Report: Insurgency leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri captured? Update: Given up by Syria?
posted at 4:42 pm on April 23, 2008 by Allahpundit
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U.S. officials are already denying it and lord knows Iraqi sources have been wrong about this stuff before (even with respect to Douri himself), but it’s a big enough score potentially to warrant mention and a slow enough news day to earn a post instead of a headline.
Iraqi security forces claim that they have captured the Saddam Hussein’s most senior regime ally.
A man resembling Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, the vice-chairman of Saddam’s Ba’ath party and the King of Clubs on America’s “deck of cards” most-wanted list, was said to have been taken into custody by Iraqi forces.
Al-Arabiya television said that the man was caught in Hamrin between the provinces of Salaheddin and Kirkuk and was moved to Baghdad where he was said to have been handed over to US forces. DNA tests are being conducted to confirm his identity, the report added…
Abu Mohammed, who was described as Duri’s representative in Syria, told Al-Arabiya that the report was fabricated…
Al-Arabiya quoted “US forces” as saying the person captured “looks like” Duri.
With the possible exception of AQI leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, he’s the most wanted man in Iraq. Iraqi national security advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told Asharq al-Awsat just yesterday that Douri’s in Syria but some of his Baathists cohorts insist he died of leukemia in 2005. Someone claiming to be his spokesman announced last year that he’d joined the rest of the Sunnis by severing ties with AQI and Time magazine “interviewed” him in 2006 via written questions and answers passed through middlemen. If you’re sitting there thinking this all sounds very Keyser Soze-esque, you’re not alone — and do note that this wouldn’t be the first time a Sunni terrorist outfit had used a phantom figurehead to play on nationalist sympathies in Iraq.
Update: I know, I know. It’s Debka.
Former Iraqi vice president Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, 66, who led the Iraqi Sunni Baath underground campaign against the US Army after Saddam Hussein’s overthrow in 2003, was captured by Iraqi security forces in Salahuddin north of Baghdad. DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive counter-terror sources report Syrian police pushed him across the border Tuesday, April 23 with a full description to Baghdad of the last top figure of the Saddam regime still at large and his party.
Syria acted to blunt the impact of embarrassing disclosures in the US Congress on April 24 about its covert nuclear site which Israeli raiders destroyed last September.
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I still wanna know how a Scot rose to his rank in iRaq
- The Cat
MirCat on April 23, 2008 at 4:45 PM
He’s a ginger kid. What the @#$%!
Geronimo on April 23, 2008 at 4:49 PM
How long until Code Pink declares him a political prisoner and offers to pay for his lawyers?
Akzed on April 23, 2008 at 4:50 PM
That jumped out at me. I’d like it to be true.
emailnuevo on April 23, 2008 at 4:52 PM
I thought we already him? LOL
Chakra Hammer on April 23, 2008 at 4:54 PM
I thought we already caught* him? LOL
Chakra Hammer on April 23, 2008 at 4:58 PM
Maybe it’s just Carrot Top.
Ed Morrissey on April 23, 2008 at 4:58 PM
Kill’em all, let God sort them out!
custer on April 23, 2008 at 4:59 PM
How many people in Iraq “look like” this guy?
EJDolbow on April 23, 2008 at 5:12 PM
May it be so. He’s a real bad one from that era.
Entelechy on April 23, 2008 at 5:19 PM
If B.O. is elected, he will find a cure for gingervitis!
exhelodrvr on April 23, 2008 at 5:41 PM
This guy has more lives than a cat. He has been captured killed, poisoned, died of disease/old age/mystery Saudi cocktail, flipped to our side, flipped back, blah blah
This is definable one of those hold for 72 hours confirmation stories if not due to their Debka calling it but just who its about.
C-Low on April 23, 2008 at 5:47 PM
Izzy has a face that is hard to miss and sort of European in appearance.
No doubt he is the product of some Brit or French seed dropped in Iraq during the old days.
RobCon on April 23, 2008 at 5:48 PM
Iraq was under British rule for a long time m’boy.
Kafir on April 23, 2008 at 5:58 PM
Izzat him or not?
