THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRAQ SINCE THE JULY 1958 REVOLUTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R001100110001-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 20, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 1, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R001100110001-6
THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRAQ
SINCE THE JULY 1958 REVOLUTION
Based on Information
Available as of November 1959
Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915R001100110001-6
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915RO01100110001-6
I. organization and Leadership
A. The. Overt Mechanism
The Communist Party of Iraq (CPI) has made some information
concerning its upper-level organization available to the public since
the 14'July'1958 coup. However, there is still a wide gap between
the amount of'such data officially released by the CPI-and that ,made
available by'Communist parties in power or those in the Free World
with a long history of legality. This fact reflects the anomalous
status of all political parties in Iraq, none of"which has been
granted formal recognition by the Qasim government. The situation
was further complicated during May 1959 when the premier called on
all parties to suspend their political activities. In spite of this
demand, the OPI continues to operate in the political arena with appar-
ent impunity, behind a barrage of protestations of its adherence to
the policies of Qasim.
As stated in publicly released Party documents, the
highest CPI organ that has operated since the revolution is the
"Enlarged Central Committee," which met in September 1958 and
again in July 1959. This body includes the Central Committee
proper plus certain other important Party members invited for a
specific purpose. Neither a National Congress nor a National Confer-
ence, the next largest type of Party meeting, has been held in the
post-coup period. Because,of this, the Central Committee during
this time has been a co-opted rather than an elected body.
The CPI announced that both a Political Bureau and a
secretary were elected at the September 1958 Enlarged Central Commit-
tee meeting, and Party documents since the coup have come out under
the imprint of the Political Bureau as well as the Central Committee.
Furthermore., authoritative statements regarding Party policy were
credited to the "secretary of the CPI Central Committee" at the
Twenty First Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(Moscow, January - February 1959) by Soviet Bloc propaganda organs
and in a March 1959 interview by the CPI's official newspaper.,
Ittihad al-Sha?ab. Aside from the Central Committee, Political
Bureau, and secretary, the only other organizational units publicly
acknowledged by the CPI in the post-coup period are its "Kurdish
Branch" and its cells.
Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915RO01100110001-6
 Approved For Release : CIA-RDP78-00915RO01 100110001 -6
The"Cl has not. seen fit to make public the identities of
the members of 'its Central Gsammittee, Political Bureau, or Kurdish
Branch; .hooaever, certain Coainists do speak officially on behalf
of the' qty, and It' is believed that they constitute at least a
portion of the top leadership. Abd-al-Q,adir Ismail Bustani and Aziz
al-Hajj associated with Ittihad al-Shaeab
and Sawt el-.Ahr rar(asseoffic.al CPT newspaper)., have served as
the main representatives of the '= in united front activities over
the past year and a half. Other signatories of the June 1959 Iational
United" 'Front (MW) Choxter on behalf of the .CPI were Amir Abduilah,
Zaki 't yri, hammq. d Husayn Abu-al,-Is, Baha-al-Din Nuri, and Karim
Ahmed.'phis is the most complete list of its leaders that the CPI
has published. All of these except Ahmad, on whom there has been
little post-coup reporting, have been writing signed articles in
Ittihad ate:-Shalab~ of which Kbayri is the self-styled "chairman of
t Me Editorial J8B ird." Abd. 1.-Bahr sn Sharif;, by virtue of his stated
position of co-editor of Ittih id, also appears to be a completely
overt hi a-level CoaY uni.sta aaml _al-Din Kaydaar a al. aydari, by the
publication of a de `initive _CP'I article on Kurdish affairs in the
M's ;Iraal Iievie r, would also seem to be important in the Communist
lea