Word: kassem
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...British decided last week to take a chance on Iraq's Premier Karim Kassem...
They recognize that Iraq has been sliding steadily toward Communism. They recall that Kassem's revolution began not only with the murder of the King but with the burning of Baghdad's British embassy. But they also realize that, so far, Kassem's government has honored its contracts with the British-run Iraq Petroleum Co., in order to keep Iraq's $230 million-a-year oil royalties...
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...
...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...