Juicy stuff on Izzy: He was negotiating his surrender. Check this out.

DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources reveal that, during the week between the initial rocket attack on Baghdad's al Rashid Hotel on October 26 where US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying, and the shooting down of the Chinook helicopter, American authorities in Iraq were in secret negotiation with Saddam's number two, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, on terms for his surrender. The talks were brokered by the Kurdish PDK commander Jalal Talabani, who is a member of the interim Governing Council and reputed to be well connected with the Americans and members of Saddam Hussein's circle alike.

Al-Douri's key demand was for an American guarantee not to hand him over to Kuwait, where he is under death sentence [empahsis added] for atrocities committed during the Iraqi invasion of August 1990. This condition was rejected. Al-Douri remained at large in the battle arena. He is believed to be close to one of the most dangerous units of the pro-Saddam guerrilla force, which is known as Muhammad's Army.

... This group of Iraqi Baathists operates in the guise of Muslim fundamentalists. ...

.... Of late, its ranks have been swelled by Chechen and al Qaeda terrorists infiltrating Iraq to fight the Americans – usually, as Bremer noted, through Syria.

I've snipped a bit, so go and read the whole thing if you're interested.

I'll add some more to this topic and fix those funny characters when I have some time. In the meantime, blame Blogger. You get what you pay for.

OK, here's what I want to add: I'm not sure how accurate this report is, but if it's true, somebody on our side isn't playing with a full deck of cards (Get it, get it? He's the King of Clubs). If you were negotiating somebody's surrender, and they said, "OK, but you have to agree not to kill me" ... and you're like, "Umm..... No, sorry, can't do that." How the hell do you think they're going to respond?