Well, ultimately I hope they get this guy but if this is him now, I’m going to have to go back and make some changes to my fourth novel, currently nearing completion, because it has al Douri financing a terrorist attack from his hideout in Damascus. Just fiction, of course.
Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri / Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri
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Izzat [Ezzet] Ibrahim al-Douri, former vice president of Saddam's revolutionary council, was believed to be behind some attacks against coalition forces and Iraqis. He is the "King of Clubs" No. 6 on the coalition's most-wanted list. Following the capture of Saddam Hussein he became the most wanted man in Iraq.
On 23 June 2004 Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in an interview on MSNBC Hardball said " ... it's not insurgency. An insurgency implies something that rose up afterwards. This is the same enemy that butchered Iraqis for 35 years, that fought us up until the fall of Baghdad and continues to fight afterwards. It was led by Saddam Hussein up until his capture in December. It's been led, in part, by his No. 2 or 3, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri, since then."
Jaysh Muhammad (JM) is an anti-Coalition group with both politically motivated and religiously motivated elements. The politically motivated members are Ba'athist, pro-Saddam elements who tend to be of the Sufi religious soca. The Sufi enjoyed special status during the Baath Regime and hold Izzat al-Duri, the ex-vice-president, in exceptionally high esteem. They were members of intelligence, security, and police forces from the previous regime.
The red-haired Ibrahim was born in 1942 near Tikrit. Coming from the same clan area as Saddam, he had no independent power base, and posed no threat to Saddam. Saddam and Ibrahim were among the leading plotters of the 1968 coup which returned the Baath party to power. His daughter was briefly married to Uday Hussein al-Tikriti, a son of President Saddam Hussein.
He was Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) and Northern Region Commander. He also served as Deputy Secretary General of the Ba'th Party Regional Command and Deputy Commander of the Armed Forces. After the 1991 Gulf War, he was frequently sent abroad to represent Iraqi interests.
He had a well-deserved and well-known reputation as a killer. As Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, he was complicit in launching two wars of aggression against Iran and Kuwait, invading Saudi Arabia and attacking the town of Khafji in January 1991. He was involved in the brutal repression of the Uprising which followed the Gulf War in 1991 including mass executions, torture and wanton destruction. He was complicit in the deliberate destruction of the Marsh Arabs' way of life. He was also complicit in the genocidal Anfal campaigns waged against the Kurds, including chemical weapons attacks, the destruction of rural villages and infrastructure, and mass executions.