[A-List] Cast of Characters

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

A look at members of Iraq's new Governing Council
By Associated Press, 7/13/2003 15:07

Thumbnail sketches of members of Iraq's newly named 25-member Governing
Council:

AHMAD CHALABI: A Shiite and leader of the London-based anti-Saddam Iraqi
National Congress. Chalabi, a 58-year-old former banker who left Iraq as
a teenager, had been touted in some U.S. government circles as a future
Iraqi leader though he denies he has any ambitions to lead the country.
He also has many critics who are opposed to anyone ruling Iraq after
spending so many years abroad. Chalabi was convicted in absentia of
fraud in a banking scandal in Jordan in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years
in prison. His group is an umbrella organization for a number of
disparate groups, including Kurds and Shiites.

ABDEL-AZIZ AL-HAKIM: A Shiite and a leader of the Supreme Council for
the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. SCIRI, long based in neighboring Iran,
opposes a U.S. administration in the country but has close ties with the
other U.S.-backed groups that opposed Saddam, including the Kurds and
Chalabi's INC.

JALAL TALABANI: A Sunni Kurd and leader of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan. He and Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party led
the Kurdish zone in northern Iraq that had near-autonomy from Saddam's
regime since the 1991 Gulf War. Born in Kirkuk Province in 1934,
Talabani joined the KDP at the age of 15 and rose to its politburo in
1953. But he broke with the KDP and founded the PUK in 1957.

MASSOUD BARZANI: A Sunni Kurd and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic
Party. Barzani, 56, leads the KDP, founded in 1946 by his father, the
legendary mountain warrior Mustafa Barzani. He was a teenager when he
became an aide to his father, then became KDP president when his father
died in 1979. In 1983, three of his brothers disappeared in what Kurds
call an Iraqi massacre of the Barzani clan when 8,000 people were
rounded up by the Baghdad regime.

IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI: A Shiite and the main spokesman for the Islamic Dawa
Party. The party, once based in Iran, launched a bloody campaign against
Saddam's regime in the late 1970's, but it was crushed in 1982. The
group said it lost 77,000 members in its war against Saddam. Born in
Karbala, al-Jaafari was educated at Mosul University as a medical
doctor.

NASEER KAMEL AL-CHADERCHI: A Sunni and leader of the National Democratic
Party. He lives in Baghdad and works as a lawyer, businessman and
farmowner. He is the son of Kamel al-Chaderchi, who played a leading
role in Iraq's democratic development until 1968, when the Baath Party
seized power.

IYAD ALLAWI: A Shiite and secretary-general of the Iraq National Accord.
He is a medical doctor and began opposition to the Iraqi regime in the
early 1970's. He was at the forefront of efforts to organize opposition
both within Iraq and abroad.

ADNAN PACHACHI: A Sunni who served as foreign minister in the government
deposed by Saddam's Baath party in 1968. The respected, 80-year-old
politician founded the Independent Democratic Movement in February to
provide a platform for Iraqis who back a secular, democratic government.
He returned to Iraq in May after 32 years in exile.

AHMAD SHYA'A AL-BARAK: A Shiite and general coordinator for the Human
Rights Association of Babel. He also is coordinator for the Iraqi Bar
Association. He has worked with U.N. programs in Iraq since 1991 in the
Foreign Ministry.

AQILA AL-HASHIMI: A Shiite and diplomat, he led the Iraqi delegation to
the New York donor's conference for Iraq. He holds a doctorate in modern
literature and bachelor's degree in Law.

RAJA HABIB AL-KHUZAAI: A Shiite woman who heads the maternity hospital
in the southern city of Diwaniyah. She studied and lived in Britain from
the late 1960s until 1977, when she returned to Iraq.

HAMID MAJID MOUSSA: A Shiite and secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party
since 1993. He is an economist and petroleum researcher. He left Iraq in
1978 and returned in 1983 to continue his political activities against
the Saddam regime.

MOHAMMED BAHR AL-ULOUM: A highly respected Shiite cleric who returned
from London where he headed the Ahl al-Bayt charitable center. He was
elected as the Shiite member of a leadership triumvirate by the Iraqi
opposition after the 1991 Gulf War.

GHAZI MASHAL AJIL AL-YAWER: A Sunni who was born in the northern city of
Mosul. He is a civil engineer and recently vice president of Hicap
Technology Co. in Saudi Arabia.

MOHSEN ABDEL-HAMID: A Sunni and secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic
Party. He was born in the northern city of Kirkuk and is author of more
than 30 books on interpretation of the Quran. He was detained in 1996 on
charge of reorganizing the IIP.

SAMIR SHAKIR MAHMOUD: A Sunni and member of al-Sumaidy clan. A writer
from the western city of Haditha, he was a prominent figure in the
opposition to Saddam's regime.

MAHMOUD OTHMAN: A Sunni Kurd who is politically independent but a
longtime leader of the Kurdish National Struggle.

SALAHEDDINE MUHAMMAD BAHAAEDDIN: A Sunni Kurd who was first elected
secretary-general of the Kurdistan Islamic Union in the first conference
of the party in 1994. He was born in the Kurdish village of Halabja and
has written several books in Kurdish and Arabic.

YOUNADEM KANA: An Assyrian Christian, secretary-general of the
Democratic Assyrian Movement and active member of the Assyrian-Chaldian
Christian community. He was a former minister of public works and
housing and a former minister of industry and energy in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He began activism against Saddam in 1979.

MOUWAFAK AL-RABII: A Shiite and longtime human rights activists. A
member of the British Royal Doctors' College, he practices internal
medicine and neurology.

DARA NOOR ALZIN: A Sunni Kurd who served as a judge on the Court of
Appeal. He ruled that of Saddam's edicts confiscating land without
proper compensation was unconstitutional. He was sentenced to two years
in prison, eight of them served at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison west
of Baghdad before being released in a general amnesty in October.

SONDUL CHAPOUK: A Turkoman and a woman from the northern city of Kirkuk.
She was trained as an engineer and teacher. She serves as leader of the
Iraqi Women's Organization.

WAEL ABDUL-LATIF: A Shiite lawyer and judge, named governor of the
southern city of Basra on July 4 by local authorities.

ABDUL-KARIM MAHMOUD AL-MOHAMMEDAWI: A Shiite, dubbed ''Prince of the
Marshes'' for leading the resistance movement against Saddam in the
southern march region of Iraq for 17 years. He was imprisoned for six
years and leads the Iraqi political group Hezbollah in the southern city
of Amarah.

ABDEL-ZAHRAA OTHMAN: A Shiite and the leader of the Islamic Dawa
Movement in Basra. He is a writer, philosopher and political activist,
who served as editor of several newspapers and magazines.