Word: kassem
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...Communists are doing fine in Iraq -but they have not got it all yet. Controlling the press and the trade unions, muscling into the farm organizations, they try ceaselessly to put the heat on the regime's army strongman, Premier Karim Kassem. But the elusive Kassem sometimes gets away from them...
Heedless of Communist demands that still more "reactionaries" be thrown into already crowded jails, Kassem chose the eve of the Moslem Id al-Adha holiday to give amnesty to hundreds of political exiles and prisoners arrested after last year's revolt. "This will provide an opportunity for all citizens to live in an atmosphere free from feuds and grudges," declared Kassem...
...recent weeks Iraqi Communists have used their virtually unchallenged control of the country's press and radio to push for their next objective: membership in Premier Karim Kassem's Cabinet. Last fortnight mild-spoken General Kassem replied with characteristic obliqueness: "I do not encourage parties and party life at present." The Reds continued to praise Kassem as "our savior leader," kept up their insistent demands for office. But last week the left-wing National Democrats, the only political party with open representation in the Cabinet, and a party that has often worked in the past with the Communists...
That left the Communists as the only major group operating as a political party in Iraq. Embarrassed and unready for any open test, the Communists tried to say that the National Democrats had misinterpreted Kassem's wishes. Thereupon, Kassem called a press conference to say that he still opposed "political party activities during the transitional period." And though he said it with a smile, his meaning was plain: "Any group that works against this I would consider as having committed an act of conspiracy against the government." The Communists reluctantly called off their campaign...
...When Kassem's army asked Britain to supply a big order of heavy weapons (centurion tanks, Canberra jets) of the sort that Iraq regularly got from Britain before the revolution, the British government mulled things over, decided to give British munitions firms the go-ahead. Anyway, most arms will not be delivered until early next year...