Word: hakim
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What exactly can President Bush expect as a result of his White House meeting Monday with Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the Iraqi Shi'ite leader? The blunt answer: probably not much more than came out of his discussion last week with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. If the President is hoping al-Hakim will be any more favorably inclined toward U.S. interests than the Prime Minister is, Bush is in for frustrating time. A hardline Islamist, Al-Hakim has frequently given fiery anti-American speeches, denouncing U.S. policies in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel...
...Bush administration's main goal in Iraq at the moment is to halt the sectarian killings - blamed in large part on Shi'ite militias, including the armed wing of Hakim's own party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Known as the Badr Organization, the militia was formed in Iran during the Saddam era, and it is known to take guidance (and, some of its critics allege, perhaps even its orders) from Tehran. U.S. officials have been pressing the Iraqi government to disarm such militias. The President brought up that suggestion at his breakfast meeting with...
...leader has long maintained that the militias perform a valuable service, defending neighborhoods from attack by Sunni insurgents. In interviews with TIME, he has described the militias as akin to neighborhood watch committees. Bush may also find al-Hakim unwilling to listen to any complaints about the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr. Although the two Shi'ite clerics are rivals, they have a mutual interest in keeping the U.S. at arm's length. Al-Hakim knows that if he goes along with any American plan to crack down on al-Sadr's militia, his own Badr Organization will likely...
...seize the initiative, the White House announced a series of new diplomatic actions of its own, inviting Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of Iraq's leading Shi'ite party, and Tariq al-Hashemi, the Sunni Vice President, to Washington over the next few weeks as part of an effort to deepen connections to a greater variety of Iraqi political figures. And aides say Bush may call for what were already being dubbed "reciprocal obligations" with the Iraqi government: trading troop deployments for progress on sectarian violence, just as Baker and Hamilton are expected to propose. But there will...
...international jihad. Apart from the bombers already mentioned, there are, among others, Zacarias Moussaoui, the sole individual convicted of involvement in the 9/11 attacks; Ahmed Ressam, arrested at the Canadian border with explosives he had planned to use to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport; and Abdul Hakim Murad, convicted in Operation Bojinka, a 1995 al-Qaeda scheme to blow 12 planes, 11 of them U.S.-bound, out of the sky during a 48-hour period...