"The most wanted man in Iraq, maybe"

Writing for what many consider to be virtually one of the enemy's mouthpieces, al-Jazeera.net, Sandy Shanks points to, if not the most wanted, perhaps one of the most dangerous men in Iraq, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the "King of Clubs" and "...highest-ranking member of [Saddam's] regime to...escape capture or death."

Shanks speculates that al-Douri, once the vice president of Saddam's revolutionary council, may be leading the Baathist segment of the Iraqi Terrorist Insurgency. Shanks isn't the only one.

Global Security says that al-Douri "...is believed to be behind some attacks against coalition forces and Iraqis."

And geopolitical analyst wunderkind (he's only 19) Ryan Mauro, interviewed in Frontpagemag.com, says:

From open-source information and my own sources, it's clear that the survival of the insurgency depends on Syrian and Iranian support. The commanders for the Baathists, particularly Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, operate from Syria and train operatives in Aleppo.

The most wanted man in Iraq? Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

While I disagree with Shanks' wildly pessimistic outlook on the War on Terror - possibly played up to pacify al-Jazeera's Arab audience - (in particular, this incredible statement, "...his [Bush's] American news media cohorts..." as if the MSM hadn't been trying to stage a coup d'état since the 2000 election), Shanks makes a good case for diverting some resources from hunting Zarqawi to finding al-Douri.