Who Is Who In The U.S.-Picked Iraqi Governing Council

Herewith a list and brief profile of the provisional members of the interim council, charged with laying the groundwork for Iraqi national elections, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP):  

Iyad Allawi, 57, a Shiite former Iraqi intelligence officer from the Iraqi National Accord Movement. A surgeon whose uncle was health minister under the ousted monarchy. He was a member of the Baath party from 1961 until 1971 before fleeing the country for Lebanonand then London. He helped to set up the National Accord Movement in 1991.

Ahmad Chalabi, 58, a secular Shiite who is the leading figure in the Pentagon-backed Iraqi National Congress (INC). A doctor in mathematics from the University ofChicago, he comes from a wealthy family and founded the INC in 1992. Considered close to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, he fled Iraqin 1958 only to return after Saddam's fall in 2003. Found guilty in a Jordanian court in the 1990s of embezzlement -- a conviction he says was politically motivated under pressure from Saddam's regime.

Akila Hashemi, a Shiite member of the committee advising the interim foreign ministry under the US-led coalition. She holds a doctorate in French literature and advised on international relations under the former regime.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, number two in the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), the main Shiite Muslim group. He lived in exile in Iranfor 23 years up until May. He heads the armed Badr brigades.

Ibrahim Jafari, a spokesman for the fundamentalist Shiite Dawa party. A medic, he joined the Dawa movement in 1966. The group, the oldest Islamist movement in Iraq, was founded in 1957-8 and is based on the ideology of reforming Islamic thought and modernizing religious institutions. The party was banned in 1980 when Jafari fled the country.

Wahel Abdul Latif, 53, governor of the southern city of Basrawho has served as a judge since 1982 and is currently deputy head of the Basracourt. He was imprisoned for one year by the secret police under Saddam's regime.

Karim Mahud Hattab al-Mahamadawi, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hatem, born in 1958, and a tribal chief from the southern marshlands near Amarah. He spent most of his life leading guerrilla resistance against Saddam's regime from secret hideouts across the southern marshlands. He spent seven years in jail until 1986 when he disappeared into the marshlands only to stun Saddam's forces with sporadic and spectacular resistance attacks. Born into one of the region's largest Arab Shiite Muslim tribes.

Hamid Majid Mussa, 62, a Shiite head of the Iraqi communist party and trained as an economist. Originally from Babylon, south of Baghdad, he lived for several years in Iraqi Kurdistan, largely out of Saddam's control after the 1991 Gulf War.

Wasfat al-Rubai, a doctor previously exiled in Londonwho recently returned to Iraq. Age and political allegiance unknown.

Ezzedine Salim, head of the Islamic Dawa movement in the southern city of Basra.

Samir Mahmud, a businessman. Age and political allegiance unknown.

Sheikh Barak Abu Sultan, head of union of lawyers and human rights league in the central city of Babylon. Age and political allegiance unknown.

Mohammed Barhul Uloom, 80, a liberal ayatollah who ran the Islamic Ahl ul-Bayt centre in London. He fled Iraqin 1991 after some of his family were killed by Saddam's regime and returned to Iraqwith the fall of the Baath Party.

Rajiha Habib Kurzai, a maternity doctor who lived in Londonin the 1960s. Her political allegiance unknown.

Adnan Pachachi, 81, a Sunni former foreign minister from 1965 to 1967 before the Baath Party came into power. A liberal, he heads a group called Independent Iraqis for Democracy (IID) and lived for 23 years in the United Arab Emiratesand in London.

Nasseer al-Shadershi, 70, a Sunni Muslim lawyer who heads the Iraqi Democratic Current. He became a lawyer in 1959 after studying in Cairoand Baghdadbefore working in the agricultural sector and lived in Iraqthroughout Saddam's regime.

Mohsen Abdul Hamid, a Sunni secretary general of the Islamic Party, the Iraqi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1960 and banned the following year.

Ghazi al-Yawar, 45, a businessman originally from Mosulin the north. Nephew of Sheikh Mohsen Adil al-Yawar, head of the powerful Shamar tribe, unusual in comprising both Sunnis and Shiites. He lived for 15 years in Saudi Arabia where he worked in business, returning to Iraq only in June.

Salahedin Bahaeddin, 53, an Islamist close to the Muslim Brotherhood. He was born into a religious family in the Kurdish north and studied religion. He founded the Islamist Union Party after 1991 when the region shook off Baghdad's control and became its secretary general in 1994. The party is the third Kurdish grouping after the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Massud Barzani, 56, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), set up by his father. He became a Peshmerga fighter in 1963, taking over the party helm on his father's death in 1979. Fiercely opposed to Saddam, who had three of his brothers killed, and repeatedly had his village razed. He has shared power in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq since 1991 along with rival Jalal Talabani.

Jalal Talabani, 70, a lawyer by training and head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He was born nearErbil and during the 1960s was a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party under Barzani's control. He split from the party in 1975 to form the PUK, which controls the southeast of Kurdistan, while the KDP controls the northwest.

Mahmud Ali Osman, 60, a medic originally from Sulamaniyah. He held various posts in the Kurdistan Democratic Party before leaving the group and moving to London where he founded the Kurdish Socialist Party in 1975. He later moved to Erbil, northern Iraq.

Dahran Nurredin, a Kurdish judge in his 50s, originally from the northern oil city of Kirkuk. He was condemned to three years in jail under Saddam for criticizing a decision of the Revolutionary Command Council, the highest authority in the Baath party regime. He was released after one year under an amnesty. He served as head of one of Baghdad's courts.

Yonnadam Yussef Kanna, 50, a Christian engineer who heads the Assyrian Democratic Movement. He served as a transport "minister" in the first Kurdish regional assembly then as trade minister in theKurdistan regional government set up inErbil .

Shangul Shapuk, a 35-year-old teacher and grass roots activist. She is an artist who teaches at the academy of fine arts in the northern city of Mosul. S