Local Iraqis Join the Anti-Hussein Outcry : Protest: 150 call for the leader’s ouster at a Westwood rally. They are inspired by an uprising in their homeland.

About 150 Iraqi-Americans, waving signs demanding the ouster of Saddam Hussein, lined Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood on Sunday at their first rally to support the growing uprising against the embattled Iraqi president.

The protesters--who come from various religious, political and ethnic backgrounds and said their diversity mirrored that of the rebellion in Iraq--were pleased that there is growing unrest against Hussein. But they tempered their joy with concern about family members, whom they fear may become the latest victims of the Iraqi president’s brutality.

“For the first time, the (Iraqi) people have (political) power in their hands,” but they desperately need food, electricity, medical attention and moral support from Americans, said Sadiq Mandilawi, a doctor from La Verne who is Kurdish.

He and other demonstrators on Sunday urged Americans to help the Iraqi rebels achieve a “new democratic Iraq.”

The allied war effort may appear to be over, “but it’s not over because the struggle continues,” said Mohammed Alsaadi, a political science professor at Cal Poly Pomona.

He and other protesters saw only grim prospects if Hussein continues to rule. “The departure of Saddam must be seen as the prerequisite for some return to normal life by the Iraqi people,” Alsaadi said. “While great pain has been inflicted on the Kuwaiti people, the Iraqis are by far the greatest losers in the Gulf War.”

Some protesters, buoyed by the Iraqi uprising thousands of miles away, spoke for the first time using their real names. Mandilawi said he would not have spoken to reporters two weeks ago, but the courage his people have shown at home “gives us hope that this monster (Hussein) will be destroyed.”

Mandilawi added that he still fears for his five brothers and sisters. They live in Baghdad, and he has not heard from them in two months. “It’s like coming to your house and you find some police around the house and they tell you the house has caught fire and that all your family is dead,” he said. “We have no idea whether they are alive or dead.”

Although some of the demonstrators Sunday were more open than they had been before, many others still showed their fear of Hussein, his regime and what might happen to distant family members. Some wore dark glasses and caps to mask their identities; one man wrapped a scarf around his face; one unidentified woman hid behind a sign that said, “Saddam Must Go.”

The woman, who called herself a “victim of Saddam Hussein,” said she had lost her job as a university professor in 1979, when she refused to join his ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party. She said she was like many of the 250,000 or so Iraqis in America who had fled their homeland because of Hussein. She fears for her parents, sister and nephews in Baghdad.

At Sunday’s rally, there was a scattering of children who held signs reading, “Support the Uprising, Finish Saddam” and “Bush, Push the Uprising.”

Assil Alsharifi, a mother and protester, observed, “Saddam Hussein is not human but a criminal. He brought nothing but war and destruction to my country.”

Alsharifi, who fled Baghdad in 1984 because of Hussein’s oppression, praised the Iraqi rebellion, saying: “People are terrified out there. You don’t say a word against Saddam or your whole family will be executed. It takes a lot of courage to rise against him.”

The Westwood protest against Hussein, except for honking horns, was a quiet one, with demonstrators talking among themselves of the horror Hussein has inflicted on their lives. The protesters’ worst fear? That Hussein would somehow retain his power.

“And that’s how it is,” said Raad Ommar, an Iraqi-born computer consultant from La Crescenta. “It’s a real scary thing.”

Ommar said he and other Iraqis here “all feel sort of betrayed” because the allies’ victory did not immediately sweep Hussein from power. “We feel sort of homeless. . . . We see a really hollow victory here,” Ommar said.

Talal Jalaby, a member of American Iraqis for Democracy and Justice, saw some hope still from the happenings in Iraq, noting of the rebellion there, “This is the first time that massive Iraqi opposition is (occurring) inside Iraq.”

But other demonstrators were less sanguine, saying they could only hope and pray for their relatives and the rebels.

“I really look forward to the day when my people in Iraq can extend friendship to the American people,” said Farouk Darweesh, an engineering professor at Cal Poly Pomona.