane Christian Iraqi who was the dictatorship's voice to the world, would face trial for the persecution of Baghdad merchants in the 1990s.
The announcement of charges for Aziz and six other top officials, including Saddam's half brother, Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan, dashed hopes in the Vatican that the long-serving foreign minister would be freed on grounds of ill-health.
The trial centres on the execution of 42 merchants rounded up after the first Gulf War and accused of profiteering from Iraq's isolation.
unnamed cia sources will say it is definitely not him, even if it is. get the waterboard out before the dems, er, any of the candidates become president.
Great!
I'm not sure, but it could be this:
Aziz was the guy handing out the oil for food bribes- most notably to the sanctions-bussting propaganda film-making French priest, Father Benjamin, composer of the UNICEF hymn.
FEBRUARY 2003 : (FATHER JEAN-MARIE BENJAMIN HELPS ORGANIZE THE VISIT OF IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER TARIQ AZIZ TO THE VATICAN FOR TALKS WITH POPE JOHN PAUL II & SENIOR VATICAN OFFFICIALS) "Meanwhile, the Iraqi Foreign Minister Tareq Aziz, a Catholic, was in Rome to meet with the Pope, and he went to Assisi, where he prayed at the tomb of St Francis, and left a message in the visitors’ book in the form of a prayer for peace. His visit to Italy was organised by Father Jean-Marie Benjamin who, as well as being a songwriter, has had a long involvement with the Iraqi people. Over the past ten years he’s been a frequent visitor to Baghdad, in fact he was among the first to break the UN embargo by smuggling medicine into the country. And he’s written several books on the impact of the UN sanctions." - "A priest for peace," Interview of Father Jean-Marie Banjamin, Wednesday 19/2/2003 , The Religion Report, Radio National, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s787908.htm.
Aziz knows where the skeletons are.
...Details of this and other reports were confirmed by a senior Italian intelligence official, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.
Italian extremists’ involvement with the terrorists is thought to be so deep that, according to press reports, at least one Italian accomplice was present when an Italian contractor was killed in April in Iraq.
Much of the fund raising for al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents has been done by two groups — the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance (IPA), made up of Iraqi exiles, and the Anti-Imperialist Alliance, made up mainly of European leftists.
Italian police are investigating the IPA, whose members originally were Iraqi communist dissidents living in European exile. Their leader, Abdul Jabbar Kubaisy, reconciled with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in February 2003 and committed the group “to confront American imperialist aggression.”
Mr. Kubaisy returned to Baghdad when the United States invaded Iraq, leaving his deputy, Awni al Kalemji, to organize anti-American propaganda, according a senior official of the Italian military intelligence organization SISMI.
Mr. Kalemji took part last summer in the “Anti-Imperialist Camp,” a weeklong gathering of communists and other leftists including revolutionaries from Iraq, the Philippines, Nepal, the Palestinian territories and Venezuela. The camp was held in the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, home of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), patron saint of animals and the environment and founder of the Franciscan Order of monks.
(....Mr. Kalemji said the IPA has hundreds of men fighting coalition forces in Iraq and said he hoped the conflict there will “finish like the liberation war in Vietnam.” ...)
Also present were radical intellectuals such as Franco Cardini, a leading expert on medieval history who says that recent videos of Osama bin Laden are fakes distributed by the CIA to foster anti-Islamic sentiment.
Another participant was the Rev. Jean-Marie Benjamin, a French Roman Catholic priest who in February 2003 organized a visit to the Vatican by then Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. -— “Al Qaeda seeking funds in Italy,” By John Phillips, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, June 12, 2004, http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040612-113949-4683r.htm
what a poorly tied noose... 7 rings and the loop is all twisted... just right for a scumbucket like aliboobhead to twist and turn alot.
makes for a great pinata...
teeman
Damn; I’ve been slipping in my roster updates. Oh well, that’s the hazards of running one’s own blog.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED that the attempt to put price controls on gas failed spectacularily.
Thanks for the ping! Isn’t this ‘Chemical Ali’?
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS!!
“They still haven’t hanged Chemical Ali.”
I guess I was wrong. I thought this red headed thug in this report was ‘Chemical Ali’......???
Good news. Some Iraqi probably got tired of seeing this POS and turned him in to the authorities.
Douri was King of Clubs in the deck of cards of most wanted Iraqis issued to American soldiers after the war.
- - - - - -
YAY!
(Tap dances around the room). :)
Thanks for the ping, but it appears to have been a false alarm.
No confirmation this is true..indeed there are denials..I sure was excited at first.
I believe he also told the guy that he wasn’t worthy of his mustache! Supposedly a big insult over there.
No.
This statement is all we have had for 24 hours, so odds are increasing this was -— another! -— false alarm.
:-(
Thanks for the ping, hope it is confirmed.
Maybe FARS knows?
If we had pulled out as demanded by the moonbats, this guy would still be running around in Iraq.
Finally!!!!
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