Word: kassem
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Mideastern revolutions, the man out in front of the mob may not be leading it -he may be running for his life. Iraq's ruling General Karim Kassem is in the familiar situation; his army, which alone can overawe the mob, is an uncertain weapon. Kassem has already clapped in jail Colonel Abdul Salam Mohammed Aref, his co-conspirator in the four-month-old revolt, as well as a dozen other suspect army officers. Kassem has also tried to placate the mob by alloting free seeds to farmers, and promising land reforms...
...Nasser satellite, the fact that Iraq's $200 million-a-year oil royalties would probably all go to oilless Egypt. Besides, Iraq's more than a million Kurds, a restless minority, have no desire to be drowned in a wider Arab sea. A month ago Kassem, unwilling to sit too hard on the only fellow conspirator privy to the timing of the overthrow of Nuri asSaid and the royal family, made Aref Ambassador to West Germany. But Aref, though he turned up at the Brussels Fair, never reported for duty in Bonn. And last week, against orders...
...Baghdad's airport, Aref was spotted at once by an alert army officer, and his taxi was followed by two army jeeps. Escorted to Kassem's office, he refused to quit the country again. Kassem thereupon arrested his old comrade. Moving to head off the expected explosion among Aref's army and political followers, Kassem quietly ordered an estimated dozen of Aref's army buddies taken into custody. Then, repeating his maneuver of last September, when he coupled the promise of land reform with the announcement of Aref's demotion, Kassem softened the late-night...
Rule of Thumbs. Soon thousands of petitions, many signed by the thumbprints of illiterates, began pouring in, in praise of Kassem's leadership. Next morning the greatest crowd to assemble since the July revolt jammed Baghdad's Rashid Street for more than a mile chanting, "We are behind you, Karim," and "Long live the solidarity of the army and the people." Government officials privately conceded this massive muster was largely organized, like the anti-Aref demonstrations last month, by Iraq's Communists...
...Communists are the only street organization Kassem has, and, playing the game they played so long with Sukarno in Indonesia, they show themselves more loyal than anyone else to the nation's boss, increasing his dependence on them. Moscow obviously wants (as does the U.S. and Britain) an independent Iraq as a counterweight to Nasser...