Overthrow
In September 1960, Qasim demanded that the Anglo American-owned Iraqi Petroleum Company (IPC) share 20% of the ownership and 55% of the profits with the Iraqi government. Then, in response to the IPC's rejection of this proposal, Qasim issued Public Law 80, which would have taken away 99.5% of the IPC's ownership and established an Iraqi national oil company to oversee the export of Iraqi oil. British and US officials and multinationals demanded that the Kennedy administration place pressures on the Qasim regime.
Qasim’s position was fatally weakened by 1962. His overthrow took place the following year. The perpetrators were the Ba’ath party. By 1962, the Ba’ath was on the rise as a new group of leaders under the tutelage of Ali Salih al-Sa’di began to re-invigorate the party. The Ba’ath Party was now able to plot Qasim’s removal.
Qasim was overthrown by the Ba'athist coup of February 8, 1963, motivated by fear of communist influence and state control over the petroleum sector. This coup was allegedly carried out with the backing of the British government and the American CIA. The best direct evidence that the U.S. was complicit is the memo from NSC staff member Robert Komer to President John F. Kennedy on the night of the coup, February 8, 1963. The last paragraph reads:
"We will make informal friendly noises as soon as we can find out whom to talk with, and ought to recognize as soon as we’re sure these guys are firmly in the saddle. CIA had excellent reports on the plotting, but I doubt either they or UK should claim much credit for it.
Qasim was given a short trial and he was shot soon after. Later, footage of his execution was broadcast to prove he was dead.
At least 5,000 Iraqis were killed in the fighting from February 8–10, 1963, and in the house-to-house hunt for "communists" that immediately followed. Ba'athists put the losses of their own party at around 80.
In July 2004, Qasim's body was discovered by a news team associated with Radio Dijlah in Baghdad.
Read more about this topic: Abd Al-Karim Qasim
Famous quotes containing the word overthrow:
“If anybody could overthrow the spoils doctrine and practice, Grant is the man. It has been thought impossible hitherto, but I hope with some confidence that he will win.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The theory of rights enables us to rise and overthrow obstacles, but not to found a strong and lasting accord between all the elements which compose the nation.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“There is something singularly grand and impressive in the sound of a tree falling in a perfectly calm night like this, as if the agencies which overthrow it did not need to be excited, but worked with a subtle, deliberate, and conscious force, like a boa-constrictor, and more effectively then than even in a windy day.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)