Does the Baath Party still have a role in Iraqi politics?
Izzat al-Douri: If you mean the current political process, the Ba’ath Party rejects it, because it was manufactured by and serves the occupying force and is destructive of our country. The political role of the Ba’ath in the struggle [against the occupation of Iraq] is to mobilize and bring together the energies of the people for the fight to expel the occupation and liberate our country. TIME: Do you hope to return to Baghdad as a free man? Al-Douri: I have great hope and supreme confidence that, through the agency of God, and of the mighty people of Iraq and its heroic fighters, I shall return to Baghdad on its liberation from the grip of the occupation. TIME: How sound is the infrastructure of the Ba’ath Party, and what is your influence over it? Al-Douri: The Ba’ath Party has undergone an internal shake-up, restructuring its base and leadership on struggle-oriented, faith-based patriotic and nationalist principles. It now has a revolutionary, struggle-oriented identity and has shak
