‘Chemical Ali’ may still be alive

U.S. MILITARY officials told NBC News that they had changed the status of Ali Hassan al-Majid, the infamous “Chemical Ali,” suspected of ordering the 1988 gas attacks that killed thousands of Kurds in the northern Iraqi village of Halabja, from “believed dead but unconfirmed” to “unknown.”

Now this is interesting. The death of 'Chemical Ali' was touted as one of the major successes in the run up to the fall of Baghdad. Pentagon was sure that they had got their man when the military bombed his residence in early May. But CIA, it seems, had been insisting since early May that there was a 40 percent chance that man who gassed the Kurds might still be alive.

If thats the case with 'Chemical Ali', then I guess Saddam Hussein is sure to be alive. They were never certain about him anyways!

“There’s nothing interesting here, just a lot of rubble,” said Pfc. Walter Phillips, 30, of Chicago, as he stood near his backhoe at the edge of a 15-foot crater.

Iraqis nearby doubted whether the soldiers would find the remains of Saddam, who they suspect was hiding at another house, just yards away.

“No, no - Saddam ran away. He’s hiding,” said Munther Meki, a grocer whose shop — its front window gone and shelves empty — is next to the destroyed house.