Word: kassem
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...British decided last week to take a chance on Iraq's Premier Karim Kassem...
These days the most popular Arabian nights' entertainments are the televised trials staged in Baghdad by the Iraqi People's Court, under the presidency of Premier Karim Kassem's cousin, Colonel Fadhil Mahdawi. Premier Kassem himself is known to have turned on the television in the middle of a Cabinet session, listened to the colonel's brutal buffooneries and irrelevancies, and murmured: "What a jewel we have here." Last week, with 16 officers and one civilian on trial for their lives, accused of taking part in the Mosul army revolt in March, sheep-eyed, sheep-headed...
...more power showed that they did not have it yet. At week's end Iraq celebrated the first May Day parade in its history, and the many thousands of Iraqis marching through Baghdad behind anti-imperialist banners was chilling proof of that mob might. But the night before, Kassem made a brief speech saying that he is opposed to political-party activity in Iraq just now-and not ready to take Communists formally into his Cabinet...
Most Western diplomats hold that if Kassem ever does give way on the arming of the People's Resistance Force, the point of no return will have been passed in Iraq. Some pessimistic observers argue that Kassem is already so much a prisoner of the Reds that it is only a matter of time-and not too much time-until that point is reached. In the face of this looming diplomatic and strategic disaster, the U.S. and British policy of hands off in Iraq seems at first glance negligent. In fact, it is the only policy open...
...they ponder these pros and cons, Russia's cold-war planners must also be acutely aware of another complicating factor. Abdul Karim Kassem, now the Communists' most useful front man in the Arab world, was once a most useful servant of Nuri asSaid. And so long as Kassem, lifelong conspirator and dissembler, keeps any of the keys of power in Iraq, there is always the chance that he may yet teach Russia a lesson that the West has learned to its sorrow-the lesson that events in the Middle East have their own momentum...