Saddam Aide Wants to Mend Fences with Washington

CAIRO, (AP) – A former top deputy of Saddam Hussein says he wants good ties with the United States, but only after U.S. troops leave and the Shiite-led government is toppled.

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who is now reportedly is powerful funder of Sunni insurgents in Iraq, spoke in an audiotape aired on Al-Jazeera television. Al-Douri, a fugitive with a $10 million bounty on his head, has not been seen in public since the fall of Saddam’s regime in April 2003.

In the audiotape, al-Douri urges his followers to topple the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki after an expected U.S. withdrawal from the country. He says then a new Iraqi government will be ready to “build the best of relations with the American people and the new administration” of President Barack Obama.