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"Our Jewel." Even as they pressure Kassem, the Communists continue to build him up as a popular hero. And Kassem, nothing loath, plays to the hilt the part of the dedicated leader. A teetotaler and nonsmoker, he has not been more than a few miles out of Baghdad in nine months, works himself at a pace that would have sent most men to the hospital long since. Sleeping on a couch in his office, Kassem arises about 8:30, breakfasts on eggs and fruit, and works at his desk until lunch, which he takes in a metal mess tin in the nearby council room. At 3 he goes out for a tour through the city in his tan 1958 Chevrolet station wagon. He sits in the middle seat, with armed aides in front and behind. A Land Rover full of troops follows. At the gate a crowd swarms around his car to thrust petitions—for jobs, for property claims, or simply for money—at the open window. Then, as the mob screams "Kassem is our jewel!", the motor caravan heads for the small house in the outskirts where Kassem lived until the revolution. At the house Kassem plays briefly with his eight dogs, all of whom he calls "Lassie." But the main purpose of the visit is to take a bath; the Defense Ministry has no bathroom.
After this interlude, Kassem may drop in on his brother, a grain merchant, or, rarely, at an embassy reception. By 8 he is back at the office, and at 9 Cabinet meetings start, invariably to run on until 2 or 3 a.m. Afterward, Kassem frequently approaches a minister with the question: "Would you like some tea with milk?" This means that the Premier wants to talk over some particular problem for another hour. After a last round of talk with officers of his palace guard, Kassem finally turns in at 4 or 5 a.m.
New Status, New Problems. Months ago Western diplomats in Baghdad set up four checkpoints to measure Iraq's slide toward Communism: 1) abrogation of the Baghdad Pact; 2) purging of anti-Communist and pro-Nasser elements of the army; 3) execution of Aref and officials of the old regime; 4) distribution of arms to the People's Resistance militia. The first point has been passed, and Kassem is giving way on the second. But he is still holding out against Communist demands for Aref's execution. "Haste always ends in repentance, and we will not make haste," he said recently. And though Communist Party Secretary Salem Adil last week again called on the government to "arm the People's Resistance Force" as a protection against Nasser, Kassem has so far ignored such demands.