Salah Omar Al-Ali

Salah Omar Al-Ali (born on 17 July 1938) was a member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, and Iraqi Minister of Culture and Information, serving from 1968 to 1970, and subsequently served as ambassador to Sweden, Spain and the United Nations from 1973 to 1981. He is currently a leading member of the Iraqi opposition.

Although he was formerly a leading member of the Ba'ath Party, and was therefore very close to individuals such as Saddam Hussein who were subsequently accused of having committed a number of atrocities, including crimes against humanity, Al-Ali continues to enjoy great popularity within Iraq, by virtue of the fact that he resigned twice from high ranking governmental positions in protest against what he considered to be injust and inhumane policies, and by virtue of his staunchly patriotic attitude towards his country.

Early years

Al-Ali was born in Salah ad Din Governorate, in a village near the city of Tikrit. His father, Omar, was a small landowner who was involved in agricultural production. Al-Ali eventually migrated to Baghdad where he attended law school and became active in politics. At the time, the two major political parties that were popular amongst Iraqi youth were the Iraqi Communist Party and the Ba'ath Party, both of which expounded socialist principles relating to the redistribution of wealth and the eradication of the old social classes that dominated Iraqi society at the time, and both of which were violently opposed to continued British domination of the Iraqi ruling class. In that context, Al-Ali joined the Ba'ath party, and developed a reputation in Iraq for being a staunch patriot, and for his impressive energy and vitality. His activisim generated a certain amount of hostility from governmental authorities who arrested and tortured him on at least one occasion.

Years in Government

By 1968, Al-Ali was a leading member of the Ba'ath Party. When the Ba'ath seized power in the July Revolution of 1968, Al-Ali was appointed to the Iraqi Revolution Command Council (the "RCC"), a group of six leading Baath party officials who held joint executive authority over the entire country. Each member of the RCC also held governmental posts; Al-Ali was appointed Minister of Culture and Information. As such, Al-Ali was responsible for cultural affairs and for managing the government's official information campaign. When the Ba'ath came to power, each member of its higher ranks were given houses of at least 600 squate meters to live in. Al-Ali and his colleague Abdel Khaleq Al-Samara'i were the only two who declined this opportunity.

During his years in government, Al-Ali initiated a series of initiatives which increased his popularity in the country and beyond. He travelled throughout the country, including to the Marshes in the far south, in order to ensure that all communities were benefiting equally from the new government's social policies.

Exile in Lebanon

A number of differences emerged between Al-Ali and the rest of his ministerial colleagues, particularly over their failure to implement any type of democratic reform, and the government's harsh security policy which often involved imprisoning and torturing members of the political opposition. In 1970, Al-Ali resigned from his governmental positions as a result of these differences, and was sent into exile to Egypt (Egypt's government – at that time dominated by the Nasserist Party – would not allow a senior Ba'athist politician to adopt an active role in politics). Al-Ali remained in Egypt for some time and eventually moved to Lebanon, where he remained until 1973.

Years in diplomacy

In 1972 and 1973, two major events greatly affected Iraq's geopolitical position. Firstly, in 1972, the Ba'athist government decided to put an end to British interests in Iraq's oil industry and nationalised all oil interests owned by British companies throughout the country. Secondly, the 1973 oil crisis caused the price of oil to quadruple in international markets overnight. The combination of these two events greatly reinforced the position of the Ba'ath, which was then able to invest vast amounts of capital into Iraq's economy and into its military.

At that point the Iraqi government, confident of its position, invited a number of dissidents to return to Iraq. Al-Ali returned to Baghdad after he was promised safe passage. Shortly after his arrival he was offered the position of ambassador to Sweden, which he initially refused. A close friend advised him to accept, however, in the belief that the government was willing to resort to threats in order to make him accept. Al-Ali was therefore appointed as Ambassador to Sweden, where he served from 1973 to 1976. He subsequently served as Ambassador to Spain from 1976 to 1978, and was then appointed as permanement representative to the United Nations in New York where he served from 1978 to 1981.

Years in opposition

Saddam Hussein assumed the presidency in 1979, and later that year attended the Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cuba, which Al-Ali also attended. The two took advantage of the conference to meet with representatives from the new Islamic Republic of Iran. Hussein held constructive talks with the Iranian delegation and assured them of his intention not to interfere in Iranian affairs. Shortly after the meeting, however, Hussein told Al-Ali that preparations to invade Iran were already being made, and that the revolution presented Iraq with a historic opportunity to recover lost territory.

A few months after the Iran-Iraq war commenced, Al-Ali decided that he could no longer defend his government's policies before the United Nations and resigned his position once again. As a result of this decision, Al-Ali was banned from returning to his home country, and was only able to return to Iraq after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq by the United States.

Al-Ali continued living and working in the private sector in the United States until 1987, when he was expelled from the country by the Reagan administration, which suspected him of being involved in the Iraqi opposition. By that time, the United States was already a staunch ally of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist government, and decided that it could not allow any potential opponents of his regime to operate from within its territory. Al-Ali moved to the United Kingdom, which was the only country that agreed to receive him at that time.

After the 1991 Gulf War, Al-Ali decided to formally join the Iraqi opposition, and with Iyad Allawi formed the short-lived Al-Wifaq party. Al-Ali and Allawi had a falling out over Allawi's alleged links to the CIA. Al-Ali began publishing a weekly political newspaper from London that adopted an anti-Saddam and staunchly patriotic line. The paper rejected any foreign influence in the country and was fiercely opposed to the international sanctions that had been imposed against Iraq by the international community. The sanctioned regime was responsible for the death of more than one million Iraqis.

Return to Iraq

Shortly before the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Al-Ali was approached by a number of politicians allied with the United States government to seek his support for the invasion and to determine whether he would be interested in participating in the post-war administration of the government. Al-Ali rejected these advances on the basis that he could not contribute to foreign rule over Iraq.

As the war commenced in March 2003, Al-Ali was interviewed on a number of occasions on Al-Jazeera in which he condemned both the US-led invasion and Saddam Hussein's government. As the Iraqi regime began crumbling, Al-Ali entered the country through the Syrian-Iraqi border, and was greeted in different parts of the country by large crowds. The event was captured on an Al-Arabiya documentary that was aired shortly after the war.

Al-Ali has continued living in Baghdad since the war, where he continues to publish his weekly newspaper, which has now adopted an anti-occupation and opposition stance.

External links

* [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200205/bowden Atlantic Monthly Article]
* Biography of Saddam Hussein (ISBN 0-7475-4903-6)
* Inside the Iraqi Insurgency (ISBN 1-56025-746-6)