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Saddam's Fiercest Enemy - Al Daawa

(Newsweek) Christopher Dickey and Colin Soloway - In the 1980s, when Washington was Saddam's friend and "Iranian-backed Shiite radicals" were the enemy, the suicide bombings of U.S. embassies in Beirut and Kuwait and the kidnapping of Americans in Lebanon were linked to Al Daawa members. But in today's rush to be rid of Saddam, people formerly deemed terrorists could yet become this administration's freedom fighters. "The Shiites are 50 to 60 percent of the Iraqi population," explains Amatzia Baram, Israel's leading authority on Iraq, "but in Baghdad they make up 70 percent, so that the capital city is de facto a Shiite stronghold." "If you believe in a democratic Iraq, then you believe in an Iraq where the Shiites run the show," says Ambassador Peter Galbraith.
2002-12-24 00:00:00
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