Ayham al-Samarie
Encyclopedia
Aiham Alsammarae is a nationalistic, Sunni, Iraqi politician who served as Minister of Electricity from August 2003 until May 2005. He has been an active member of the Iraqi National List
(headed by Iyad Allawi
) and has fought hard for political reconciliation among Iraq's political parties as well as against the policy of de-Baathification, since his resignation as Minister of Electricity. Previously, he was a prominent member of the Iraqi Opposition and lived in exile in the U.S. for over 30 years.
Dr. Alsammarae currently resides in Chicago, IL with his wife and three children.
. He later founded one of Iraq's largest construction companies. From a young age, Alsammarae was intimately familiar with Iraqi politics due to his family's presence in this sphere. Many of his close relatives served as ambassadors, cabinet advisors, and members of parliament. Growing up in the 1960s, Alsammarae received his primary and secondary education in Baghdad, Iraq. He then attended the University of Baghdad
, earning his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 1973.
Upon obtaining his bachelors degree, he completed his obligatory military duty (required of all men over the age of 18 in Iraq) by serving in the Air Force. After completing this requirement, Alsammarae received a scholarship to obtain post-graduate education in the U.S.. He obtained his Masters in Electrical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology
(IIT) in Chicago, IL in 1978 and began work on his Ph.D.
By 1980, Alsammarae had resigned from the Baath Party, and his scholarship to complete his PhD was revoked. In order to complete his studies at IIT, he worked as a teaching assistant and was able to continue with his education, obtaining his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1983. After graduation, Alsammarae resided and worked in Chicago, IL as an electrical engineer while also becoming active in the Iraqi opposition. During the 1990s, he became involved with Iraqi charity organizations, sending food, clothing and medicine to those in need in Iraq.
Alsammarae was involved in opposition meetings during the 1990s and leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2003 he was elected as Minister of Electricity and increased electricity production to the highest level seen since the invasion in 2003, despite insurgent attacks, an archaic electrical system, lack of fuel for generators, and lack of qualified personnel.
member in order to obtain a scholarship to continue his studies in the USA. In January 1980, Dr. Alsammarae resigned from the party upon news of the execution of two brothers-in-law and one cousin. All three men had been accused of planning a coup attempt against Saddam Hussein
; Alsammarae was later implicated in the alleged coup attempt by Iraqi Intelligence officials. Upon resignation from the Baath Party, Dr. Alsammarae became active in the Iraqi opposition as well as numerous Iraqi charity and humanitarian groups. In the 1990s, Dr. Alsammarae was elected to serve as national board member in the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and used his role to work on behalf of those suffering under economic sanctions
in Iraq. In addition to giving numerous lectures on the detrimental effects of the sanctions on the population of Iraq, Dr. Alsammarae organized numerous humanitarian shipments of food, clothing and medicine to Iraq.
In 2002, the USA brought numerous Iraqi opposition groups and active opposition members together to discuss the potential for a post-Saddam Iraq. Dr. Alsammarae was in attendance at these meetings, and was elected by fellow opposition members to be one of the 65 members of the Coordinating Committee. At these meetings, he advocated the establishment of a secular, democractic Iraq within its currently defined borders. He was strongly opposed to the creation of an Iraqi federation as well as de-Baathifaction, both of which were policies put forth by Ahmed Chalabi
. Dr. Alsammarae has criticized Chalabi's policies and behavior in many instances, including a Washington Times article where Dr. Alsammarae denounced Chalabi's move to a former Hussein palace. Such criticism, though supported by many Iraqi politicians, has rendered Chalabi a relentless political enemy to Dr. Alsammarae, and a web page deriding Dr. Alsammarae can be found on Chalabi's political party website.
by Paul Bremer and was the first minister of electricity in post-Saddam Iraq. Dr. Alsammarae inherited an archaic system providing an output of around 3,000MW (whereas demand is at minimum, 9,000 MW). Additionally, the national grid suffered from daily attacks and theft, lack of manpower and fuel shortages (despite developing new power plants and refurbishing old ones, the Ministry of Oil refused to give the Ministry of Electricity the oil necessary to fuel the power plants). In 2003 and 2004, Dr. Alsammarae complained about the lack of fuel on numerous occasions and tried to involve external mediation to solve the loggerhead. Unfortunately, he was unable to encourage the Ministry of Oil to supply fuel to the Ministry of Electricity and this situation persists and remains a problem for the Ministry of Electricity today.
Despite the numerous problems Dr. Alsammarae faced in modernizing Iraq's electrical system, the electrical output observed during Dr. Alsammarae's leadership has not since, been matched. In fact, since his departure from the ministry, electricity generation steadily declined to hit all-time lows in October 2006, a full year and a half after he left office. Furthermore, according to current Minister of Electricity, Mr. Kareem Waheed, the ministry is still "...working on projects [started] by Dr. Alsammarae".
