May 25, 2004
A Candidate With Conviction
by JeremyHe was tortured at Abu Ghraib for refusing to build nuclear weapons for Saddam, so he's not what you'd call an opportunistic flip-flopper.
The United Nations is closing in on a slate for the new Iraqi government that is likely to be headed by Hussain Shahristani, a Shiite nuclear scientist who spent years in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison for refusing to participate in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program and is now the leading candidate to become prime minister in the first post-Hussein government, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials....
He is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most-powerful Shiite cleric, whose support is essential for the viability of an interim government.
Shahristani, who has described himself as an adviser to Sistani, said he has met with the grand ayatollah several times since the fall of Hussein's government.
...
He spent a decade in the Abu Ghraib prison, most of it in solitary confinement. He managed to escape in 1991 and fled with his wife and three children to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. When Hussein's army pushed into Kurdistan, he and his family crossed into neighboring Iran, where he spent three years working with Iraqi refugees. He and his family eventually moved to Britain, where he found work as a visiting university professor.
Brace yourself, Google, and let the "Shahristani" searching begin. And brace yourselves, serious readers, as the unserious play games with the "Shah" in his name (I'll lay you odds).
-Jeremy
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