Rami Loya
Reuben Sasson knows all about living a double life: after his father was hanged in Baghdad’s central square as an Israeli spy, Reuben helped his mother survive by living as Aziz, a displaced Palestinian Muslim. As a young adult, Reuben escapes to Israel, determined to follow in his father’s footsteps by training to become a high-level Mossad agent secretly operating in hostile Arab countries.
Now Reuben must become Aziz again to take on the greatest mission of all: infiltrating and rising to the highest level of the PLO, where he can secretly pursue peace objectives. But how can he lead the PLO without shedding innocent Israeli blood? And what happens when he falls in love with the enemy?
Rami Loya was born in Baghdad, Iraq. When he was a young boy, his family emigrated to Israel where he grew up and served three years in the Israeli Defense Forces. He continued his higher education in engineering and business in England and the United States.
He drew inspiration for CHAIRMAN-X from the incredibly rich yet turbulent history of his ancestors in Babylon combined with his own life experiences.
He is the author of a business management book, Incentive Compensation Strategies for the New Millennium, published in 2000.
He resides in Maryland with his wife and children.
Baghdad, 1952
The streets of Baghdad overflowed with jubilant, festive crowds with car horns blowing, coachmen urging their horses on with long bamboo whips, and street vendors announcing their great bargains. People dressed in holiday clothing crowded the streets and sidewalks leading to Bab-el-Mu’athem, the city’s central square. Old, young, families, and passersby—all gathered for the big event.
Sounds of hammering and sawing filled the air. A construction crew was putting the finishing touches on a large wooden stage located in the square’s center. In the middle of the stage, two tall wooden poles and a sturdy cross bar had been erected. The crowds filling the square to its capacity waited eagerly for the show to begin. Within minutes, two heavy-set, muscular men wearing black kafiyas over their heads walked onto the stage and attached two braided ropes to the thick cross bar.
The crowd cheered the two men, chanting in steady, piercing voices:
“Hang the Zionist traitors!”
“Slaughter the conspirators!”
“Slay the infidels!”
“Alaahu-Akbar, Alaahu-Akbar.” God is great! God is great!
The crowd started singing Iraqi national songs, stomping their feet steadily on the ground and waving their shoulders from side to side. Fathers hurled young children onto their shoulders to get a clear view of the unfolding scene.
Only a few blocks away at the notorious Abu Greib jail, two men were being readied for their final journey. Just a few hours earlier they had been convicted of treason against the Iraqi government and its people after being accused of three bombing incidents in Baghdad during the past year—incidents in which they vehemently denied any part. However, after enduring many days and nights of torture by the brutal Iraqi secret service, they’d been promised their passports and a quick deportation to Israel if they signed a so-called confession. That promise was never kept: their fate had been sealed by an order from the high echelons. The Iraqi leadership had to give the public answers to the unresolved bombings. The Iraqi secret service needed to cover up its failure to identify and arrest the leadership of the Jewish underground movement, which was working diligently to help Jews flee
