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Article: Prime Minister: A U.S. favorite.(Ayad Allawi chosen to lead Iraqi interim government)(Brief Article)(Biography)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- June 14, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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After squabbling and deadlock involving the United Nations envoy, the American authorities, and the now dissolved Governing Council, western-educated neurologist and businessman Ayad Allawi, 59, emerged as the unexpected choice to lead Iraq's interim government. Still, Iraqis have a few bones to pick with Allawi, a secular Shiite from a prominent Baghdad family.
First, there is the matter of his past ties to the CIA and its British counterpart, MI-6, which together helped fund his exile opposition group, the Iraqi National Accord, made up of ex-Baathists and disaffected military officers. Then there is the inconvenient fact that Allawi himself was a member of the ...