Qadir Obeidi

Lt. Gen. Abdul Qadir Mohammed Jassim Obeidi al-Mifarji' (عبدالقادر محمد جاسم عبيدي المفارجي) was the Defence Minister of Iraq in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from 2006 to 2010. He was not reappointed in the Iraqi Council of Ministers approved on 21 December 2010; as a result, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is the acting defence minister.

Life
Obeidi was born in Ramadi and is a Sunni Arab former general (major general) in the army of Saddam Hussein. He finished his primary, mid, and high school education in Baghdad, then he attended the Iraqi military college (الكلية العسكرية) in 1966 and graduated with honors in 1968. In 1973, the Iraqi ministry of defense, sent him to study in the Sovet Union, to have a specialization in Tanks, and Aerodynamics, in Vestrel academy in Moscow and graduated in 1975.

He told the Council of Representatives that he had been demoted after opposing the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and was sentenced to seven years jail in 1994. In 2003, he joined the new Iraqi army, serving first as the commander of the operations room and then commander of military operations in western Iraq. Prior to his appointment as Minister on 8 June 2006, he was commander of the infantry commando units.

During his confirmation hearing in the Council of Representatives one Assembly member accused him of being a "war criminal in a military campaign against the city of Fallujah."

He is not affiliated with any political party but his appointment was strongly backed by the Sunni Arab-led Iraqi Accord Front.

In March 2007 he said that "corruption and militias inhabit the halls" of the Defense Ministry, "fictitious employees" were "rampant" and he is pressured to restructure his ministry along the lines of power-sharing deals.

In October 2008 he announced that all soldiers and other employees of the Ministry would be forbidden from joining any political party, running for political office, working on any political campaign or even attending political demonstrations.

He was banned from the 2010 Iraqi elections due to alleged links with the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.