Informed Comment

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute

Sunday, July 13, 2003

*Breaking news (revised):

The members of the new Iraqi Governing Council, which declared itself Sunday, are as follows, according to CNN. I have changed the presentation to make the breakdown clearer, and also added some information from az-Zaman and other Arabic sources. Note that I don't include the Communist in the "Shiite" column. That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? And, it is odd that there is no Chaldean Christian, only an Assyrian.


Sunni Arabs:

Adnan Pachachi, 80, former foreign minister (1965-1967), Sunni
Nasir Chaderchi, National Democratic Party (Arab nationalist) Sunni
Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, northern tribal chief, Sunni [Shimr Tribe]
Mohsen Abdel Hamid, Iraqi Islamic Party, Sunni
Samir Shakir Mahmoud, (Independent); businessman and tribal chieftain in Haditha north of Baghdad

Kurds:

Jalal Talabani, 67, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Sunni Kurd
Massoud Barzani, 56, Kurdistan Democratic Party, Sunni Kurd
Mahmoud Ali Othman, 60, Sunni Kurd from Sulaimaniya, physician. Former KDP.
Founded the Kurdish Socialist Party in London in 1975, then withdrew
from politics.

Salaheddine Bahaaeddin, 53, Kurdistan Islamic Union, Sunni Kurd. Close to the
Muslim Brotherhood.

Dara Noor Alzin, 50, Baghdad court judge and Islamist originally from Kirkuk.

Shiites:

Ahmed Chalabi, founder of Iraqi National Congress
Abdelaziz Al Hakim, a leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution (and head of the paramilitary Badr Corps)

Ibrahim Jafari, 56, Al-Da'wah Islamic Party (which he joined in 1966).
Was active in Karbala 1970-79, when he was forced to flee to Iran.
In 1989 he went to London. Note that the London branch of
al-Da`wa has been willing to deal with the US, but the Iranian
branch as been more standoffish.

Izzeddin Salim [Western press gives him as Abdel-Zahraa Othman
Mohammed, but Shiites are seldom named Othman!], a historian
and leader of the Al-Da'wah Party in Basra. The Basra al-Da`wa or
Tanzim al-Da`wa tended to reject Khomeini's theory of clerical rule.

Abdel-Karim Mahoud al-Mohammedawi, member of Iraqi political party
Hezbollah, (fought guerrilla war against Saddam--is a leader of the
Marsh Arabs and helps administer city of Amara in South)

Iyad Alawi, leader of the Iraqi National Accord (ex-Baathist officers), Shiite
Ahmed al-Barak Al-Busultan, human rights activist, Shiite (Iraqi Lawyers' Union)
Aquila al-Hashimi, a woman, foreign affairs expert; member of an
administrative committee overseeing the post-Baath Foreign Ministry.
Has a Ph.D. in French literature. Had been close to Tariq Aziz
and was a Baath party member with a minor post in the Foreign
Ministry under Saddam.

Raja Habib al-Khuzaai, a woman, maternity hospital director in south,
Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, cleric from Najaf. Former head of Ahl Al-Bait
Center in London. A liberal cleric close to Majid Khoie, who was
killed by a mob on April 10.

Mouwafak al-Rabii, Dentist and someone who split from al-Da`wa
Wael Abdul Latif, 50, Basra governor and secular court judge


Miscellaneous others:

Hamid Majid Moussa, 62, Communist Party (Shiite ethnicity). Economist;
family from Babil. Lived in Kurdistan from '91.

Younadem Kana, 50, Assyrian Christian, engineer. In 1981 founded the
Democrtic Assyrian Movement, which he still leads.

Sondul Chapouk [Shunkul Habib `Umar], 35, a woman, Turkmen, art teacher and
artist at the School of Fine Arts in Mosul.


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