Saadoun al Duleimi

Saadoun al Duleimi has served as the Defense Minister of Iraq since May 2005. Al Duleimi, who "has a PhD in social psychology from Keele University," is also the Director of the independent think tank Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies (ICRSS) in Baghdad. [1][2]

Al Duleimi is a "member of a powerful Sunni Arab tribe from the Western Anbar province" and a "former lieutenant-colonel in Iraq's army who left the country in 1984 and lived in exile in Saudi Arabia until dictator Saddam Hussein lost power in 2003." Dulaimi "spent the year before the war in Washington [DC] training with other exiles to take up the reins of power in Iraq once the fighting was over." [3][4][5]

SourceWatch Resources

• Future of Iraq Project
• U.S.-backed Iraqi exiles

External links

• "Suicide bombings kill 22 in Iraq," CBC News, May 7, 2005.
• "A Remarkable Reversal of Fortune for Iraq's Defense Minister," Assyrian International News Agency, September 17, 2005.
• Hannah Allam, "Defense chief feels heat from all sides," Knight Ridder Newspapers, September 18, 2005.