Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

DA’WA, AL • 133Although Curt Weldon, the vice chair of the U.S. House of RepresentativesHomeland Security Committee, claimed in 2005 that theAble Danger project had identified Mohammad Atta, the operationalleader of the World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks of September11, 2001, along with the other hijackers before those attackshad occurred, the U.S. Defense Department denied that Able Dangerhad in fact identified the 9/11 hijackers before the attacks. See alsoFOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT.DA’WA, AL. The Hizb al Da’wa al Islamiyya, or Islamic Call Party,is a Shi’ite Islamic fundamentalist party founded in Iraq by radicaljunior Shi’ite clergymen who sought to overthrow the secular Ba’thistregime in Iraq to create an Iranian-style Islamic republic. This group iscurrently the largest coalition partner of the governing United Iraqi Alliance.Iraq’s population is nearly 60 percent Shi’ite, whereas the formergoverning Ba’thist party was predominantly Sunni; however, mostof the Shi’ite religious leaders in Iraq come from families that eitheroriginated in Iran or else have intermarried with Iranian clerical families,thus undercutting the nationalistic credentials of potential Shi’iteleaders. While this party is one of the oldest radical Shi’ite politicalparties, having been founded in 1968–1969 at the latest, it had to acceptIranian state sponsorship after having been virtually eradicated withinIraq by severe state repression, which ended only with the overthrow ofSaddam Hussein by a U.S.-led invasion in April 2003.Beginning in 1974, the Iraqi regime responded to Shi’ite unrest inthe shrine cities of Karbala and Najaf by executing five Da’wa leadersand another eight in 1977 when riots broke out again. Followingthe Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the Iraqi regime put the pro-Khomeini Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al Sadr under house arrestto deprive Iraqi Shi’ite fundamentalists of the rallying point of hischarismatic leadership. Shortly after an Islamic Liberation Movementsconference in Tehran in early 1980, an “Islamic LiberationMovement of Iraq” proclaimed its existence in Europe and named theconfined Ayatollah Baqir al Sadr as its leader.Da’wa activists joined with other anti-Ba’thist guerrilla fightersand, with Iranian material and moral support, undertook attacks onpolice stations and Ba’thist party offices. On 1 April 1980 Da’wamembers aided by Iranian revolutionaries attempted to assassinateTariq ‘Aziz, who was the de facto head of government as Saddam