Word: threatener
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...shattering defeat in the Gulf War, the Iraqi dictator remains in full control of the Baghdad government. Though he has lost his hold on Kurdistan in the north and over parts of the Shi'ite south, he has bottled up the insurgents in both regions so they do not threaten his rule. Every step he takes has been aimed at buttressing his authority. He rebuilt Baghdad and the central region, where his Sunni Muslim backers hold sway; he gives government workers and members of the armed forces regular pay increases and relentlessly bombards the nation with self-serving propaganda...
...result, Saddam's power base remains solid. Postwar clashes with the armed and dangerous Kurds and Shi'ites alarmed the minority Sunnis, who provide the bulk of Saddam's military and civilian support. "When things threaten to fall apart," says Baghdad novelist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, "you stick with the man who can hold it together. Saddam was the one man who could make the center hold...
Kravis doesn't get off so easily. Clearly Pryce, a tall, refined, dapper Welshman, bears no physical or cultural resemblance to the short, nouveau- riche, noncharismatic Kravis. Moreover, the aloof Pryce does not seem like the sort of person who would ever threaten to break both of a society columnist's kneecaps at a benefit, as Kravis reportedly once did. In fact, Pryce does not look like the sort of person who would threaten to break even one of a society columnist's kneecaps. Nevertheless, his performance works, in part because he is so understatedly malevolent, in part because...
Prominent former custodians of public trust can also help defuse image problems that threaten to snarl deals. For example, Carlyle became the adviser to Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal in his $590 million investment in Citicorp in 1991. The firm subsequently teamed with France's state-owned Thomson-CSF to outbid U.S. defense giants for the missile and aircraft divisions of LTV last year. Such global connections can be controversial. "The one significant problem for Carlyle is that they've been on the foreign side of controversial transactions," says a Washington lobbyist and rival dealmaker. But Carlyle...
While everyone is getting comfortable with CDs and cassette tapes, the industry has come up with two competing options that threaten to make existing technologies obsolete. One is called a minidisc, the other a digital compact cassette. Like the popular CDs, they are each digital, which means electronically perfect sound with no static. But unlike CDs, you can record on both new devices, and they are very portable...