Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 9

(See parts 1-8 below)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home; and the Obama regime apparently plans to leave between 30,000 and 50,000 U.S. occupation troops stationed in Iraq as "military advisors" until January 1, 2012.

Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?


According to this April 10, 2003 investigative report by UPI Intelligence Correspondent Richard Sale (on which the CIA declined to comment):

" …In the past Saddam was seen by U.S. intelligence services as a bulwark of anti-communism and they used him as their instrument for more than 40 years. His first contacts with U.S. officials date back to 1959, when he was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi Prime Minister Gen. Abdul Karim Qasim…In the mid-1980s, Miles Copeland, a veteran CIA operative, told UPI the CIA had enjoyed "close ties" with…Ba'th Party…In a recent public statement, Roger Morris, a former National Security Council staffer in the 1970s, confirmed this claim, saying that the CIA had chosen the authoritarian and anti-communist Ba’th Party `as its instrument.'

"According to another former senior State Department official, Saddam, while only in his early 20s, became a part of a U.S. plot to get rid of Qasim. According to this source, Saddam was installed in an apartment in Baghdad on al-Rashid Street directly opposite Qasim's office in Iraq's Ministry of Defense, to observe Qasim's movements.

"Adel Darwish, Middle East expert and author of Unholy Babylon, said the move was done "with full knowledge of the CIA," and that Saddam's CIA handler was an Iraqi dentist working for CIA and Egyptian intelligence. U.S. officials separately confirmed Darwish's account.

"Darwish said that Saddam's paymaster was Capt. Abdel Maquid Farid, the assistant military attaché at the Egyptian Embassy who paid for the apartment from his own personal account. Three former senior U.S. officials have confirmed that this is accurate.

"The assassination was set for Oct. 7, 1959, but it was…botched…Qasim, hiding on the floor of his car, escaped death, and Saddam, whose calf had been grazed by a fellow would-be assassin, escaped to Tikrit, thanks to CIA and Egyptian intelligence agents, several U.S. government officials said.

"Saddam then crossed into Syria and was transferred by Egyptian intelligence agents to Beirut, according to Darwish and former senior CIA officials. While Saddam was in Beirut, the CIA paid for Saddam's apartment and put him through a brief training course, former CIA officials said. The agency then helped him get to Cairo, they said…

"In Cairo, Saddam was installed in an apartment in the upper class neighborhood of Dukki and spent his time playing dominos in the Indiana Cafe, watched over by CIA and Egyptian intelligence operatives, according to Darwish and former U.S. intelligence officials…

"…During this time Saddam was making frequent visits to the American Embassy where CIA specialists such as Miles Copeland and CIA station chief Jim Eichelberger were in residence and knew Saddam, former U.S. intelligence officials said.

"Saddam's U.S. handlers even pushed Saddam to get his Egyptian handlers to raise his monthly allowance, a gesture not appreciated by Egyptian officials since they knew of Saddam's American connection, according to Darwish. His assertion was confirmed by former U.S. diplomat in Egypt at the time…"

(end of part part 9)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 8

(See parts 1-7 below)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home; and the Obama regime apparently plans to leave between 30,000 and 50,000 U.S. occupation troops stationed in Iraq as "military advisors" until January 1, 2012.

Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

On September 20, 1959, the Qasim regime then executed 13 anti-Qasim, anti-communist nationalist Iraqi Army officers for their role in the unsuccessful March 1959 Mosul Revolt. Their executions provoked both a wave of anti-Qasim demos and Iraqi communist activist-led counter-demos in support of the Qasim regime on the Iraqi streets.

In addition, between March and October 1959 the Eisenhower Administration's CIA apparently collaborated with anti-communist Ba'th activists like Saddam Hussein in organizing an October 7, 1959 assassination attempt on Qasim which left Qasim badly wounded by machine gun fire and in the hospital for two months. As Rashid Khalidi noted in his 2004 book Resurrecting Empire, "An investigative report based on interviews with a dozen American and British former intelligence officers and diplomats stated that Saddam Hussein was part of a `CIA-authorized six-man squad' that failed to kill Qasim." (end of part 8)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 7

(See parts 1-6 below)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home; and the Obama regime apparently plans to leave between 30,000 and 50,000 U.S. occupation troops stationed in Iraq as "military advisors" until January 1, 2012.

Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

In its April 29, 1959 issue, the New York Times reported that U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director Allen Dulles described the post-March 1959 political situation inside Iraq as "the most dangerous in the world today." Yet Qasim was still unwilling to give any Iraqi communist activists a seat in his government's cabinet in April 1959, despite their demands for cabinet seats.

So on May 1, 1959, between 300,000 and 1 million Iraqis, led by Iraq Communist Party Central Committee members, marched on the streets of Baghdad to demand that Qasim include party members in his government's cabinet. But later in the month, the UK government began shipping arms to the Qasim government to encourage Qasim to begin pursuing a more anti-communist domestic policy; and on May 24, 1959, Qasim began easing Iraqi communist activists out of their positions of mass media power in Iraqi broadcasting. A few weeks later, on June 11, 1959, Qasim also released several hundred anti-communist Iraqi nationalists from prison.

Yet on the first anniversary of the July 1958 Revolution, Qasim appeared to temporarily retreat from his less friendly policy towards Iraqi communist activists by appointing three "fellow travelers" of the party to minor Iraqi government cabinet posts, like the minister of municipalities, on July 13, 1959. But then inter-ethnic violence between Iraqi communist activists of Kurdish background and non-communist Iraqis of Turkish background broke out in Kirkuk between July 14 and July 16, 1959, which left between 31 and 100 Iraqis dead in Kirkuk.

Blaming the Iraqi communist activists for the Kirkuk inter-ethnic violence, Qasim then ordered the arrest of hundreds of rank-and-file Iraqi communist activists and supporters between July 19, 1959 and August 12, 1959. He also shut down the offices of the Iraqi communist activist-led General Federation of Trade Unions and began to rule Iraq in a more dictatorial way. And by the end of September 1959, popular Iraqi support for the Iraq Communist Party had also decreased from the level of popular support it had enjoyed in May 1959. (end of part 7)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 6

(See parts 1-5 below)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home; and the Obama regime apparently plans to leave between 30,000 and 50,000 U.S. occupation troops stationed in Iraq as "military advisors" until January 1, 2012.

Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

In the aftermath of the unsuccessful Ba'th-supported 1959 Mosul Revolt, Iraqi communist activists organized large demonstrations which called for the Qasim regime to: "Crush the plotters; Purge the army and the administration; Arm the people; Withdraw from the Baghdad Pact without further delay; Take preventive diplomatic and punitive measures against countries which participate in plotting aggression against our country!"

On March 24, 1959, the Qasim government responded to the large demos by withdrawing from the Baghdad Pact that had formally aligned Iraq militarily in the Cold War Era with the UK imperialist government; and the 400 British Royal Air Force troops who were still in the country were finally withdrawn from Iraq on May 31, 1959. Two thousand anti-Qasim officials were also purged from Iraqi government offices and Iraqi military officer posts. In addition, the Soviet Union also agreed to give a generous loan of $137 million to the Qasim government on March 16, 1959, which was to be spent within seven years on industrial, communications, transportation and agricultural development and infrastructure projects.

In the United States, the Republican Eisenhower Administration was apparently upset about the post-July 1958 direction of Iraq's internal politics and apparently first began to pursue a U.S. foreign policy of "regime change" in Iraq. As William Blum recalled in his 2000 book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower:

"A secret plan for a joint U.S.-Turkish invasion of the country was drafted by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after the 1958 coup. Reportedly, only Soviet threats to intercede on Iraq's side forced Washington to hold back. But in 1960, the United States began to fund the Kurdish guerrillas in Iraq who were fighting for a measure of autonomy and the CIA undertook an assassination attempt against Qasim, which was unsuccessful. The Iraqi leader made himself even more of a marked man when, in that same year, he began to help create the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC], which challenged the stranglehold Western oil companies had on the marketing of Arab oil; and in 1962 he created a national oil company to exploit the nation's oil."

(end of part 6)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 5

(See parts 1-4 below)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home; and the Obama regime apparently plans to leave between 30,000 and 50,000 U.S. occupation troops stationed in Iraq as "military advisors" until January 1, 2012.

Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in
2009?

On February 23, 1959, a Ba'th-supported plot in Mosul to overthrow the Qasim regime was discovered by Qasim's Iraqi communist activist supporters in that city.

The 180,000 Iraqis who lived in Mosul in March 1959 were much more anti-communist than the Iraqis who lived in Baghdad. In Mosul, the Ba'th Party had 150 full members, 600 Ba'th supporters and ties to anti-communist and anti-Qasim Iraqi military officers. But only 400 people in Mosul were members of the Iraq Communist Party in early March 1959--although the People's Resistance Force group in Mosul which supported the Qasim regime contained 7,000 members.

