Word: basra
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Assumption of Innocence. Iraq insisted that the hangings were purely an internal affair. According to Baghdad, the eleven executed men had been part of a ring that included another three-two Moslems and a Jew-who were hanged in the port city of Basra on the same day. The charge said that they had formed a spy-and-sabotage network reporting to Israel and the "U.S. consulate at Abadan" in Iran. There is no U.S. consulate or other U.S. Government office in Abadan. Baghdad identified the ringleader as Izra Zilkha, an elderly Jew who ran a one-room kitchenware shop...
...important men in Iraq came to his store. He was very, very far from politics." The speaker was Benjamin Aharon, 51, who left Baghdad in the early 1950s as did more than 100,000 fellow Jews, and now lives in Israel. Although his family had lived in Baghdad and Basra for centuries, he had no regrets about leaving. "We were all suspected of being spies for Israel, but we did nothing, nothing . . . They are Nazis." The 2,500 Jews who remain in Iraq today live under a reign of terror. All must carry special identity cards; none are permitted...
...Several dozen British and American petroleum engineers served notice that they would not renew their employment contracts if Kuwait stayed dry. Several influential Kuwaitis have applied to remote countries for posts as honorary consuls, hoping thereby to qualify for diplomatic liquor privileges. Many of the thirsty began flocking to Basra in Iraq, 100 miles from Kuwait City. Their pilgrimage has also produced agitation for repeal of the law from their weekend widows left behind. They fear that the forced-draft drinking by the boys and the wiles of the women of Basra may prove a dangerously combustible...
...other plants promised, only a shoe factory and a food processing plant have been built, and the latter is having what is euphemistically described as "operating difficulties." The Soviets blame the Iraqis for procrastination and noncooperation. The Iraqis blame poor Soviet engineering standards, citing as an example the Baghdad-Basra railway-new last April, but so poorly ballasted that it has never been used...
...author, were breathless with excitement and punctuated largely by exclamation marks: "Rome looked swell in the late twilight!" "Those Italian military uniforms are wonderful!" "I loved Italy, but Greece takes the cake for magnificent beauty!" "The Near East reeks with romance!" "Just think-tomorrow I'll breakfast in Basra, lunch in Bahrein and have my dinner at Sharjah...