The CIA apparently conducted secrets contacts in Yemen with Iraqi Baathist leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri(right), Saddam Hussien`s former Vice President, in a bid to reconcile a political accord between the Sunni-insurgents and the Shiite-led Iraqi government.The Paris-based Intelligence Online Web site said other meetings were held with Baathist leaders in Damascus, where Douri and his associates reportedly live.
The objective is to reconcile the minority Sunnis, who were the backbone of Saddam's regime, and the majority Shiites, who were brutally suppressed by that regime, before crucial parliamentary elections scheduled for March 7.
There was no official confirmation of the Intelligence Online report by Washington or Baghdad. However, it coincided with reports that U.S. counter-terrorism agents were working with former Saddam-era Iraqi intelligence officers in Yemen to counter the growing al-Qaida threat there.
The regime of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was close to Saddam and has long employed Iraqi army officers to lead its 67,000-strong armed forces.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, hundreds of former military and intelligence officers who served Saddam have flooded into Sanaa.
The CIA effort got under way early in the summer through the good offices of the head of Jordan's General Intelligence Department, Mohammed al-Raqqad, Intelligence Online said.
According to Intelligence Online, the CIA wants to reconcile Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites before the U.S. military withdrawal is completed by the end of next year so that the Americans can leave a stable, united state behind them.
The prospects of a deal appear to be slender though.
"Aware of their capacity to create mayhem in the run-up to the legislative elections, the Baath Party stalwarts are laying down draconian conditions for any halt to violence," the French Web site reported.
If the CIA's strategy fails, Intelligence Online warned, "The American military could well leave behind a country in the midst of a civil war."
Douri, the last high-ranking fugitive from Saddam's rule still at large with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, regularly exhorts Iraqis to topple the Baghdad government and restore the Baath to power. There were several speculations over the years as to whether he was dead or alive. In other reports, it was believed he fled and sought protection in Syria and Yemen and led the Baath party from there.
Douri, 65, last surfaced on an audiotape broadcast by al-Jazeera on April 9, the anniversary of the founding of the Baath, which ruled from 1968 until Saddam was toppled by the Americans in 2003.
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