What about al-Douri?

Have you forgotten him? I think he must have croaked, but who knows? His name is being pulled out again. Asia Times reports:

sources say the Iraqi resistance, comprising nationalist Iraqi tribes, religious groups, former Ba'ath Party and Iraqi Republican Guard members, as well as foreign fighters, is being coordinated by Saddam Hussein's former No 2, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who has played an important role in cementing a unified strategy among the different anti-US groups in the country.

Izzat has used his influence as the only devout Muslim in the former Ba'athist regime and encouraged different Islamic groups from the north to the south to make contact with local Ba'ath councils and units of Iraqi forces.

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But, remember the strangeness last winter when Murdoch's
Australian papers printed a story that he had surrendered? Nobody else picked it up, not even Murdoch's Fox News in the states. And how about this flashback from that time:

BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The current rotating president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Jalal Talabani, admitted on Wednesday that he had been asked to mediate between the US military and Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, former Iraqi regime's second figure.

"After the downfall of former regime, one of the relatives of al-Douri came to me and asked me to negotiate with coalition forces so that he could surrender on three conditions," Talabani told reporters.

Al-Douri had offered to surrender provided he was not handed to Kuwait, was given special medical care and had his name scrapped from the US most wanted list of former Iraqi officials, Talabani said.

The US-led coalition had agreed on the first two conditions but denied the third one because he was the number two in the former regime and his crimes could not be spared, Talabani stressed.

Al-Douri was reportedly in bad health when the US-led war began last March, probably suffering from blood cancer, but his current condition is unknown....

LOAD-DATE: November 6, 2003

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December 16, 2003 - Xinhuanet, China View

BAGHDAD, Dec. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam Hussein's top lieutenant, has surrendered to the US forces in Iraq, Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel reported Tuesday.