Iraqis in U.S. for Lessons in Democracy Receive a Boost

Four members of Baghdad’s City Council had just arrived in Colorado to start a tour of U.S. cities and get lessons in democracy when the news came that Saddam Hussein had been captured.

“This is something we never dreamed of,” Councilman Dhari K. Dhari said Sunday as he watched footage on a hotel television of doctors examining a bearded and disheveled Hussein.

Councilman Abdul Ghani Husaini called the capture a lesson for mankind. “This is what happens to cowards and dictators,” he said.

“I hope he will be judged by the Iraqi people and by the Iraqi government,” said council Chairman Adnan Abdul-Sahib Hassan. “I want him punished for his crimes.”

The three men and fellow councilman Riyadh Nassir Adhadh, who arrived Saturday, plan to meet this week with local and state officials, including Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, before visiting other cities around the country as part of their training in how to set up a democratically run government.

Peter Kenney of the Metro Mayors Caucus, which represents 31 cities in the Denver area, arranged for the Denver visit after spending three months in Baghdad working with that city’s leaders. Kenney has a contract through the U.S. Agency for International Development to train the 37 members of the Baghdad council.

On Sunday, Dhari said Hussein’s capture would make it easier for elected officials to run Iraq. “Democracy is something new for Iraq and the Iraqis,” he said. “We need help establishing these concepts in Baghdad.”