To protest the Ba'th-supported plot, the Iraqi communist activist-led Peace Partisans then mobilized 250,000 people, many from Baghdad, to demonstrate in support of the Qasim regime in Mosul on March 6, 1959. But the following day, Ba'thist activists burnt down the leftist bookshops and the Ali al-Khajju coffeehouse in Mosul. The Ali al-Khajju coffeehouse was the Mosul coffeehouse where local Iraqi communist activists hung out in the late 1950s.

The next day, at dawn on March 8, 1959, anti-Qasim Iraqi military officers in Mosul arrested 60 local Iraqi communist activists. Then, at 7 a.m., these Iraqi Army Fifth Brigade military officers broadcast a call to revolt against the Qasim regime over the Mosul radio station.

Qasim loyalists within the military and the Qasim regime's Iraqi communist supporters, however, were able to prevent this Ba'th-supported Iraqi military revolt in Mosul from succeeding in March 1959. But during this unsuccessful Ba'th-supported 1959 Mosul revolt, at least 110 Iraqis were killed and 300 Iraqis were wounded. Of the 110 Iraqis killed, 48 were Ba'th Party activists or allies and 30 were Iraq Communist Party activists. (end of part 5)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 4

(See parts 1-3 below)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home. Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

In the months following the Qasim coup, considered the July 1958 Revolution in Iraqi history, the anti-communist Ba'th Party was still not seen as that politically influential within Iraqi society. Although it possessed 300 active members, 1200 organizational partisans, 2,000 organized supporters and 10,000 unorganized supporters by 1958, "its forces of attraction hardly compared with that of its Communist rivals," according to Hanna Batatu's book, The Old Social Classes and The Revolutionary Movements of Iraq.

When 500,000 Iraqi protesters demonstrated on the streets of Baghdad on August 7, 1958 in support of Iraq's new revolutionary government, "the Communists far outdistanced the other elements, at least in their organizational resources, and the direct leadership was manifest in their hands," according to Batatu's book.

By mid-1959, the membership of the Iraq Communist Party exceeded 25,000. And Iraq Communist Party influence in the 40,000 member League for Defense of Women's Rights, the 84,000 Iraqi Democratic Youth Federation and the 275,000 member General Federation of Trade Unions was also strong by mid-1959.

An agrarian reform was soon proclaimed by Qasim's regime on September 30, 1958 that set maximum limits on the amount of land that the 2,800 feudal Iraqi landlords, who previously controlled 56% of all Iraqi private land, could possess. The Qasim regime also reduced rents on rooms by 20%, reduced rents on homes by 15 to 20%, brought down the price of bread, and reduced the Iraqi workday to 8 hours.

Initially, Qasim relied on Iraqi communist activists' support for his government, because they appeared to be the only organized political force in Iraqi society capable of countering any anti-Qasim political forces in Iraq and within the Iraqi military. On August 21, 1958, Iraqi communist activists established a People's Resistance Force of 11,000 young men and women in Baghdad to support the Qasim regime. The head of the Qasim regime's intelligence service in late 1958 was also a member of the Iraq Communist Party. In addition, the General Union of Iraqi Students initially elected an Iraqi communist activist to lead it during Qasim's regime.

Despite the democratic economic reforms he instituted and the political support his regime received from Iraqi communist activists, however, Qasim, himself, was just an anti-imperialist nationalist and not a communist. Initially, Qasim's deputy prime minister was an anti-communist colonel named Abdel Salem Aref, who was an admirer of Egyptian leader Nasser and pro-Ba'thist in his politics in 1958. By late September 1958, however, Aref had resigned his post--since Aref's support for the unification, not federation, of Iraq with Nasser's United Arab Republic was not shared by Qasim.

An unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Qasim was then allegedly made by Aref when he and Qasim met with others in an October 12, 1958 meeting. In response, Qasim's police arrested Aref on November 4, 1958 and closed down the Ba'th Party's newspaper on November 7, 1958. (end of part 4)

Who Rules NYU? NYU's Bank Leumi USA Connection

Besides sitting on the AIG Retirement Services corporate board in recent years, New York University [NYU] Trustee Lester Pollack has also sat between Conference of President of Major Jewish Organizations(lobbying group)Executive Vice-Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein and former Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinovich on the board of directors of Bank Leumi USA. In addition, an NYU College of Business & Public Administration Dean Emeritus, NYU Professor of Economics Abraham Gitlow, has also been an honorary director of Bank Leumi USA in recent years.

According to the Bank Leumi USA’s web site, “Bank Leumi USA is the largest subsidiary of the Leumi Group, Israel’s leading banking group, founded in 1902, with assets exceeding $86 billion” and “The Leumi Group serves clients around the world through more than 300 branches and offices...”

Among the other corporations or institutions on whose boards members of the NYU board of trustees have sat in recent years are: Bank of New York Mellon Corporation; Colgate Palmolive, Apollo Management; General Motors Asset Management; Temple Emanuel; Warburg Pincus; New York City Ballet; General Electric; Schering Plough; Paramount; CNA Financial; Comcast; Loew’s; Coca Cola; Washington Post Company/Newsweek; Seagram’s; Blackrock; PNC Financial Services; Home Depot; Center for Strategic and International Studies; The New York Stock Exchange; New School University; the New York City Police Foundation; and Human Rights Watch.

Who Ruled NYU In 1994?

Like New York University [NYU] in 1994, the University of California at the time of the Berkeley Student Revolt was controlled by super-rich folks whose special interests conflicted with the class interests of most Village Voice readers. As The Beginning: Berkeley, 1964 recalled:

“In the 1964-65 school year…the 24 members of the University of California’s Board of Regents had various connections with larger interests in the state and the nation. The board chairman was president of the largest chain of department stores in the West. Other members included the chairman of the Bank of America, the chairman of the nation’s largest gold-mining corporation, a vice-president of Lockheed…active in the California Manufacturer’s Association, the board chairman of two oil companies, the president of one of California’s largest food-processing concerns, a past chairman of the Republican State Central Committee…the wives of two of the state’s leading newspaper publishers, a past president of the state bar association…two corporation lawyers, and a former advertising executive. Members of the Board of Regents either headed or served on the boards of directors of 38 major corporations in the state and the nation…”

Similarly, among the corporations and institutions which were owned or directed by members of NYU’s Board of Trustees in the early 1990s were the Village Voice, Nation magazine, the New York Observer, the New York Daily News, CBS, Capital Cities Communication/ABC, Time Warner/Time magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Atlantic Monthly, Mobil Oil, Texaco, Getty Oil, Amerada Hess, Union Carbide, Chemical Bank, Bank Leumi Trust, NYNEX, Metropolitan Life Insurance, Borden, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Automatic Data Processing, Rockwell International, Paramount Communications, the New York Stock Exchange, Lazard Freres, Bear Stearns, Loew’s/Lorillard Tobacco, R.H. Macy’s, Hartz Mountain, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of NY and the NY Public Library.

(Downtown 9/21/94)

NYU's Real Estate Investments: Worth $1 Billion In 1990s?

For a “nonprofit” tax-exempt institution, NYU sure owned a lot of Downtown Manhattan real estate during the 1990s. As Skyscraper Dreams: The Great Real Estate Dynasties Of New York by Tom Shactman observed in 1991:

“By the late 1960s, New York University’s endowment had dwindled and its student base had declined to the point where the possibility existed that the school would have to declare bankruptcy…On the real estaters’ advice, the university aggressively began to buy property, especially in the vicinity of the campus…By the late 1980s, New York University had become…(like Columbia University) the owner of more than a billion dollars worth of Manhattan real estate.”

NYU was barely in need of charity in the early 1990s. After the 1970s, NYU expanded rapidly into the neighborhoods that surrounded its Washington Square campus. And in 1990, NYU’s annual budget exceeded $1 billion per year and NYU then owned $522 million worth of U.S. corporate stock—despite being characterized as a “nonprofit” institution. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, NYU also raised more money from Big Business than it had in any previous period in its pre-1990 history.

In 1990 the offices of the NYU administration were located on the 12th floor of its Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South and NYU’s president at that time was John Brademas, a former congressional representative from South Bend, Indiana. In October 1976, according to Current Biography, former NYU President Brademas “acknowledged that he had accepted about $5,000 in campaign funds in 1970, 1972 and 1974 from Park Tong Sun, the Washington party fixture under federal investigation for influence peddling” in the “Koreagate Affair.” But in 1981, Brademas was still named NYU President.

During the 1980s, former NYU President Brademas was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of New York and a director of the Rockefeller Foundation, the New York Stock Exchange, Scholastic Inc., Loew’s Corp. and RCA/NBC. In 1990 Brademas finally announced his intention to retire as NYU President by March, 1992; and the current NYU President is a guy named John Sexton, whose annual compensation during the 2006-2007 academic year was nearly $1.3 million.

