UNCERTAINTY OVER the fate of Chemical Ali, and ordinary Iraqi's believe Saddam escaped and is hiding. Given how afraid they are of these guys, you have to wonder what the full impact of this uncertainty is over the re-normalizing of life in Iraq. Consider what it must be like to think he might actually come back.

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.” The officials said they made the move based on debriefing of Iraqi officials and relatives of al-Majid, No. 5 on the most-wanted list and the king of spades...

... 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.

The whole thing is here.