IRAQ FRIENDS & BROTHERS NOT LONG AGO, ABDUL KARIM KASSEM, LEAN AND 
PSYCHOTIC STRONGMAN OF IRAQ, BOASTED THAT HE HAD SURVIVED 38 ATTEMPTS 
TO KILL HIM OVER THE PAST 4F YEARS . LAST WEEK 
IN BAGHDAD, DEATH KEPT THE 39TH APPOINTMENT . REBEL IRAQI ARMY 
OFFICERS OVERTHREW THE GOVERNMENT AND ISSUED A CHARACTERISTIC MIDDLE EASTERN COMMUNIQUE 
: " WITH THE HELP OF GOD, WE HAVE BEEN ABLE 
TO DESTROY THE ENEMY OF GOD AND OF THE PEOPLE, ABDUL 
KARIM KASSEM, AND HIS GANG, WHO HAVE USED THE COUNTRY FOR 
THEIR OWN INTERESTS AND WHO CHOKED LIBERTY AND DISRUPTED THE LAW 
! " HOME & HEADQUARTERS . THE INSURRECTION BEGAN ON FRIDAY, 
HOLIEST DAY OF THE MOSLEM WEEK, AND IN THE MIDST OF 
RAMADAN, THE MONTH WHEN GOOD MOSLEMS FAST EVERY DAY FROM SUNUP 
TO SUNDOWN AND TEMPERS ARE EVERYWHERE SHORT . ARMY TRUCKS AND 
TANKS WERE ALREADY RUMBLING THROUGH THE STREETS WHEN AT 9 : 
30 A.M., A STRIDENT NEW VOICE ON RADIO BAGHDAD BEGAN EXULTING, 
" THIS IS THE VOICE OF THE IRAQI REVOLUTION ! " 
ACCUSING " KASSEM THE DICTATOR " OF HAVING " MURDERED CITIZENS, 
WEAKENED THE ARMY, IMPRISONED AND EXECUTED SCORES OF OFFICERS, " THE 
BROADCASTER CLAIMED THAT THE REBELS " HAVE DESTROYED THE TYRANT ! 
" BUT THE FIGHT WAS ONLY BEGINNING . REBEL UNITS SURROUNDED 
BAGHDAD'S HUGE, YELLOW BRICK DEFENSE MINISTRY, THE HOME AND HEADQUARTERS OF 
PREMIER KASSEM, WHICH WAS DEFENDED BY 600 TRUSTED SOLDIERS . THE 
REBELS BROUGHT UP TANKS AND HEAVY ARTILLERY, AND IRAQI FIGHTER PLANES 
STRAFED AND BOMBED THE KASSEM FORTRESS . LOYAL DISCIPLE . THE 
REBEL RADIO VOICE FRENZIEDLY CALLED FOR THE " PEOPLE " TO 
POUR INTO THE STREETS " TO DESTROY THE REMNANTS OF THE 
KASSEM REGIME . " BETWEEN EXHORTATIONS, MARTIAL MUSIC FILLED THE AIR, 
ESPECIALLY SONGS EXTOLLING ARAB UNITY, AND ALAHU AKBAR (GOD IS GREAT), 
A FAVORITE HYMN OF EGYPT'S GAMAL ABDEL NASSER . THE SIX-MAN 
REBEL JUNTA THAT PLOTTED KASSEM'S OVERTHROW WAS APPARENTLY MADE UP OF 
CAPTAINS AND LIEUTENANTS, EXCEPT FOR ITS LEADER, EX-PARATROOP COLONEL ABDUL MUSTAFA 
. BUT THE MAN THEY PUT FORWARD AS THEIR FRONT MAN 
CAME AS A SHOCK TO KASSEM, FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE INSIDE 
THE BATTERED DEFENSE MINISTRY . THE JUNTA NAMED AS ITS NEW 
REBEL HEAD OF STATE COLONEL ABDUL SALAM AREF, 41, LONG KASSEM'S 
CLOSEST FRIEND AND MOST LOYAL DISCIPLE, AND ALIVE ONLY BECAUSE KASSEM 
COMMUTED HIS 1959 DEATH SENTENCE . UNSHARED PRIZE . TO KASSEM 
THE COUP MUST HAVE SEEMED ONLY TOO FAMILIAR . IN THE 
SAME WAY BACK IN 1958, KASSEM SEIZED POWER BY RUTHLESSLY SLAUGHTERING 
KING FEISAL II AND HIS IRON-FISTED, PROWESTERN PREMIER, NURI AS-SAID, WHO 
WAS CAUGHT TRYING TO ESCAPE THE CITY DRESSED IN WOMEN'S CLOTHES 
. IN THOSE DAYS KASSEM WAS A BRIGADIER, WITH THE REPUTATION 
OF BEING THE KING'S MOST LOYAL SOLDIER . ACTUALLY, HE WAS 
LEADER OF A GROUP OF ARMY CONSPIRATORS INCLUDING MERCURIAL COLONEL ABDUL 
SALAM AREF, A PASSIONATE PRONASSERITE . AFTER THE YOUNG KING WAS 
SLAIN, KASSEM APPOINTED HIMSELF PREMIER,NAMED AREF AS HIS DEPUTY, AND PROCLAIMED 
HIS DEDICATION TO " IMPROVING THE LIVING STANDARDS OF OUR POPULATION 
AND SAVING THEM FROM LIVING IN SLUMS . TWO FRIENDS & 
BROTHERS EVEN THOUGH AREF DEVOTEDLY DECLARED, / I AM KASSEM'S SON, 
" AND BACHELOR KASSEM FONDLY CALLED AREF " MY SON, MY 
PUPIL, MY BROTHER, " THE TWO CHIEFS WERE SOON QUARRELING . 