In the early 1990s, the chairman of NYU Board of Trustees was the former board chairman of CBS who sold CBS Records to SONY—Laurence Tisch.

In 1990, security guards on the Bobst Library’s main floor were under orders to question reporters before allowing them to go up to the 12th floor NYU administration offices.

According to NYU’s press officer in 1990, Bill Osborne, in 1990 NYU had “no plans for further expansion” in the East Village and did not plan to construct or purchase any new buildings there in the 1990s. Osborne added, however, that this didn’t “mean that 20 years from now” NYU would not decide to expand its campus deeper into the Lower East Side.

A late 1980s pamphlet that was still being distributed at NYU’s Information Center in Shimkin Hall at 50 West Fourth Street in 1990 stated in an “Architect’s Description” of NYU’s 33 Third Avenue dormitory:

“New York University has embraced an extraordinary opportunity to expand its building program at its main campus in New York City’s Washington Square area. The acquisition of two major building sites on Third Avenue continues the eastward growth of the University, with its urban campus extending from Sixth Avenue to the East River.

“Prior to the acquisition of these properties, the `gateway’ to New York University’s campus had been Washington Square and the famed Washington Arch. The major building program proposed for Third Avenue will introduce a new gateway marking the eastern entrance to the main New York University community. The site at Third Avenue and Stuyvesant (Ninth) Street marks an entry to both the East Village and Greenwich Village…”

Much of NYU’s 1980s campus expansion was financed by an NYU trustee in the 1990s and a former owner of the Village Voice named Leonard Stern. Between 1980 and 1985, Stern, a billionaire, funneled millions of dollars to NYU, including a $3 million donation to renovate an NYU dormitory at 79-80 Washington Square East that was renamed “Leonard Stern Hall.” In September, 1988, Stern also announced his plan to funnel more than $25 million to NYU to strengthen its schools of business. Coincidentally, NYU’s under-graduate and graduate business schools were both named after Billionaire Leonard Stern in 1990; and the New York Times noted in its April 2, 1989 issue that $30 million of NYU’s drive to raise $100 million in the late 1980s for the upgrading of its business schools had come from former Village Voice owner Stern.

As an NYU trustee in the 1980s, Stern played more than a passive role on NYU’s Board of Trustees. In its July 15, 1985 issue, Business Week reported that Stern “regularly” spent “one day a week on his work as a trustee” of NYU. It also observed that Stern “became intensely involved” in the designing of Leonard Stern Hall, “particularly that of the dining room.” According to former NYU President Brademas, Stern took the architect to cafes all over town to say, “What do you think about this, what about that?”

If you walked around the Village and the Lower East Side in 1990, you might have noticed that the number of dormitories, apartment buildings and hotel buildings with big NYU flags sticking out over the street increased dramatically in the 1980s at the same time the number of homeless single men in the neighborhood increased. Although former New York City Mayor Ed Koch—an NYU Law School graduate—used to claim that no money existed to construct apartments for homeless people in New York City, NYU boasted in its “33 Third Avenue” pamphlet that:

“New York University has made an extraordinary commitment to the creation of an expanded residential campus at Washington Square. The centerpiece of this effort has been the construction of four new residence halls housing more than 2,000 undergraduates and graduate students. With the opening of these new facilities, the number of students able to live on campus has increased by 48 percent to over 6,400.”

The Spring 1990 issue of NYU Alumni News also reported that between 1981 and 1990, undergraduate housing at NYU increased by 150 percent.

Some builders of luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan agreed in the 1980s to reserve some housing space in their newly constructed buildings for low-income tenants. Yet in the 1980s, “nonprofit” NYU, ironically, apparently wasn’t willing to let any homeless men share any of its newly-constructed residential campus space.

(Downtown/Aquarian Weekly 9/12/90 and 1/29/97)

"Non-Profit" NYU Paid Its President $1,291,000 In 2007

The tax-exempt New York University [NYU] in Manhattan claims to be a “non-profit” institution. Yet according to its Form 990 financial filing for the year beginning September 1, 2006 and ending August 31, 2007, NYU earned over $31 million in dividends and interest from the over $998 million in stocks and bonds which NYU then owned. And the “non-profit” NYU board of trustees paid NYU’s current president—a former Federal Reserve Bank of New York board member named John Sexton--an annual salary of $1,291,525 in 2007. In addition, NYU’s board of trustees apparently also paid former NYU President L. Jay Oliva an annual salary of $375,000 and former NYU President John Brademas an annual salary of $250,000 in 2007.

In 2007, “non-profit” NYU also paid its then-Chair for Academic Priorities, Richard Foley, an annual salary of $553,587. In addition, NYU paid then-NYU Executive Vice-President Michael Alfano, then- NYU Provost David McLaughlin and then-NYU Senior Vice-President for Health Robert Berne each annual salaries of $499,550.

NYU’s then-Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Cheryl Mills, was also paid an annual salary of $478,866 by NYU in 2007, while NYU’s then-Senior Vice-President for Development, Debra Lamorte, was paid an annual salary of $450,000. In addition, NYU paid then-NYU Senior Vice-President for University International Strategies Jeanne Marie Smith an annual salary of $408,084 and then-NYU Senior Vice-President for Finance & Budget Martin Dorph an annual salary of $342,935 in 2007. And then-NYU Senior Vice-President for University Relations Lynne Brown was paid an annual salary of $316,975 in that same year by ‘non-profit’ NYU.

At least five NYU professors also apparently were paid annual salaries that exceeded $1.4 million in 2007 by the tax-exempt, “non-profit” university. NYU Professor James Grifo was paid an annual salary of $2,362,270, while NYU Professor Stephen Colvin was paid an annual salary of $2,200,090 in 2007. That same year, NYU Professor Alan Berkeley was paid an annual salary of $1,599,507, while NYU Professor Joseph Zuckerman was paid an annual salary of $1,528,477. And NYU Associate Professor Nichole Noye was also paid an annual salary of $1,448,515 by NYU in 2007.

Although tax-exempt NYU claims to be a “non-profit” institution, between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2007 NYU’s annual revenues of $2,912,112,322 exceeded NYU’s annual expenses of $2,693,188,158 by over $218 million.

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 3

(See parts 1-2 below)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home. Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

When it was formed in Iraq in 1952, the Iraqi branch of the pan-Arab nationalist Ba'th Party was, at first, linked to Syria’s Ba’th Party branch and, initially, apparently only had 50 members in Iraq. And in 1955, the Ba'th Party in Iraq still only had 289 members, although Syria's Ba'th Party branch had been able to gain control of the Syrian government by 1954. The Iraqi head of state prior to the 2003 U.S. military occupation of Iraq who was captured by U.S. troops on December 13, 2003 and later executed on December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein, apparently began his connection to Iraq's anti-communist Ba'th Party in 1955, when he was 18 years-old.

Yet a year after Saddam Hussein joined the Ba’th Party, it was the Iraq Communist Party--not the Ba’th Party--which led the mass street protests in Iraq between November 1 and November 24, 1956 that protested the involvement of the monarchist Iraqi regime's Baghdad Pact ally, the UK government, in the 1956 military attack on Egypt by the UK, French and Israeli governments. Although the regime's police were able to suppress these November 1956 street protests, opposition to the monarchy within Iraqi military's officer corps increased following these Iraqi communist activist-led anti-imperialist demonstrations..

Inspired by the way Egyptian nationalist military officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, had overthrown Egypt's King Farouk in 1952, an Iraqi military officer named Rif'af al-Han Sirri had organized a cell of a Free Officers group within the Iraqi military in 1952. And by the end of 1956, there were 4 cells of Free Officers within the Iraqi military.

By the end of 1957, there were 172 members of the Free Officers in Iraq; and on the eve of the July 1958 overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy, 200 Iraqi military officers were part of the group. Less than 5% of the entire memberships of the Iraqi military’s officer corps, however, were members of the Free Officers on the eve of the 1958 Iraqi military coup that finally overthrew the UK imperialism’s puppet monarchical regime in Iraq.

But in September of 1956, Iraqi communist activists had established contact with one of the dissident Iraqi military officers, Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qasim. In 1957 the Free Officers' leaders who composed the Supreme National Committee also selected Qasim as their leader. Another member of the Supreme National Committee of Iraqi military officers, Kamal Umar Nashma, was also a member of the Iraq Communist Party. And after 80 junior officers of the Iraqi military joined the Free Officers in November 1957, Qasim met directly with Kamal Umar Nashma in early 1958.

Later in 1958, without the knowledge of other members of the Free Officer' Supreme National Committee, Qasim then decided to unilaterally act to overthrow the royalist regime.

