Word: barzanis
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...Over the past month, CIA and State Department officials have met with long-feuding Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani to help them bury the hatchet. At a top-secret gathering in Berlin in April, the CIA discussed with them how the U.S. could protect the Kurds if Saddam retaliated against them after a U.S. attack. Also on the U.S. agenda are critical logistical issues, from the condition of roads and airports in the area to how soon Iraqi exiles could be sent into training. (Late last week Barzani confirmed to Time that there was a meeting of Kurdish...
...Khadim says he interviewed an eyewitness who watched the execution of 30. "The Iraqis arrived at 4 p.m., interrogated his comrades, then blindfolded them and shot them at 5 p.m." Meanwhile Abu Khadim and 250 comrades fled to the mountain town of Salahuddin, a stronghold of Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, the very man who had invited Saddam Hussein into northern Iraq. Asked if they felt betrayed by the CIA, an Abu Khadim aide shook his head in disbelief and replied, "I was astonished that the U.S. Air Force did not come to our rescue...
...unsophisticated spies. In one instance, they called into Saddam's regime on open phone lines, and their networks were easily penetrated. Worse, they could not stop fighting among themselves. The I.N.C. failed completely in its mission to serve as an arbiter between the two main Kurdish factions, led by Barzani and his rival, Jalal Talabani...
...relations between Barzani and Talabani worsened, the CIA seems to have been unaware of the alliance that formed between Barzani and Saddam. "I have to conclude that the CIA was taken by surprise, because otherwise they would have evacuated every piece of equipment and looked after the I.N.C. and other friendly Kurds," says Baram. "The CIA isn't irresponsible; it just didn't have good information on what was happening inside Saddam's palace or in Barzani's headquarters." This assessment appears to be confirmed by Abu Khadim, who said both the CIA agents and the I.N.C. soldiers in Erbil...
...based in Istanbul during the Gulf War, during which he covered the plight of the Kurds. This week he delivers that story's next chapter, slipping into Kurdistan to report on Saddam Hussein's attack on the town of Erbil. The report includes an exclusive interview with Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish faction allied with Iraq. "He had to negotiate for the interview," says an amazed Chua-Eoan of Wilde. "But the Kurds remembered his story from five years ago, so that probably clinched...