In addition to his work in the ministry, Dr. Alsammarae spearheaded efforts towards reconciliation with Iraqi insurgent groups, in an attempt to get them to lay down their arms and join the political fold. Dr. Alsammarae reached out to "..11 separate Iraqi resistance groups, and at least four of the most important resistance groups --- including the Baathist Jaish Muhammad -- gave him a formal letter declaring their willingness to pursue talks with Washington and the interim regime in Baghdad". Additionally, Dr. Alsammarae worked hard to lobby the Iraqi parliament and other Iraqi politicians to reject Chalabi's policy of debaathification. The policy stated that anyone who was a previous Baath Party Member would be ineligible to serve in the current Iraqi regime. This meant that all public servants, including the police and army, were fired over night. Chalabi was able to garner enough support to push the policy through, and enact it into law in 2003; however as of 2009, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki revoked the law and called for reconciliation efforts, instead.
was elected as Prime Minister. Dr. Alsammarae remained active in political pursuits such as garnering further support for reconciliation as well as encouraging Sunni's to be more active in politics. However, in the face of growing Iranian control over Iraq, Dr. Alsammarae began to openly criticize the Iranian regime, its presence in Iraq and the Iraqi politicians allied to Iran. This criticism would make him the target of an assassination attempt in January 2006, which resulted in two of his body guards sustaining critical injuries, requiring they be rushed to Amman, Jordan for treatment. The attempt failed, but was followed with charges of corruption leaked to the media by the Iraqi government. Details of the charges are scant, and to date, no Iraqi Government spokesman has revealed any information concerning the charges Dr. Alsammarae faced.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Dr. Alsammarae heard of these charges while he was at his home in Amman, Jordan. He decided to travel to face these charges, but found that he would, instead, be held without being formally charged by the Commission for Public Integrity. The CPI is heavily criticized by Iraqi politicians, with many, such as Massoud Barazani (Governor of Kurdistan), declaring that the CPI is a tool for political retribution and the "...settling of political scores". Furthermore, the head of the CPI was, himself, accused of corruption by the Iraqi Parliament. Regardless, on 11 October 2006 Dr. Alsammarae was convicted of misapropriation of funds regarding a $200,000 generator purchased for the southern province of Maysan. He filed an appeal, and was acquitted of wrong doing in December 2006. Unfortunately, he was not let out of detainment, and instead was told that he would be taken outside the green zone for finger printing before he would be released. Meanwhile, records show that his family repeatedly contacted the State Department and Senators from their home state of Illinois, asking that they look into his case. On Oct. 16, 2006, Obama's Senate office received a faxed plea from Alsammarae's son, Ramy Alsammarae. "Alsammarae's son claimed in the fax that his father was railroaded for exposing Iraqi government incompetence, and feared his life was in danger." Fearing his safety outside the green zone and cleared of wrong-doing, Alsammarae escaped the unlawful detention and traveled to Amman, Jordan and back to the United States.
Dr. Alsammarae, who has been cleared of all allegations and acquitted by the highest appeals court in Iraq, has continued his work in Iraqi politics. He is currently working with the Iraqi National List
, headed by Iyad Allawi
. He has concentrated his work on continuing efforts in the area of reconciliation and is actively working to bring Iraqis of various ethnic and religious backgrounds together to form one, nationalistic, secular and democratic front.
Iraqi National List
The Iraqi National List is a coalition of Iraqi political parties who ran in the December 2005 Iraqi elections and got 8.0% of the vote and 25 out of 275 seats...
(headed by Iyad Allawi
Iyad Allawi
Ayad Allawi is an Iraqi politician, and was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq prior to Iraq's 2005 legislative elections. A prominent Iraqi political activist who lived in exile for almost 30 years, the politically secular Shia Muslim became a member of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, which...
) and has fought hard for political reconciliation among Iraq's political parties as well as against the policy of de-Baathification, since his resignation as Minister of Electricity. Previously, he was a prominent member of the Iraqi Opposition and lived in exile in the U.S. for over 30 years.
Dr. Alsammarae currently resides in Chicago, IL with his wife and three children.
Family, childhood, and education
Alsammarae was born in 1951 to a prominent Sunni Muslim family in Baghdad, Iraq, the second youngest of 13 children. His father, Jasim, was born and raised in SamarraSamarra
Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700....