So in the late evening of July 13, 1958, 3,000 Iraqi soldiers of the 20th Infantry Brigade were ordered by Qasim to move towards Baghdad. At 4:30 a.m. on July 14, 1958, Qasim's troops then entered Baghdad and seized the monarchical regime's radio station, Ministry of Defense and royal palace, as well as the house of Nuri as-Said, the regime's prime minister. At 8 a.m., Iraq's Hashemite king and his family were then killed; and when the fleeing Nuri as-Said--disguised in a women's dress--was recognized the following day on the street by a crowd of anti-imperialist Iraqis, the angry crowd killed him also.

On July 14, 1958, Iraqi communist activists also then helped mobilize 100,000 Iraqis to protest on the streets of Baghdad in support of Qasim's anti-royalist military coup; and the property of the Hashemite royal family in Iraq was declared confiscated on July 19, 1958. A provisional Iraqi constitution, giving a Council of Ministers legislative and executive power, was then enacted on July 27, 1958. (end of part 3)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 2

(See below for part 1)

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home. Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

In June of 1953 there were still 164 Iraq Communist Party members imprisoned in Baghdad's Central Jail and 123 party members locked up in the Kut Prison. So on June 18, 1953, in the Baghdad Central Jail, the Iraqi communist prisoners staged a protest. In response, the Baghdad Central Jail guards killed 7 and wounded 81 of the protesting prisoners.

A few months later, on September 2, 1953, the Iraqi communist prisoners at Kut Prison also staged a protest. In response, the regime's troops used machine guns against them, killing 8 and wounding 94 of the protesting prisoners.

Following this 1953 intensification of political repression by the regime, the size of the Iraq Communist Party’s membership in early 1954 was only about 1/8 the size of its membership in 1948. But after an April 21, 1954 Military Assistance Understanding agreement between the Republican Eisenhower Administration and the Iraqi monarchical regime was signed on April 21, 1954, elections were held on June 9, 1954 in which the Iraqi communist-backed National Front won 4 of 10 constituencies in Baghdad.

In response, yet another pro-imperialist Iraqi politician, Nuri as-Said, was chosen to head the Iraqi royalist regime's government on August 2, 1954. And on August 3, 1954 the Iraqi parliament that was elected on June 9, 1954 was dissolved.

On April 4, 1955, the UK government then pressured its puppet regime to sign a special agreement with Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and the UK--the Baghdad Pact-- that more formally aligned the undemocratic Iraqi government militarily with the UK and United States governments. An Iraqi poet named Husain ar-Radi (a/k/a Salam ‘Adil) also became the new leader of the Iraq Communist Party in 1955--after he agreed to be the Secretary General of the Iraq Communist Party.

To counter the continued political influence of the Iraq Communist Party in Iraqi society during the 1950s and early 1960s, the U.S. government apparently then began to encourage the growth of an anti-imperialist, pan-Arab nationalist, but anti-communist, Ba'th Party in Iraq during the Cold War Era. As Rashid Khalidi recalled in his book Resurrecting Empire book: "Starting in the late 1950s, this policy ranged from covert sympathy for the Iraqi Ba'th Party to wholehearted backing for dictatorial Ba'thist regimes at various times from the 1960s through 1990." (end of part 2)

Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 1

Most people in the United States would like to see the nearly 150,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009. But the Democratic Obama regime is still not willing to immediately bring U.S. troops and private contractors in Iraq back home. Yet if the Obama Administration officials responsible for authorizing the use of U.S. armed forces in Iraq--like U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--had known more about Iraq's post-1950 history, perhaps U.S. troops and private contractors would not still be spending another Easter in Iraq in 2009?

By 1952, only 6,000 people of Jewish religious background still lived in Iraq; and these remaining Iraqis of Jewish background mostly earned their living under the monarchical regime as either merchants or professionals. But left-wing activist-led resistance to the royalist regime in Iraq still continued during the 1950s.

After Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd's execution in 1949, a 22-year-old Iraqi of Kurdish background, Baha u-d-Din-Nuri, became the leader of the Iraq Communist Party in 1950.; and on August 23, 1952, Iraqi workers went on strike in Basra for four days. In addition, Iraqi peasant revolts began in the rest of the country in 1952 and 1953.

In response, the Iraqi monarchical regime’s police then killed three workers in Basra. But in November 1952, anti-regime street demonstrations, similar to the suppressed January 1948 "Wathbah" protests of Iraqi students and workers, again broke out on the streets of Baghdad. Organized by the Iraqi communist-supported Partisans of Peace anti-imperialist group, this Iraqi "Intifada" demanded that civil liberties be guaranteed in Iraq, that a political system of free, direct elections be established and that the regime's treaty with the UK government be abolished. And on November 22, 1952 a mass demonstration in Baghdad demanded: "Anglo-American Imperialists, Leave Our Country!"

The following day, Iraqi communist leaders led more anti-imperialist street protests in Baghdad. Iraq Communist Party leader Baha u-d-Din-Nuri, for example, was on the streets of Baghdad on November 23, 1952, "when at about one o'clock in the afternoon the United States Information Service library was burned" by protesters, according to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq by Hanna Batatu.

The Iraqi monarchy's police then killed twelve of the protesters. In response, the anti-imperialist Iraqi demonstrators burned down the local police station. The Iraqi Army was then called into Baghdad to suppress the protests, martial law was declared and all dissident Iraqi political leaders were locked up.

Despite the arrest of its leaders on November 23, 1952, Iraqi communist activists were still able to organize another mass protest on November 24, 1952 condemning the "dictatorship". But the regime's Iraqi soldiers, like the Iraqi police on the previous day, also opened fire on the demonstrators--killing 18 protesters and wounding 84 protesters.

Another new wave of political repression then began in Iraq. So by the end of November 1952, 958 Iraqis were now jailed as political prisoners and 2,041 other Iraqis were now temporarily detained. In addition, another two Iraqi political activists were now sentenced to death. Then on April 13, 1953, the regime's police arrested the Iraq Communist Party leader at that time--Baha-u-d-Din-Nuri. (end of part 1)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Conclusion

(See below for parts 1- 9)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

Despite the political repression and martial law in 1940s Iraq, as late as May 1950 less than 14,000 of Iraq’s 130,000 to 150,000 people of Jewish background had left Iraq to live within the Zionist movement’s undemocratic new state in Palestine. So, to “encourage immigration,” the Israeli government apparently then arranged for anti-Semitic attacks to take place in Baghdad. According to the Palestinian Book Project’s 1977 book, Our Roots Are Still Alive:

“A series of bombings aimed at Jewish stores, synagogues and cafes stampeded a hundred thousand Iraqi Jews in a panicked flight to Israel. Many years later, an Israeli magazine, Ha’olam Hazeh (5/29/66) published the confession of an Israeli agent, Yehuda Tager. Israelis had been responsible for the bombings in Baghdad to `encourage immigration.’”

The “encouraged” legal immigration of Iraqis of Jewish religious background from Iraq to Israel/Palestine began in May 1950; and when it ended in August 1951, the number of Iraqis of Jewish background had decreased by an additional 110,000. As a result, according to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq by Hanna Batatu, “the Shiite merchants succeeded to first place in the trade of Baghdad after the exodus of the Jews…” At the same time, the U.S. government, after 1950, began to replace the UK government as the major foreign government that undemocratically attempted to exercise a special influence on the internal political affairs of Iraq, in violation of international law and the United Nations Charter.

As this revisiting of Iraq’s pre-1950 history reveals, people in Iraq have been consistently demanding an end to the colonization of their country since the end of World War I. So as the current U.S.-led military occupation of Iraq continues under the Democratic Obama regime, U.S. anti-war activists still have an internationalist obligation to work for an immediate end to the morally bankrupt attempt to re-colonize Iraq in the 21st-century on behalf of U.S. corporate interests.

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 9

(See below for parts 1- 8)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

With the help of an ex-candidate member of the Iraq Communist Party’s Central Committee—who turned informer on October 9, 1948—UK imperialism’s puppet Iraqi monarchy’s security services were able to initiate yet another wave of arrests of Iraq Communist Party activists on November 11, 1948. The new wave of arrests set the stage for the final elimination in 1949 of the jailed Iraq Communist Party leader and organizer Fahd from Iraqi political life, along with the elimination of two other imprisoned members of the Iraq Communist Party’s Politburo, Zaki Basim and Muhammad Hussain Ash-Shabibi.