HAVING BECOME MASTER OF IRAQ, KASSEM WAS IN NO MOOD TO 
SHARE THE PRIZE WITH AREF'S OTHER HERO, EGYPT'S NASSER . ORDERED 
INTO EXILE AS AMBASSADOR TO WEST GERMANY, AREF PULLED A GUN 
IN KASSEM'S PRESENCE BUT WAS DISARMED AND FINALLY CONDEMNED TO DEATH 
AS A TRAITOR . KASSEM CHANGED THE SENTENCE TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT 
AND IN 1961 SENTIMENTALLY AND IMPRUDENTLY SET AREF FREE . INSECURELY 
IN CONTROL, AND SUBJECT TO VITUPERATIVE ATTACKS FROM NASSER'S RADIO CAIRO, 
KASSEM EAGERLY ACCEPTED THE SUPPORT OF IRAQ'S WELL-ORGANIZED COMMUNIST PARTY, WANGLED 
$800 MILLION IN ARMS AND ECONOMIC AID FROM THE SOVIET BLOC, 
AND VOTED THE COMMUNIST LINE IN THE UNITED NATIONS . SPARTAN 
COT . KASSEM'S BRIEF REGIME READS LIKE A CASE HISTORY IN 
DANGEROUS LIVING . HE SAVAGELY PUT DOWN ONE ABORTIVE REVOLT, NARROWLY 
ESCAPED DEATH IN AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT IN WHICH HIS ARM AND 
HAND WERE SHATTERED BY BULLETS . UNDERSTANDABLY GUN-SHY, HE SPENT MOST 
OF HIS TIME INSIDE THE DEFENSE MINISTRY BUILDING, WHERE HE SLEPT 
ON A SPARTAN COT AND WATCHED SUSPICIOUSLY FOR TROUBLE . THERE 
WAS PLENTY OF THAT . HALF OF IRAQ'S ARMY WAS TIED 
DOWN BY A REBELLION OF THE KURDISH TRIBESMEN NORTH AND EAST 
OF MOSUL . KASSEM BEGAN TO GROW SUSPICIOUS OF IRAQ'S COMMUNISTS 
; AFTER A SERIES OF RED-INSPIRED STRIKES, KASSEM JAILED HUNDREDS OF 
REDS AND CONDEMNED TO DEATH 28 COMMUNIST LEADERS . AND ALWAYS 
HE HAD TO FEAR DISAFFECTION IN HIS OWN ARMY . HE 
WAS PROMISING EVEN GREATER ARMY PURGES WHEN LAST WEEK THE REBELS 
STRUCK . AFTER MORE THAN TEN HOURS OF HARD FIGHTING, THE 
DEFENSE MINISTRY WAS IN RUINS AND KASSEM'S DISHEARTENED DEFENDERS SURRENDERED . 
KASSEM WAS ALIVE, BUT ONLY FOR A LITTLE WHILE . THE 
REBEL IRAQI RADIO ANNOUNCED THAT HE HAD BEEN " TRIED " 
ON THE SPOT, CONDEMNED AND, AT 90 MINUTES PAST NOON THE 
NEXT DAY, STOOD AGAINST A WALL AND EXECUTED . AT THE 
MOMENT (THOUGH VICTORIES ARE OFTEN PERISHABLE IN ARAB POLITICS), THE REVOLT 
SEEMED AN IMPRESSIVE TRIUMPH FOR EGYPT'S NASSER, EVEN IF HE HAD 
NO DIRECT HAND IN IT . IF SO, THERE WOULD BE 
TROUBLE FOR THE HARD-PRESSED KINGS OF JORDAN AND SAUDI ARABIA, AS 
WELL AS FOR THE BRITISHPROTECTED SHEIKS OF THE PERSIAN GULF . 
" KASSEM HAS GONE ; SOON KINGS SAUD AND HUSSEIN WILL 
GO TOO, " SAID A COMPLACENT EGYPTIAN IN CAIRO . BUT 
FIRST, NASSER'S SUPPORTERS WERE CONFIDENT THAT THE IRAQI COUP WOULD SET 
OFF A SUCCESSION OF UPRISINGS IN NEIGHBORING SYRIA, WHICH HAS ALREADY 
PUT DOWN TWO PRO-NASSER REVOLTS SINCE BREAKING OFF FROM EGYPT IN 
1961 . 