Posted on 02/13/2005 4:49:23 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the turbaned pro-Iranian cleric heading the Shiite ticket that won Iraq's national elections, is a longtime ally of Tehran's religious establishment who led an anti-Saddam Hussein militia for two decades from exile.
Al-Hakim, who's in his 50s, was born in the holy southern Shiite Iraqi city of Najaf and is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Mohsen al-Hakim, one of the leading Shiite clerics of the 20th century.
A student of Najaf's Hawza al-Ilmiyah, Shiite Islam's centuries old seminary, al-Hakim also came under the tutelage of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, leader of Iraq's first Shiite political party, the Islamic Dawa. Al-Sadr was killed by Saddam's regime in 1980.
Influenced by both his father and al-Sadr, al-Hakim became an active opponent of Saddam, a secular Sunni who violently repressed opposition Shiites in Iraq. Such retribution forced al-Hakim and his elder half brother, Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim, to flee into Shiite-run Iran in the early 1980s.
From there, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim led the Iran-backed Badr Brigades, the military wing of Iraq's largest opposition Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, in a violent cross border struggle against Saddam's forces.
Ahead of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, al-Hakim played a central role in efforts by exiled Iraqi opposition to prepare post-Saddam Iraq's future political groundwork.
After Saddam's fall, al-Hakim returned to Iraq in April 2003 ahead of his elder brother, who had become a revered ayatollah and leader of SCIRI. His brother was assassinated on Aug. 29, 2003 in an al-Qaida-linked car bomb attack that killed 124 others.
The former militia leader was chosen to replace his slain brother as head of Iraq's most influential political force and was later put on the U.S.-appointed Governing Council.
His increasing prominence, matched with his mullah-like dress and close Iranian ties, led many - including the United States - to fear that Iraq was heading toward closer ties with Iran, and, possibly, the establishment of a government based on Iran's theocratic model.
Al-Hakim has insisted he has no intention of imposing an Iran-style clerical state on this war-ravaged country, which fought a war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. His statements have been aimed at soothing U.S., Iraqi and regional fears that his ticket - backed by the most influential Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani - will force closer ties with Iran.
Instead, he has promised to reach out to disaffected Sunnis and others in the drafting of a permanent constitution - the major task of the new assembly.
Al-Hakim, a pragmatist who met President Bush at the White House in January 2004, has seemed unwilling to challenge the United States head-on about crafting a timetable for its military withdrawal. Instead, he has advocated a policy of negotiation to secure the departure of coalition forces from Iraq once a formal Iraqi government has been created.
Ahead of Iraq's Jan. 30 elections, al-Hakim surprised few by claiming the No. 1 position on the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of Iraqi political groups, including SCIRI.
But despite his top billing in the victorious alliance, al-Hakim has said he has no intention of becoming Iraq's prime minister. At the very least, he is expected to provide political guidance to the dominant alliance, and in turn, the new Iraqi National Assembly that his ticket is expected to dominate.
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Wasn't there an Aziz Al-Hakim that was a punt returner for the Buffalo Bills? Is this the same guy?
Az-Zahir Hakim was a WR an PR for the St. Loius Rams and won a Super Bowl with them and is currently with the Detroit Lions.
Now. That's a lot of schooling. But tell me this. If everything you learn is wrong, are you smarter for it, or dumber?
That's a lot of schooling. But tell me this. If everything you learn is wrong, are you smarter for it, or dumber?
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Never let your schooling interfere with your education.
--Mark Twain
Man, how could we have known the guy turns terrorist. ;-)
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