Iraq's Post-1950 History Revisited: Part 12

(See parts 1-11 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private contractors who are still occupying Iraqi soil (in support of special U.S. corporate interests) to finally be withdrawn from Iraq by Easter 2009.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?

By the end of 1962, a Ba'th Party militia of about two thousand men had been organized and trained; and in December 1962 the Ba'th activists fixed the date for a military coup against the Qasim regime for January 18, 1963.

So on December 24, 1962 the Ba'th Party's student activists declared a student strike at Iraq's schools and university. The purpose of the Ba'th-led student strike was apparently to divert the attention of Qasim away from the Iraqi army and to act as a screen for the planned Ba'th-led military coup. On January 6, 1963, however, the proposed coup date was postponed until February 25, 1963.

By February 3, 1963, however, Qasim had discovered that a coup was being planned and so he ordered the arrest of three leading Ba'th plotters, including the CIA's apparent representative on the "National Council of Revolutionary Command," Saleh Mahdi Ammash. But fearing further arrests, the remaining coup-plotters then acted on February 8, 1963.

Not surprisingly, L'Express reported in its February 21, 1963 issue "that the British and US intelligence services had known" of the February 8, 1963 coup in advance, according to the Iraq Under Qassem book. Citing the January 1, 1994 issue of London's Guardian newspaper as his source, William Blum also observed in Rogue State that "papers of the British cabinet of 1963, later declassified, disclose that the coup had been backed by the British and the CIA." UPI Intelligence Correspondent Richard Sale's April 10, 2003 investigative report also noted that "[former National Security Council Staffer Roger] Morris claimed recently that the CIA was behind the coup, which was sanctioned by President John F. Kennedy…" (end of part 12)