IRAQ: ALLAWI

IMC: The interim Prime Minister of Iraq

A bigraphical timeline of Mr. Allawi, former Baathist, former agent for MI6 and CIA, former terrorist. This is an improvement?

Allawi's rocky road to the top
July 17, 2004

1945: Born to a wealthy Shiite merchant family. His grandfather helped to negotiate Iraq's independence from Britain, and his father was a doctor and a MP.

1960s: Studies at medical school in Baghdad, where he first meets Saddam Hussein. Joins Baath party.

1963: According to the memoirs of a former Iraqi ambassador, Talib Shabib, Allawi was an assassin.

1971: Leaves Baghdad for London to continue his medical education. Trains to be a neurologist and obtains a master of science in medicine and a doctorate in medicine from London University. (Allawi has lived about half of his life in Britain and retains British citizenship.) Some claim he continued to serve the Baath party, and the Iraqi secret police, searching out enemies of the regime.

1975: Falls out of favour with the Baath party.

1978: Enters a relationship with the British security services. Word reaches Saddam's secret police. He is attacked while in his bed in Kingston-upon-Thames. Intruder hits him over the head with an axe, a second blow nearly severs his right leg, and a third plunges into his chest. The would-be assassins flee. Allawi spends a year in hospital recovering from his injuries.
Advertisement Advertisement.............