On February 10, 1949, Fahd, Zaki Basim and Muhammad Hussain Ash-Shabibi were now convicted by the UK’s puppet monarchical regime of having “led” the Iraq Communist Party from their prison cells; and the three dissident Iraqi anti-imperialist leftists were given death sentences. The 1978 book The Old Classes and the Revolutionary Movements In Iraq by Hanna Batatu described the final moments of the three executed Iraq Communist Party leaders:

“The sentences were carried out at daybreak on 14 and 15 February [1949]. The three leaders were strung up in different squares of Baghdad city, Ash-Shababi at the gate of al-Mu-adhdham, Basim at the east gate, and Fahd in al-Karich in the open space that is now called the Square of the New Museum. Their bodies were left hanging for several hours so that the common people going to their work would receive the warning…

“Moments before the close of his life, as he was being led up to the gallows, Fahd is said to have exclaimed in a defiant tone: `A people that offers sacrifices will not die!’…” (end of part 9).

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 8

(See below for parts 1- 7)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

Following the use of machine guns by Iraqi police to kill or wound between 300 and 400 anti-imperialist Iraqi civilian demonstrators on January 27, 1948, the Iraqi monarchy’s premier, Salih Jabr, fled to England during the night and a new government was formed for the puppet monarchy by Muhammad as-Sadr. During as-Sadr’s term as premier, protests against the Iraqi puppet government continued. Iraqi railway workers, for example, staged strikes on March 18, 1948, on April 14, 1948 and on May 12, 1948. In addition, on April 4, 1948, on April 6, 1948, on May 2, 1948 and on May 8, 1948, Iraqi port workers staged strikes. And from April 23, 1948 to May 15, 1948, Iraqi oil workers also went out on strike.

But following the May 15, 1948 establishment of the undemocratic state of Israel by the Zionist movement, the puppet Iraqi government declared martial law and set up military courts for Iraqi civilian dissidents; while non-communist Iraqi nationalists withdrew their support for the Iraq Communist Party activist-led insurgency in Iraq.

Prior to May 15, 1948, Iraq Communist Party student activists were so popular on campus that they were actually democratically controlling and democratically running some Iraqi colleges. But after the Iraq Communist Party’s leadership—following the example of the Soviet Union’s government—announced on July 6, 1948 that it was backing the UN’s partition of Palestine plan, popular support for Iraq Communist Party activists by the anti-Zionist Arab masses in Iraq decreased. (end of part 8)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 7

(See below for parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd’s life imprisonment sentence in July of 1947 did not stop the anti-imperialist protests in Iraq from continuing. Under the feudal monarchy’s 1930 treaty with the UK government, the British imperialists were allowed to occupy two air bases on Iraqi soil. After the Iraq Communist Party’s newspaper called for the overthrow of the monarchy’s latest regime, the Salih Jabr regime, anti-imperialist Iraqi students demonstrated on January 4, 1948 to demand that no re-negotiated agreement to allow the UK government to retain its bases in Iraq be signed by the Iraqi monarchy’s government. But on January 16, 1948, the terms of the Iraqi puppet government’s new Portsmouth treaty with UK imperialism were announced: the British military was going to still be allowed to occupy two air bases in Iraq and only minor changes in the 1930 treaty were going to be made.

To protest against this Portsmouth Agreement, the Iraqi university students immediately began a 3-day strike on January 16, 1948; and the Iraq Communist Party activists who led the Student Cooperation Committee organized a mass protest march in Baghdad, which included Iraqi workers, on January 20, 1948. In response, the Iraqi puppet government’s police first beat protesters and then shot at the protest march--killing two Iraqi demonstrators and wounding seventeen demonstrators after the Iraqi protesters began to fight back.

The following day, on January 21, 1948, the Iraqi puppet government cancelled its Portsmouth Agreement with the British government. But Iraq Communist Party activists kept the demonstrations going; and enormous crowds were mobilized to pack the streets on January 23, 1948 and during the next few days.

Near the Royal Hospital in Baghdad on January 27, 1948, however, Iraqi police again fired on a crowd of protesters and killed four more anti-imperialist Iraqi demonstrators. The Iraqi monarchy’s police then brought armored cars and machine guns to the scene and, when the protesting crowds began to regroup, the Iraqi police began to fire their machine guns at the unarmed people. According to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, “the total figure for dead and injured” on January 27, 1948, “is commonly set at between 300 and 400.” (end of part 7)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 6

(See below for parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

To again prop up its puppet regime in Iraq by means of another “surge”, the UK imperialist government again sent more British troops into Iraq in August 1946. But the surge of increased UK troops in Iraq in August 1946 provoked more street protests that eventually led to the resignation of the monarchical puppet regime’s premier, Al-Umari, on November 16, 1946.

The puppet royal government’s new premier, Nuri as-Said, then promised free elections for the people of Iraq. But on November 26, 1946 the Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd called for the overthrow of the puppet monarchy’s government and an end, finally, to British imperialist control of Iraq.

On January 18, 1947, however, the Iraqi monarchy’s Nuri as-Said government arrested Iraq Communist Party leader Fahd and another party leader, Zaki Basim, in the house of a Baghdad pharmacist. Fahd and Zaki Basim were then taken to the Iraqi police investigation department in Central Baghdad, flung into latrines and beaten with canes. According to the 1978 book The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq by Hanna Batatu, “the police preferred to cane first and interrogate after.”

When the Iraqi police beatings failed to break the rebel spirit of Fahd and Zaki Basim, they were both transferred to cells in the Abu Ghraib military prison. The cells were “narrow, damp, and without air, and so dark that they soon lost the sense of day and night,” according to The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. They were allowed to exercise only half an hour each day; and a petition to transfer Fahd and Basim to healthier cells was ignored by the Iraqi puppet monarchy’s regime.

Yet in April 1947, there were still 3,000 to 4,000 members of the repressed Iraq Communist Party in Iraq. Fahd and other imprisoned leaders of the Iraq Communist Party then declared a hunger strike on June 13, 1947. In response, Fahd and some other party leaders were brought to trial before the Iraqi High Criminal Court on the 8th day of their hunger strike and charged with “incitement to armed insurrection” and “propagating communism among members of the Iraqi armed forces.”

On June 23, 1947, Fahd, Zaki Basim and the Iraqi pharmacist at whose home they had been arrested, Ibrahim Naji Shmayyel, were next found “guilty” and were sentenced to death. Thirteen other Iraq Communist Party activists were sentenced to hard labor. The severity of the death sentences for Fahd, Basim and Shmayyel provoked world-wide protest. So in response to this protest, Shmayyel and Basim’s death sentences were reduced on July 13, 1947 to less than 15 years imprisonment; and Fahd’s death sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. And on August 14, 1947, Fahd and Basim were then transferred to Kut prison in Iraq. (end of part 6)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 5

(See below for parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime’s war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

After martial law was lifted by the Iraq’s monarchical regime on March 2, 1946, press censorship was ended, Iraq’s detention camp was closed and five Iraqi political parties were finally allowed to engage in above-ground legal political activity. On May 23, 1946, however, the government of Arshad al-Umari reversed the monarchical regime’s liberalization policy.

But then a new wave of anti-imperialist Iraqi popular revolt soon began to sweep the country again after June 1946. Organized by a coalition of the Iraq Communist Party-led League Against Zionism and the illegal non-communist National Liberation Party of Iraq, 3,000 Iraqi students and workers in Baghdad marched on the British Embassy on June 28, 1946 to demand both the expulsion of the UK imperialists from Iraq and justice for the Palestinian people.

The police of the puppet Iraqi monarchy first clubbed the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist Iraqi protesters; and then they started shooting at them. One demonstrator, an Iraq Communist Party member named Shaul Tuwayyeq, was killed and four other protesters were wounded.

The June 28, 1946 Iraqi police shooting of Iraqi demonstrators marked the first time that the Iraqi monarchy’s police had ever shot at peaceful Iraqi protesters since the British government had set up its puppet regime in 1921. A few days later, on July 3, 1946, 5,000 workers at the Iraq Petroleum Company facility in Kirkuk, under the leadership of Iraq Communist Party activists, then went out on strike for higher wages; and in the Iraqi town of Gawurpaghi, the striking workers began holding mass meetings.

On July 12, 1946, however, the police of Iraq’s puppet monarchy tried to break up a meeting of the striking workers in Gawurpaghi by shooting at the Iraqi oil workers. Ten Iraqi oil workers were killed and 27 oil workers were wounded in what is known in Iraqi history as the “Massacre of Gawurpaghi.” (end of part 5)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 4

(See below for parts 1, 2 and 3.)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Democratic Obama Regime's war in Iraq, during the next 16 months.

In April and May 1941, an attempt was made by some nationalist Iraqi military officers to finally eliminate British special influence in Iraqi politics. Four nationalist Iraqi colonels marched their troops into Baghdad and installed Rashid Ali-al-Gailani as Iraq’s new premier on April 1, 1941. Besides being supported by anti-fascist, left-wing Iraqi nationalists, Rashid Ali’s anti-British regime was apparently also supported by pro-fascist, right-wing Iraqi nationalists. So some of the mass anti-imperialist street support for the new Rashid Ali regime in April and May 1941 apparently was manipulated and expressed in anti-Semitic attacks on Iraqis of Jewish religious background.

