Secret meetings reported between CIA and Saddam loyalists

Al-Douri

By IAN ALLEN | intelNews.org |
The CIA is reportedly participating in a series of secret meetings with the two main leaders of the Ba’athist insurgency in Iraq. According to Intelligence Online and United Press International, CIA agents have entered truce negotiations with Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri (photo) and Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmad, who head most of the armed Sunni groups in Iraq. Until the 2003 US invasion, Al-Ahmad was an army general during the latter part of Saddam’s reign, while al-Douri was vice-president and deputy chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council. The US has put out a reward of $1 million for Al-Ahmad, who is reportedly operating out of Syria. Al-Douri, who is said to be in Syria as well, is also wanted by the US in exchange for a $10 million reward. The meetings, which have reportedly taken place in Tikrit, Saddam’s birthplace and a Sunni stronghold, were organized by Mohammed al-Raqqad, who heads Jordan’s General Intelligence Department (GID), and is said to have attended all meetings between CIA officials and Sunni leaders. CIA participants in the meetings are reportedly in “direct contact” with Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, Commanding General of Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), and Christopher Hill, US Ambassador in Baghdad. According to the reports, during an early meeting, al-Douri offered to end his political and military attacks on the Iraqi government and on US targets, providing he and his militants are given amnesty and be allowed to form a legal political party. The CIA offered to examine this possibility, but several of al-Douri’s military commanders vowed to continue their armed war on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, which they see as too closely aligned with Iran.