MrScribbler on April 23, 2008 at 6:07 PM
Everyone knows al-Duri is not playing with a full deck
Corsair on April 23, 2008 at 6:08 PM
LOL!
cs89 on April 23, 2008 at 6:15 PM
It’s really cool that the Syrians pushed him over the border and called the heat on him. He is one hated mofo in that part of the world.
RFA on April 23, 2008 at 6:18 PM
I sure hope this is an accurate report. Last I read about him was that he was hiding in Syria and there was an internet posting that said he was reorganizing some former Ba’athists with plans to overthrow the elected government when we left.
Texas Gal on April 23, 2008 at 6:27 PM
The gallows are calling. This guy’s got the blood of a lot of American Soldiers on his hands. Wait a minute, don’t we still have the option of a firing squad?
THE CHOSEN ONE on April 23, 2008 at 6:32 PM
Is Ramsey Clarke ready for the defense?
irishspy on April 23, 2008 at 6:38 PM
I say dungeon, 30 feet underground. One meal a day.
Zorro on April 23, 2008 at 7:02 PM
And throw Cindy Sheehan in there with him.
RFA on April 23, 2008 at 7:17 PM
Interestingly, I believe al-Douri is actually a Sufi Muslim.
CP on April 23, 2008 at 7:18 PM
Carter wants to meet with him…
right2bright on April 23, 2008 at 7:33 PM
In Saddam’s secular paradise the only requirements were loyalty and ruthlessness!
dmann on April 23, 2008 at 7:58 PM
I hope this guys comfortable in his boiling pit of Sewage!
canopfor on April 23, 2008 at 9:09 PM
I’d say 48 hour rule on this one. The source is decidely poor (Debka), so I wouldn’t put a lot of trust in it.
Bill_M on April 23, 2008 at 9:21 PM
“Syria acted to blunt the impact of embarrassing disclosures in the US Congress on April 24 about its covert nuclear site which Israeli raiders destroyed last September.”
It is funny, really. It used to be that stuff leaked as soon as Congress was briefed. Now it leaks days before. It seems like once information gets near the capitol, it just sort of jumps into the newspapers.
And if it is in Debka, then it must not be true. Debka “exclusive” reports are always wrong. I have never seen a Debka “exclusive” that has been right. Have you?
crosspatch on April 23, 2008 at 9:26 PM
This would be huge if true. This guy would be a gold mine of intelligence on the remnants of the Baath insurgency. A lot of funding of the insurgency. Where some other strong elements of the regime are hiding. What their links to al Qaeda in Iraq are and when those links began.
Let’s hope this is true.
ikez78 on April 23, 2008 at 9:37 PM
Heh. Yeah, I was wondering where he’s been lately.
labrat on April 23, 2008 at 11:49 PM
If you can’t believe DEBKA then the world has just gone insane, INSANE I SAY!
Neo on April 24, 2008 at 2:25 AM
Say, whatever happened to the Iraqi Information Minister?
James on April 24, 2008 at 8:31 AM
How long does it take to find a red head in Iraq?
koolbrease on April 24, 2008 at 9:07 AM
Oh no it is the NY Times of Israel, aka Debka…what a bunch of x-super secret agents under cover as slimy journalist
el Vaquero on April 24, 2008 at 12:41 PM
I don’t know about the difference between “exclusive” and non-exclusive reports on Debka, but I don’t believe it deserves as bad a reputation as some here have been led to believe.
Perhaps I’m biased by the fact that all of the important stories to break that I’ve ever followed have been confirmed later by other sources (sometimes weeks/months later). Maybe all of those stories were “non-exclusives”, however, so I don’t know.
Here’s how I usually qualify a Debka story: If the text is speculating about a possibility/motive/scenario, I politely consider the possibility but don’t put any stock in it. On the other hand, if it’s a report saying, “X has happened”, I can usually count on it to turn out in the end.
In this case, Debka is reporting that a shriveled-up geezer was pushed across the border, who may be Izzat, or may be a fake. So the question of credibility IMHO revolves not around whether the guy is or isn’t Izzat, ;-) but whether or not there even *was* a guy.
RD on April 24, 2008 at 5:07 PM
Ummm… “It isn’t Izzat, is it?”
RD on April 24, 2008 at 5:09 PM