Despite the Rashid Ali government being recognized in a few days by the Soviet Union, this Iraqi regime prohibited Iraqi political parties and Iraqi trade unions; and it was apparently unable to stop the anti-Semitic attacks by its nationalist supporters in the streets on Iraqis of Jewish religious background. So after more British troops were sent, in a "surge", to re-occupy Iraq on June 1, 1941 and the right-wing nationalist Rashid Ali regime collapsed, several hundred Iraqis of Jewish religious background were killed by the disappointed nationalist Iraqi street demonstrators on June 1 and June 2, 1941. In a June 1943 self-criticism of its role in Iraq between April and June 1941, Iraq Communist Party leaders later concluded that their support of the Rashid Ali regime and movement had been a political mistake, because the pro-Rashid Ali right-wing nationalist movement was too pro-fascist in its political orientation.

Following the collapse of Rashid Ali’s regime and the imposition of martial law in Iraq by UK imperialism's puppet government between June 3, 1941 and March 2, 1946, the most influential Iraqi left-wing anti-imperialist political leader during the 1940s was Yusuf Salman Yusuf—who was more popularly known in Iraqi left circles as “Fahd.” Under Fahd’s leadership between 1941 and 1947, the underground Iraq Communist Party attracted a mass base of Iraqi support and became more politically influential in Iraqi society.

Between February 1942 and April 1945, when the imperialist UK government was a World War II ally of the Soviet Union, the Iraq Communist Party did not work for the overthrow of UK imperialism’s puppet feudal monarchy in Iraq. But in April 1945 the Railway Workers Union, whose leaders were members of the Iraq Communist Party, held a 15-day strike in Iraq. As a result of their strike, the Iraqi railway workers were granted wage increases. But, following the strike, Iraqi government authorities also then declared the Railway Workers Union to be an “illegal organization.” (end of part 4)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 3

(See below for parts 1 and 2.)

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and U.S. supporters of the Obama Regime's war in Iraq during the next 16 months.

By May 1935, unsuccessful rural tribal uprisings had also broken out in the mid-Euphrates area of Iraq. An underground political group, the Central Committee of the Iraq Communist Party, then began publishing an illegal Iraqi newspaper in July 1935, Kifah-ish-Sha’b (“The Struggle of the People”), in the cellar of a Baghdad hospital.

In its August 1935 issue, the Iraq Communist Party’s illegal newspaper indicated that the underground party’s immediate political goals in Iraq during the 1930s Great Depression were the following:

“Expulsion of imperialists; independence to Kurds; cultural rights to all Iraqi minorities; distribution of land to Iraqi peasantry; abolition of all debts and land-mortgages; seizure of all properties belonging to the imperialists—including the banks, the oil fields, and the railroads—and the expropriation of the vast agricultural estates of Iraq’s feudal landlord rulers; concentration of power in the hands of Iraqi workers and peasants; and launching social revolution without delay in all areas of Iraqi life.”

After this newspaper developed a circulation of 500, however, police agents of the British imperialist-backed monarchy began to arrest members of the underground political group; and, after December 1935, further publication of the newspaper was prevented.

The unpopularity of the puppet regime enabled an Iraqi general named Bakr Sidqi to overthrow the Iraqi government in an October 1936 coup and members of the Iraq Communist Party organized popular support for the coup in Baghdad’s working-class neighborhoods. Mass demonstrations in support of the new coup regime were then held in Iraqi towns on November 2 and November 3 of 1936.

On March 17, 1937, however, General Bakr Sidqi began threatening to crush the Iraq Communist Party. Twenty thousand Iraqi workers who had been influenced by the underground Iraqi communist group, including Iraq Petroleum Company workers, then went out on strike on April 5, 1937. But following the assassination of General Bakr Sidqi on August 10, 1937, the coup regime’s police began to suppress Iraq Communist Party agitators. By the end of 1937, Iraq Communist Party leaders were either exiled or in jail; and four pro-fascist Iraqi Army colonels, who were also loyal to British imperialism and the Hashemite monarchy, now controlled the coup regime until 1941.

But in December 1940 the underground Iraq Communist Party launched a new party newspaper, Ash-Shararah (‘The Spark”), which was secretly produced until 1942 by using government stenciling machines belonging to the Land Registry’s Typewriter Division. And by 1942, this newspaper had a readership of 2,000. (end of part 3)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 2

(See below for part 1.)
Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq during the Obama Era.

By 1924, students at Baghdad's School of Law had formed a study circle, led by the first Iraqi Marxist, Husain ar-Rahhal, which published a journal on December 28, 1924 that called for both the liberation of Iraqi women and the overthrow of Iraq's traditional feudal landlord leadership. As late as 1958, 55% of all privately-owned land in Iraq was still owned by 1% of all Iraqi landholders and mullahs; and 17% of all privately-owned Iraqi land was held by only 49 Iraqi landlord families. So it was not surprising that Baghdad students in the 1920s saw that the democratization of a predominantly agrarian Iraqi society required the redistribution of land ownership in a more equitable way and the disempowerment of Iraq's feudal landlords, as well as the ouster of foreign imperialists like the British. Predictably, British colonial authorities in Iraq undemocratically shut down Husain ar-Rahhal's newspaper in the 1920s before it could make an impact on Iraqi public opinion.

UK imperialism's support for the Zionist movement's settler-colonization activity in Palestine during the 1920s also created fear among Iraqi students that their British rulers were planning to support the creation of another Zionist colony in Iraq. When Sir Alfred Mond visited Baghdad on February 8, 1928, students demonstrated against his visit and his support for Zionism and 20,000 protesters marched to Baghdad's railway station.

Despite the desire of people in Iraq to be free of foreign imperialist domination, the British imperialist government had, in 1921, set up a puppet Hashemite feudal monarchy in Iraq during the pre-1932 British Mandate period. The British imperialists next created the Iraq Petroleum Company, which was jointly owned by British, Dutch, French and U.S. oil companies. The Iraq Petroleum Company was then granted a lucrative 75-year concession of Iraq's oil resources by the UK imperialists' puppet monarchy.

The foreign oil company profits from Iraq's oil resources, however, were not used to minimize the effects of the Great Depression on Iraqis after 1929. By 1930, the decline in the value of Iraq's date and grain exports had dropped by 40% and Iraq puppet government revenues began to decline. Over the next few years, salaried employees were dismissed, salaries were reduced and the wage rates for unskilled workers in Basra's railways and oil fields were decreased. By March 8, 1935 an Association Against Imperialism had been founded in Baghdad which, in its March 11, 1935 manifesto, summarized the economic situation of Iraq at this time:

"Today, the English and the ruling class are partners in a compact that aims at perpetuating the oppression and exploitation from which we suffer…The oil and other raw materials of the country have become a preserve for the English and Iraq has been turned into an outlet for their goods and surplus capital and into a war base…The ruling class, for its part, plunders the proceeds of taxes, misappropriates lands, and builds palaces on the shores of the Tigris and Euphrates. The millions of peasants and workers, in the meantime, continue to starve, and bleed, and writhe in anguish."

The Association Against Imperialism's March 1935 manifesto ended by listing as its immediate goals the following demands:

"the cancellation of all debts owed by the peasants; their deliverance from all onerous taxes; the distribution to the poor of state lands; and the granting to them of the necessary credits;

"the guaranteeing to the workers of freedom of assembly and of speech; the reopening of their clubs and trade unions; the enactment of a law protecting the workers…against arbitrary dismissals and ensuring them against starvation in their old-age; and the realization of the eight-hour day in all Iraqi and foreign-owned places of work…

"Down with English imperialism!
"Down with all enslaving treaties!" (end of part 2)

Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 1

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq during the Obama Era.

Prior to the Zionist movement's 1947-49 expulsion of Palestinian Arabs and establishment of an undemocratic state of Israel, between 130,000 and 150,000 people of Jewish background lived in Iraq, including 30,000 Kurds of Jewish background. About 109,000 Iraqis of Jewish background, for example, lived in Baghdad in 1948. Prior to 1948, people of Jewish background had been living in Baghdad for over 2,500 years, many in a relatively prosperous way.

When Iraq was under Turkish rule in the 19th century as part of the Ottoman Empire, people of Jewish background in Iraq (unlike people of Jewish background in Russia in the 19th-century) apparently did not experience any special economic oppression. As the 1971 Encyclopedia Judaica recalled:

"The economic situation of the Jews during the 19th century was good. They controlled the country's commerce and exerted considerable influence in government circles. Some of them were appointed as high-ranking officials in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul…

"The Jewish merchants traded with Syria, India, Singapore, Persia, London, Vienna, and other commercial centers. They engaged in all branches of trade, especially in those of textiles, silk, indigo, precious stones and pearls, ironware, glassware and porcelain, gallnuts, foodstuffs and liquor,…and medicine."

