Abd al-Karim Qasim

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Person.png Abd al-Karim Qasim   WikiquoteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(officer)
Abd al-Karim Qasim 5.jpg
BornNovember 1914
Baghdad, Ottoman Empire
DiedFebruary 1963 (Age 48)
Baghdad, Iraq
NationalityIraqi
ReligionIslam
PartyIndependent, supported by the, National Democratic Party, Iraqi Communist Party
n Iraqi Army brigadier and nationalist who came to power in 1958 coup. Deposed in 1963 coup, possibly orchestrated by the CIA.

Employment.png Prime Minister of Iraq

In office
14 July 1958 - 8 February 1963

Abd al-Karim Qasim Muhammad Bakr al-Fadhli al-Zubaidi was an Iraqi Army brigadier and nationalist who came to power when the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown during the 14 July Revolution. He ruled the country as the prime minister until his downfall and execution during the 1963 Ramadan Revolution.

In 1959, Saddam Hussein was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Qasim.[1]

Overthrow

Qasim was overthrown by the Ba'athist coup of 8 February 1963 known as the Ramadan Revolution. While the degree of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involvement is still not proven, declassified documents and the testimony of former CIA officers indicate there was no direct American involvement, although the CIA was actively seeking to find a suitable replacement for Qasim within the Iraqi military and had been informed of an earlier Ba'athist coup plot by a high-ranking informant within the Party. [1]

Despite evidence that the CIA had been closely tracking the Ba'ath Party's coup planning since "at least 1961", the CIA official working with Archie Roosevelt Jr. on a separate plan to instigate a military coup against Qasim, and who later became the head of the CIA's operations in Iraq and Syria, has "denied any involvement in the Ba'ath Party's actions", stating instead that the CIA's efforts against Qasim were still in the planning stages at the time.[2]


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References

  1. a b https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2003/04/10/Exclusive-Saddam-key-in-early-CIA-plot/65571050017416/
  2. Gibson, Bryan R. (2015). Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. xxi, 45, 49, 57–58, 121, 200.