. He later founded one of Iraq's largest construction companies. From a young age, Alsammarae was intimately familiar with Iraqi politics due to his family's presence in this sphere. Many of his close relatives served as ambassadors, cabinet advisors, and members of parliament. Growing up in the 1960s, Alsammarae received his primary and secondary education in Baghdad, Iraq. He then attended the University of Baghdad
University of Baghdad
The University of Baghdad is the largest university in Iraq and the second largest Arab university following the University of Cairo.- Nomenclature :Both University of Baghdad and Baghdad University are used interchangeably....
, earning his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 1973.
Upon obtaining his bachelors degree, he completed his obligatory military duty (required of all men over the age of 18 in Iraq) by serving in the Air Force. After completing this requirement, Alsammarae received a scholarship to obtain post-graduate education in the U.S.. He obtained his Masters in Electrical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
(IIT) in Chicago, IL in 1978 and began work on his Ph.D.
By 1980, Alsammarae had resigned from the Baath Party, and his scholarship to complete his PhD was revoked. In order to complete his studies at IIT, he worked as a teaching assistant and was able to continue with his education, obtaining his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1983. After graduation, Alsammarae resided and worked in Chicago, IL as an electrical engineer while also becoming active in the Iraqi opposition. During the 1990s, he became involved with Iraqi charity organizations, sending food, clothing and medicine to those in need in Iraq.
Alsammarae was involved in opposition meetings during the 1990s and leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2003 he was elected as Minister of Electricity and increased electricity production to the highest level seen since the invasion in 2003, despite insurgent attacks, an archaic electrical system, lack of fuel for generators, and lack of qualified personnel.
Early political career
Dr. Alsammarae was a member of the Iraqi Baath Party during the 1970s while a young college student in Baghdad, Iraq and was required to remain a Baath PartyBaath Party
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party was a political party mixing Arab nationalist and Arab socialist interests, opposed to Western imperialism, and calling for the renaissance or resurrection and unification of the Arab world into a single state. Ba'ath is also spelled Ba'th or Baath and means...
member in order to obtain a scholarship to continue his studies in the USA. In January 1980, Dr. Alsammarae resigned from the party upon news of the execution of two brothers-in-law and one cousin. All three men had been accused of planning a coup attempt against Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
; Alsammarae was later implicated in the alleged coup attempt by Iraqi Intelligence officials. Upon resignation from the Baath Party, Dr. Alsammarae became active in the Iraqi opposition as well as numerous Iraqi charity and humanitarian groups. In the 1990s, Dr. Alsammarae was elected to serve as national board member in the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and used his role to work on behalf of those suffering under economic sanctions
Economic sanctions
Economic sanctions are domestic penalties applied by one country on another for a variety of reasons. Economic sanctions include, but are not limited to, tariffs, trade barriers, import duties, and import or export quotas...
in Iraq. In addition to giving numerous lectures on the detrimental effects of the sanctions on the population of Iraq, Dr. Alsammarae organized numerous humanitarian shipments of food, clothing and medicine to Iraq.
In 2002, the USA brought numerous Iraqi opposition groups and active opposition members together to discuss the potential for a post-Saddam Iraq. Dr. Alsammarae was in attendance at these meetings, and was elected by fellow opposition members to be one of the 65 members of the Coordinating Committee. At these meetings, he advocated the establishment of a secular, democractic Iraq within its currently defined borders. He was strongly opposed to the creation of an Iraqi federation as well as de-Baathifaction, both of which were policies put forth by Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Chalabi
Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi is an Iraqi politician. He was interim oil minister in Iraq in April-May 2005 and December-January 2006 and deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006. Chalabi failed to win a seat in parliament in the December 2005 elections, and when the new Iraqi cabinet was...
. Dr. Alsammarae has criticized Chalabi's policies and behavior in many instances, including a Washington Times article where Dr. Alsammarae denounced Chalabi's move to a former Hussein palace. Such criticism, though supported by many Iraqi politicians, has rendered Chalabi a relentless political enemy to Dr. Alsammarae, and a web page deriding Dr. Alsammarae can be found on Chalabi's political party website.
Minister of Electricity
In August 2003 , Dr. Alsammarae was appointed to serve as Minister of Electricity under the Coalition Provisional AuthorityCoalition Provisional Authority
The Coalition Provisional Authority was established as a transitional government following the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, members of the Multi-National Force – Iraq which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003...
by Paul Bremer and was the first minister of electricity in post-Saddam Iraq. Dr. Alsammarae inherited an archaic system providing an output of around 3,000MW (whereas demand is at minimum, 9,000 MW). Additionally, the national grid suffered from daily attacks and theft, lack of manpower and fuel shortages (despite developing new power plants and refurbishing old ones, the Ministry of Oil refused to give the Ministry of Electricity the oil necessary to fuel the power plants). In 2003 and 2004, Dr. Alsammarae complained about the lack of fuel on numerous occasions and tried to involve external mediation to solve the loggerhead. Unfortunately, he was unable to encourage the Ministry of Oil to supply fuel to the Ministry of Electricity and this situation persists and remains a problem for the Ministry of Electricity today.