In the early 20th century, several Iraqis of Jewish background were elected to the Turkish parliament as delegates of Iraq after the new Young Turk rulers of Turkey established equal legal rights and freedom of religion for non-Muslims within the Ottoman Empire. The economic situation of Iraqis of Jewish background also "improved greatly" between 1917 and 1932, after the UK imperialist government took control away from the Turkish government in 1917 and established a "British Mandate" in Iraq in 1921, according to the Encyclopedia Judaica.

Following the UK imperialist government's granting of formal independence to a puppet Hashemite monarchical government in Iraq in 1932, the economic situation of people of Jewish background in Iraq did not noticeably deteriorate prior to the Zionist movement's establishment of the undemocratic state of Israel. In 1947, for instance, Iraqis of Jewish background held top posts in Iraqi banking and commerce; and they handled 70% of Iraqi imports and 40% of Iraqi exports. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, immediately prior to the 1947-49 expulsion of Palestinian Arabs, "30% of Iraqi Jews were engaged in trade, 25% were official or professional men, 3% were farmers (almost all of them in Kurdistan), and the rest artisans, building workers and workers in services." Many Iraqi bank clerks, railway officials and postal officials were also of Jewish background in 1947.

Despite the relative affluence of about 55% of the Iraqis of Jewish background within pre-1948 Iraqi society, most people in Iraq did not prosper between the arrival of British imperialist troops in Baghdad on March 11, 1917 and the establishment of the undemocratic state of Israel in 1948. So, predictably, resistance to both UK imperialism and the domination of Iraqi society by the traditional Iraqi feudal landlords began as early as July 1920 with a failed Iraqi uprising against British imperialism. About 10,000 Iraqis, mostly rural tribesmen, were killed by the UK's occupation army of 101,000 troops (many of whom were colonized Indian soldiers from Britain's India colony) before the rebellion was finally suppressed in October 1920. Over 450 British soldiers were also killed while putting down the Iraqi insurgency of 1920. (end of part 1)

African-American Male Worker Jobless Rate Under Dem Obama Regime: 15.8 Percent In January

The official “not-seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for African-American male workers in the United States under the Democratic Party's Obama Regime jumped from 13.8 percent to 15.8 percent between December 2008 and January 2009, while the “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for African-American male workers increased to 14.1 percent, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The “not-seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all African-American workers increased from 11.7 percent to 13.4 percent during this same period, while the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all African-American workers increased to 12.6 percent.

For all U.S. workers, the “not-seasonally adjusted” jobless rate jumped from 7.1 percent to 8.5 percent between December 2008 and January 2009, while the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all U.S. workers increased to 7.6 percent. The “not-seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers also increased from 6.8 percent to 8.3 percent between December 2008 and January 2009.

Between December 2008 and January 2009, the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for African-American youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 33.7 percent to 36.5 percent, while the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age was 18.4 percent.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ February 6, 2009 press release:

“In January, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.

“Both the number of unemployed persons (11.6 million) and the unemployment rate (7.6 percent) rose in January….

“The civilian labor force participation rate, at 65.5 percent in January, has edged down in recent months. …

“Total nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply (-598,000) in January…
In January, employment declined in nearly all major industries…

“Manufacturing employment fell by 207,000 in January, the largest 1-month
decline since October 1982. In January, durable goods manufacturing lost
157,000 jobs, with notable decreases in fabricated metal products (-37,000),
motor vehicles and parts (-31,000), and machinery (-22,000). Employment in nondurable goods manufacturing declined by 50,000 over the month.

“Construction lost 111,000 jobs in January….Employment fell across most component industries over the month.

"The temporary help industry lost 76,000 jobs in January…Professional and technical services lost 29,000 jobs in January.

"Retail trade employment fell by 45,000 in January…In January, employment declined in automobile dealerships (-14,000), building material and garden supply stores (-10,000), department stores (-9,000), and furniture and home furnishing stores (-7,000). Over the month, wholesale trade employment fell by 31,000.

"Transportation and warehousing lost 44,000 jobs in January…In January, employment fell in truck transportation (-25,000), support activities for transportation (-9,000), and couriers and messengers (-4,000).

"Employment in financial activities declined by 42,000 over the month…In January, job losses occurred in securities, commodity contracts, and investments (-15,000) and in credit intermediation (-10,000)…”

Massachusetts Jobless Rate Under Dem Patrick Administration: 6.9 Percent

When Deval Patrick was campaigning for Governor of Massachusetts in 2006, some local DSA members were skeptical that a former top corporation executive at the labor movement-boycotted Coca-Cola Company would be likely to restore economic prosperity to Massachusetts—even though Patrick was then being skillfully marketed as an “agent of change” by a Chicago-based campaign media consultant named David Axelrod. Well, today, it looks like these dissident DSA folks were accurate when they predicted that just electing Deval Patrick as Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 would not magically bring economic prosperity back to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—even though the Democratic Party has controlled the U.S. Congress since 2007.

Between November 2008 and December 2008, for example, the official Massachusetts jobless rate jumped from 5.9 percent to 6.9 percent and 16,000 more jobs in Massachusetts vanished, according to a January 22, 2009 press release of Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

The same press release also noted:

“Education and Health Services, Massachusetts' largest sector, lost 700 jobs in December...

“Jobs in the Professional, Scientific and Business Services declined by 7,500 in December. Over half of the monthly job loss was recorded in the Administrative and Support Services component, which includes Temporary Help. At 478,000, employment is down 6,200 from one year ago…

“Financial Activities employment was off 900 over the month, with losses in Finance and Insurance and Real Estate, Rental and Leasing. At 217,500, Financial Activities jobs are down 7,000 or 3.1 percent from one year ago…

“Trade, Transportation and Utilities jobs shed 3,400 jobs in December, with Retail Trade again accounting for most of the losses…At 557,300, employment is down 14,100 from one year ago…

“Leisure and Hospitality jobs were down 900 in December with losses divided between Arts, Entertainment and Recreation and Accommodation and Food Services. At 296,900, jobs are off 6,100 over the year…

“Manufacturing jobs declined by 1,000 in December after losing 3,300 the previous month. Most of the losses over the last two months have been in durable goods. At 285,000, Manufacturing employment is down 8,600 or 2.9 percent from one year ago with the largest losses in Computer and Electronic Products, Fabricated Metals, and Machinery.

“Construction jobs which were down 2,500 in December have declined by 9,400 over the last four months. At 125,400, jobs are down 11,700 or 8.5 percent from one year ago, the largest percentage decline of any sector…

“The Bay State's labor force was down 3,100 over the month with 35,700 fewer Massachusetts residents employed and 32,600 more unemployed. At 3,418,100, the labor force is up 15,300 from this time last year as 74,000 fewer residents were employed and 89,300 more were unemployed.”

Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'-`NY Daily News' Media Power Historically

Under U.S. anti-trust law, it may not have been really legally proper in the 1990s for just one multi-millionaire to monopolize ownership of both a two-million-plus circulation newsweekly magazine and a supposedly competing major New York City metropolitan daily newspaper—with the same corporate executives running both mass media properties. Yet Mort Zuckerman was allowed to use about $36.5 million of his surplus wealth to take over the New York Daily News in the early 1990s. So you aren’t likely to read many satirical expose’s of U.S. News & World Report in the Daily News.

After moving into his New York Daily News office in January 1993, Zukerman then immediately “fired 180 out of 540 members of the Newspaper Guild,” “axed two-thirds of the African-American reporters, including all black males” and “dismissed veteran reporter Dave Hardy, who was one of the black journalists who won a racial discrimination suit against the newspaper in 1987,” according to the Daily News Workers Campaign for Justice, which was urging people in New York City to boycott Zuckerman’s Daily News in 1993.

One reason why NBC News may not have been too interested in talking too much in the early 1990s about either how Zuckerman acquired his $265 million or about U.S. News & World Report’s historic FBI connection was perhaps because U.S. News & World Report also had a business relationship with the supposedly competing NBC in the late 1980s. In its Oct. 18. 1989 issue, the Wall Street Journal noted that “The Consumer News and Business Channel cable network and U.S. News & World Report have formed a joint venture to produce cable program versions of special issues of the magazine” and “CNBC is a joint venture of the National Broadcasting Co. and Cablevision Systems corp.” The Wall Street Journal also reported that “the program will be written and produced by CNBC, with background and research provided by staff for U.S. News & World Report.”

(Downtown 4/14/93)

Hidden History of Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'--Part 4

(The following article first appeared in the April 14, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. See Parts 1,2 and 3 of article below.)

