Shakir al Khafaji (born 1955) is a Detroit-based Iraqi-American businessman. He immigrated to the United States in 1975. He graduated with a B.S. degree in architecture from Lawrence Technological University in 1980. He received an M.S. in Urban Planning in 1982 from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
al Khafaji is a senior executive, with nearly four decades of business experience. He is Chairman of Veritas Automotive and Machinery, LLC, with an office in Southfield, Michigan. He has deep knowledge of Iraqi culture and society. He was born into a merchant family in Baghdad, and attended schools with many of the governmental leaders in the Middle East. Over the years, Mr. al Khafaji has engaged in an extensive number of business activities, including commercial trade with Iraq and the Middle East. As a result of his unique position, he has been able to play a role in the development and implementation of U.S. policy with respect to Iraq for over twenty years. He continues to maintain close relationships with business and political leaders in that region.
He was chairman of the 17th conference of Iraqi expatriates.
Donald Henry Rumsfeld was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He was both the youngest and the oldest secretary of defense. Additionally, Rumsfeld was a three-term U.S. Congressman from Illinois (1963–1969), director of the Office of Economic Opportunity (1969–1970), counselor to the president (1969–1973), the U.S. Representative to NATO (1973–1974), and the White House Chief of Staff (1974–1975). Between his terms as secretary of defense, he served as the CEO and chairman of several companies.
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party—which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to power in Iraq.
Carl Milton Levin was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2007 to 2015.
Ezzedine Salim,, also known as Abdelzahra Othman Mohammed, was an Iraqi politician, author, educator, Islamist theorist and one of the leading members of the Iraqi Dawaa Movement between 1980 and 2004. He served as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq in 2004.
Ayad Allawi is an Iraqi politician. He served as the vice president of Iraq from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018. Previously he was interim prime minister of Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and the president of the Governing Council of Iraq in 2003.
Lakhdar Brahimi is an Algerian United Nations diplomat who served as the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria until 14 May 2014. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria from 1991 to 1993.
The Association of Muslim Scholars is a group of religious leaders in Iraq. It was formed on the April 14, 2003, four days after the U.S.-led invasion demolished the Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein, by a group of scholars who aimed to represent Sunnis in Iraq. Though not a political party, the association is considered to be politically influential. It also administers a charitable fund set up for the upkeep of religious buildings.
John Ricardo Irfan "Juan" Cole is an American academic and commentator on the modern Middle East and South Asia. He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment (juancole.com).
Al-Obaidi is one of the Arab tribes in Iraq settled around Al Jazira, Mesopotamia. It hails from the tribe of Zubaid, which itself is an offshoot of the ancient Yemenite tribe Madh'hij. The tribe was an influential one, and faced some rivalry from the House of Saud during the establishment of the first Saudi State. The tribe migrated from Najd in Saudi Arabia circa 1750s. The Al-Obaidis descend from a branch of Zubaid who became Sultans over part of Najd prior to their defeat by Al-Saud and their banishment to Iraq. The migration of this branch of the family was led by the final Zubaidi Sultan in Najd: Sultan Jabr bin Maktoum Al Zubaidi. His eldest son Obaid, is the founder of the Al-Obaidi family, and subsequent tribe.
Lieutenant General Sir Robert Alan Fry, served as a Royal Marine for over 30 years and was involved in military operations in Northern Ireland, the Gulf, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. After retirement from military service he went into private business and, in 2007, became CEO of Hewlett Packard's defence and security business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2010 he was appointed chairman of McKinney Rogers International and subsequently, in 2011, Albany Associates.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh, was a Jordanian jihadist who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. He became known after going to Iraq and being responsible for a series of bombings, beheadings, and attacks during the Iraq War, reportedly "turning an insurgency against US troops" in Iraq "into a Shia–Sunni civil war". He was sometimes known by his supporters as the "Sheikh of the slaughterers".
Rifat Chadirji was an Iraqi architect, photographer, author and activist. He was often referred to as the father of modern Iraqi architecture, having designed more than 100 buildings across the nation.
Ba'athist Iraq, formally the Iraqi Republic until 6 January 1992 and the Republic of Iraq thereafter, covers the national history of Iraq between 1968 and 2003, during the period of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party's rule. This period began with high economic growth and soaring prosperity, but ended with Iraq facing social, political, and economic stagnation. The average annual income decreased both because of external factors and the internal policies of the government.
Tel Keppe is a town in Iraq. It is located in the Nineveh Governorate, less than 8 mi northeast of Mosul. The town is mostly Sunni Arab, followed by Assyrians and Yazidis. The town was majority Assyrian with a Yazidi minority until ISIS took it over.
The Republic of Kuwait was a short-lived and self-styled republic formed in the aftermath of the invasion of Kuwait by Ba'athist Iraq during the early stages of the Gulf War. During the invasion, the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council stated that it had sent troops into the State of Kuwait to assist an internal coup d'état initiated by "Kuwaiti revolutionaries." A Provisional Government of Free Kuwait was set up on 4 August 1990 by the Iraqi authorities under the leadership of nine allegedly-Kuwaiti military officers led by Alaa Hussein Ali, who was given the posts of prime minister, commander-in-chief, minister of defense and minister of the interior.
Majid Hamid Jafar is an Emirati businessman and the CEO of Crescent Petroleum. He is vice-chairman of the Crescent Group and the managing director of Dana Gas (PJSC). In 2014, he was named one of the Middle East Online's 50 most influential Arabs.
Isam al Khafaji is a prominent Iraqi political economist, historian and left wing intellectual, with an established reputation in the Arab world.
In 2004, Metro Detroit had one of the largest settlements of Middle Eastern people, including Arabs and Chaldo-Assyrians in the United States. As of 2007 about 300,000 people in Southeastern Michigan traced their descent from the Middle East. Dearborn's sizeable Arab community consists largely of Lebanese people who immigrated for jobs in the auto industry in the 1920s, and of more recent Yemenis and Iraqis. In 2010 the four Metro Detroit counties had at least 200,000 people of Middle Eastern origin, excluding Jews. Bobby Ghosh of TIME said that some estimates gave much larger numbers. From 1990 to 2000 the percentage of people speaking Arabic in the home increased by 106% in Wayne County, 99.5% in Macomb County, and 41% in Oakland County.
Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Forces, officially named the Qaeda Quwwat Abu Fadl al-Abbas, is a Shiite militia operating in Iraq, formed following the June 2014 ISIL advances. The force is affiliated with Sheikh Aws al-Khafaji, who was previously aligned with Muqtada al-Sadr. The group claims an affinity with the similarly named Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas group fighting in Syrian Civil War on behalf of the Syrian government. QQAFA also appears to have deep links to Kataib al-Imam Ali.