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Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0421/p01s03-woiq.htm
One Town's Test of Iraqi Democracy
(Christian Science Monitor) - Warren Richey In Umm Qasr, Najim Abed Mahdi could suddenly think the unthinkable. He and a handful of other Iraqis banded together to form their own town council because their community needed fresh water, electricity, garbage collection, and security from looters. By taking up the mantle of leadership in a fashion banned by Hussein, the Umm Qasr council may have made history - creating what U.S. officials see as the first Iraqi model of a grass-roots democracy in a once-barren political landscape.