Mort Zuckerman’s U.S. News & World Report has never been particularly noted for the way it fights to end institutional sexism in the United States. Yet the multi-millionaire member of the White Corporate Male Power Structure who was the boyfriend of Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem during much of the 1980s was apparently U.S. News & World Report Owner Mort Zuckerman. In a 1985 article on Zuckerman, Fortune magazine noted that Zuckerman “currently spends a lot of time with Gloria Steinem, one of the founders of Ms. magazine.” And in its 1992 article on Zuckerman, New York magazine revealed that Zuckerman’s “most famous love affair was with Gloria Steinem” and quoted Jeffrey Steingarten as recalling that Steinem and Zuckerman “were very much in love for a long time.” One Newsday gossip columnist in 1992 also reported that U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman has apparently indicated that he lent money to Steinem’s Ms. magazine during the 1980s, when Ms. magazine was experiencing financial difficulties.

Downtown telephoned Ms. magazine in early 1993 four times, requesting an official response to the question of whether there has ever been any connection between Ms. magazine and U.S. News & World Report Owner Mort Zuckerman since the early 1980s. But nobody at Ms. magazine was willing to officially comment on its past or present connection to U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman, and Downtown was then told that “Gloria Steinem’s office will be getting back to you.” Not surprisingly, however, “Gloria Steinem’s office” apparently decided not to get back to Downtown in 1993 to discuss past or early 1990s connections between U.S. News & World Report and Ms. magazine.

Coincidentally, few satirical exposes’ of either Zuckerman’s male chauvinism or U.S. News & World Report’s institutional sexism were apparently published by Ms. magazine during the 1980s.

In addition to apparently being closely connected to U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman during the 1980s, Ms. magazine founder Steinem was also accused by Evergreen Review during the 1980s of having been closely connected to a CIA-linked organization in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In an article entitled “Allard Lowenstein’s CIA: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” by Richard Cummings, which appeared in 1984, Evergreen Review stated the following:

“While Lowenstein worked for Senator Humphrey in the late Fifties, he did things like go to a dinner given by the Council Against Communist Aggression and help organize the effort to send American students to disrupt the Moscow-backed International Youth Festival in Vienna in 1959. In that particular effort, he had collaborated with Gloria Steinem, Smith graduate and Fulbright scholar to India, who founded the Independent Service for Information on the Vienna Youth Festival, an organization that became the Independent Research Service, a CIA-funded operation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was used to get the anti-communist Americans to Vienna.”

Although U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman’s close friend of the 1980s—Gloria Steinem—has carved out a lucrative career for herself by posing as a champion of equality for working-class women, U.S. News & World Report’s top managers in the early 1990s were still mostly male. The editor-in-chief, the executive editor, the deputy editor, the editor-at-large, the special projects editor, the art director, and the photography director at U.S. News & World Report as late as 1993 were all men, as were at least 16 of the Establishment magazine’s 22 Senior Editors. Although the majority of people who live in Washington, D.C. are African-American, Downtown was unable to determine whether the majority of editorial employees at the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. News & World Report were yet African-American in 1993. Downtown was also unable to determine how many open lesbians and gay males were employed at U.S. News & World Report in 1993.

In its Nov. 18, 1988 issue the Wall Street Journal also reported that one of Zuckerman’s top managers, then-U.S. News & World Report President and Chief Executive Officer Fred Drasner, “was loudly booed at a lawyer’s convention when he made a remark about women lawyers that many in the audience considered offensive.” Ironically, Zuckerman named Fred Drasner to be the chief executive officer and co-publisher of the New York York Daily News after Zuckerman purchased this newspaper in the early 1990s. (end of part 4)

(Downtown 4/14/93)

Hidden History of Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'--Part 3

(The following article first appeared in the April 14, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. See Part 1 and Part 2 of article below.)

At the time Mort Zuckerman purchased U.S. News & World Report Inc. in 1984, its magazine employed 205 people on its editorial staff. More than 10 of these editorial employees ended up becoming instant millionaires as a result of selling their stock in U.S. News & World Report Inc. to Zuckerman in 1984. By October 1984, Zuckerman had moved into the U.S. News & World Report magazine executive offices in Washington, D.C. and began to replace top U.S. News & World Report editorial managers with his own editorial people.

As Fortune magazine noted in an Oct. 14, 1985 article, “Zuckerman bought U.S. News out of his personal real estate fortune in order to call the shots at the magazine;” and one year after his 1984 purchase of U.S. News & World Report, Zuckerman “put himself on the masthead as editor-in-chief”—although he had originally “promised” when he purchased U.S. News & World Report that “he would never be editor-in-chief,” according to the January/Feb. 1993 issue of F.A.I.R.’s Extra! magazine. Zuckerman continued to be the U.S. News & World Report editor-in-chief in the 1990s.

The Oct. 14, 1985 Fortune magazine article also observed that in the U.S. News & World Report editorial offices at that time Zuckerman was “all over the magazine—hiring, suggesting stories, reviewing covers, conferring daily by phone with [then-U.S. News & Report editor Shelby] Coffey, even helping to interview subjects for articles.” Zuckerman also told Fortune magazine in 1985 that “the country is becoming more conservative,” “he is conservative in fiscal matters and defense” and “he supports U.S. policy in Nicaragua and El Salvador.” And in 1992, Zuckerman told New York magazine that “he has devoted two-thirds of his time” to his U.S. News & World Report property since he purchased it. In its Oct. 5, 1992 issue, New York magazine estimated that U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman’s personal worth in the early 1990s was $265 million.

As U.S. News & World Report’s Editor-in-Chief, Zuckerman hasn’t provided much job security for his editorial employees. Between 1984 and 1989, for example, Zuckerman hired and fired “five editors in his first five years” and by 1989 “80 percent of the entire news staff had left” at U.S. News & World Report, according to the January/February 1993 issue of Extra!. The same magazine also noted that “Zuckerman has seemed to use his power of ownership” at U.S. News & World Report “to influence coverage of issues that he had a personal stake in” as when a U.S. News & World Report “story on the decline of California’s real estate market was reportedly scaled down after concerns were raised that the story could cause further harm to…a market that Zuckerman’s development company, Boston Properties, has a sizable stake in.” Extra! also reported that “Under Zuckerman, U.S. News had a contract with a dubious Israeli news service called Depth,” that helped Zuckerman utilize U.S. News & World Report to support Israeli government policies during the 1990s.(end of part 3)

(Downtown 4/14/93)

Hidden History of Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'--Part 2

(The following article first appeared in the April 14, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. See below for Part 1)

By early 1984, the employee-owned U.S. News & World Report Inc. had evolved into a company whose major assets were its magazine publishing operation, its Downtown Washington, D.C. real estate holdings, its radio programming service business and its Publisher Services International typesetting subsidiary. From its sale of U.S. News & World Report ad space at about $44,000 per full-page in each issue, around $94 million was earned by the magazine in 1983. Another $47 million was taken in during the early 1980s from the sale of the magazine to around two million subscribers. When founded by David Lawrence in 1948, U.S. News & World Report initially had only about 380,000 subscribers. In the early 1980s, though, only about 78,000 copies of its magazine were sold by U.S. News & World Report Inc. on U.S. newsstands, each week.

From the U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s Publishers Services International typesetting subsidiary—which assembled Newsweek, Business Week and other publications, as well as U.S. News & World Report--$18 million was earned in 1983. In addition, in 1983 U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s four acres of Washington, D.C. land surrounding its magazine’s building and its 50 percent ownership of a Downtown Washington, D.C. real estate development project were estimated to be worth about $45 million. The pretax profits of U.S. News & World Report Inc. in the early 1980s equaled about $4 million per year.

The real estate business partner in Washington, D.C. of the then-employee-owned U.S. News & World Report Inc. since 1981 had been the Boston Properties real estate development firm of the then-multi-millionaire owner of The Atlantic monthly magazine—Mort Zuckerman. In 1981, Zuckerman had announced that on U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s Washington, D.C. land his Boston Properties was going to “construct a new 160,000 square-foot headquarters building for the magazine, a 233-suite luxury hotel and a hotel annex with more rooms, a 300,000 square-foot office building, and two residential complexes totaling 200,000 square feet,” according to the March 16, 1984 issue of The New York Times.

Coincidentally, in May 1984 the seven-member corporate board that represented the employees who owned U.S. News & World Report Inc. decided to sell their magazine and their other assets to their real estate business partner, Zuckerman, for about $168 million. The deal was subsequently almost unanimously approved by the U.S. News & World Report Inc. employees.

To gain control of U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s magazine, real estate properties, typesetting subsidiary and radio programming service, Zuckerman agreed to pay its employee-owners about $3,000 per share of stock for stock that had previously been valued at only $625 per share. He also agreed to pay $25 million to purchase an additional 2,400 shares of stock that were owned by the seven individual corporate board members of the previously employee-owned magazine company who apparently arranged the deal with Zuckerman. (end of part 2)

(Downtown 4/14/93)