Despite the numerous problems Dr. Alsammarae faced in modernizing Iraq's electrical system, the electrical output observed during Dr. Alsammarae's leadership has not since, been matched. In fact, since his departure from the ministry, electricity generation steadily declined to hit all-time lows in October 2006, a full year and a half after he left office. Furthermore, according to current Minister of Electricity, Mr. Kareem Waheed, the ministry is still "...working on projects [started] by Dr. Alsammarae".
In addition to his work in the ministry, Dr. Alsammarae spearheaded efforts towards reconciliation with Iraqi insurgent groups, in an attempt to get them to lay down their arms and join the political fold. Dr. Alsammarae reached out to "..11 separate Iraqi resistance groups, and at least four of the most important resistance groups --- including the Baathist Jaish Muhammad -- gave him a formal letter declaring their willingness to pursue talks with Washington and the interim regime in Baghdad". Additionally, Dr. Alsammarae worked hard to lobby the Iraqi parliament and other Iraqi politicians to reject Chalabi's policy of debaathification. The policy stated that anyone who was a previous Baath Party Member would be ineligible to serve in the current Iraqi regime. This meant that all public servants, including the police and army, were fired over night. Chalabi was able to garner enough support to push the policy through, and enact it into law in 2003; however as of 2009, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki revoked the law and called for reconciliation efforts, instead.
Post Ministry
Dr. Alsammarae resigned from the Ministry in May 2005 as Ibrahim Al-Jafari, an Iraqi politician with strong ties to IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
was elected as Prime Minister. Dr. Alsammarae remained active in political pursuits such as garnering further support for reconciliation as well as encouraging Sunni's to be more active in politics. However, in the face of growing Iranian control over Iraq, Dr. Alsammarae began to openly criticize the Iranian regime, its presence in Iraq and the Iraqi politicians allied to Iran. This criticism would make him the target of an assassination attempt in January 2006, which resulted in two of his body guards sustaining critical injuries, requiring they be rushed to Amman, Jordan for treatment. The attempt failed, but was followed with charges of corruption leaked to the media by the Iraqi government. Details of the charges are scant, and to date, no Iraqi Government spokesman has revealed any information concerning the charges Dr. Alsammarae faced.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Dr. Alsammarae heard of these charges while he was at his home in Amman, Jordan. He decided to travel to face these charges, but found that he would, instead, be held without being formally charged by the Commission for Public Integrity. The CPI is heavily criticized by Iraqi politicians, with many, such as Massoud Barazani (Governor of Kurdistan), declaring that the CPI is a tool for political retribution and the "...settling of political scores". Furthermore, the head of the CPI was, himself, accused of corruption by the Iraqi Parliament. Regardless, on 11 October 2006 Dr. Alsammarae was convicted of misapropriation of funds regarding a $200,000 generator purchased for the southern province of Maysan. He filed an appeal, and was acquitted of wrong doing in December 2006. Unfortunately, he was not let out of detainment, and instead was told that he would be taken outside the green zone for finger printing before he would be released. Meanwhile, records show that his family repeatedly contacted the State Department and Senators from their home state of Illinois, asking that they look into his case. On Oct. 16, 2006, Obama's Senate office received a faxed plea from Alsammarae's son, Ramy Alsammarae. "Alsammarae's son claimed in the fax that his father was railroaded for exposing Iraqi government incompetence, and feared his life was in danger." Fearing his safety outside the green zone and cleared of wrong-doing, Alsammarae escaped the unlawful detention and traveled to Amman, Jordan and back to the United States.
Dr. Alsammarae, who has been cleared of all allegations and acquitted by the highest appeals court in Iraq, has continued his work in Iraqi politics. He is currently working with the Iraqi National List
Iraqi National List
The Iraqi National List is a coalition of Iraqi political parties who ran in the December 2005 Iraqi elections and got 8.0% of the vote and 25 out of 275 seats...
, headed by Iyad Allawi
Iyad Allawi
Ayad Allawi is an Iraqi politician, and was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq prior to Iraq's 2005 legislative elections. A prominent Iraqi political activist who lived in exile for almost 30 years, the politically secular Shia Muslim became a member of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, which...
. He has concentrated his work on continuing efforts in the area of reconciliation and is actively working to bring Iraqis of various ethnic and religious backgrounds together to form one, nationalistic, secular and democratic front.