Worryingly for Saddam, some Shia clerics were now beginning to use more sectarian language, and Khomeini’s Iraqi adepts were agitating against the state. Saddam put enough restrictions on Khomeini that the Iranian cleric finally opted to leave. He tried to go to Kuwait but was refused entry. Traveling with Khomeini were his son Ahmad, the LMI operative Yazdi, and two other aides. In France, Ghotbzadeh, the flamboyant revolutionary, and Banisadr, the Parisian intellectual, quickly arranged for three-month visas after convincing Khomeini that Paris would afford two key advantages: freedom to
...more
