Word: jawad
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Think of him as a chameleon. Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Prime Minister, owes his survival to an ability to adapt his political persona to the prevailing circumstances. During his 24-year exile from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, he dropped his given name and went by "Jawad," to avoid detection by the dictator's spies. Returning to Baghdad in 2003, Maliki seemed no different from the legion of Shi'ite partisans who took up posts in the U.S.-installed interim government. He brought vigor and venom to his job on the committee responsible for purging the government of Saddam...
...Nouri alarms many who knew the old Jawad. Sunni and Kurdish leaders have accused him of employing tribal councils to shore up his personal standing at the expense of rivals, just as Saddam did. Vice President Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a prominent Shi'ite, has openly criticized the centralization of power in the Prime Minister's office. "We don't want another dictator in Baghdad," says Maysoon al-Damluji, a secular Member of Parliament. "It worries us all that [Maliki] is beginning to behave like a tyrant...
...militia smuggling rings and a dangerous no-go zone for most Westerners and wealthy Iraqis. Kidnappings were rampant, and many local authorities were either complicit in the activities or too afraid to act. "Previously, yes, the army was present here," says Basra military commander General Mohammed Jawad Huwaidi. "But the outlaws and bandits were working under the names of parties. So we needed the political will to start the operation." One top Iraqi commander, who only agreed to speak anonymously, says the local police had been particularly corrupt. Once the central government's operation began, he says, "1,000 police...
...poem, “Voice from the Past,” Jawad imagines Shakespeare knocking at Scheherazade’s door—but Scheherazade can’t recognize him because she’s distracted by the Iraq...
...then at the end of the poem, [Shakespeare] said, ‘I know one day you will recognize me,’” Jawad said. “One day, this country will rise up again...