Mahdawi and some of his family members "were" stricken with a serious case of what Mahdawi dubbed "influenza" in 1962, but it is unknown whether this ailment was related to the CIA's plan to poison him; Nathan J. Citino observes that "the timing of the illness does not correspond exactly to that of the 'incapacitating' operation as described in the cited testimony." Mahdawi was ultimately assassinated by Ba'athists following the February 1963 Ramadan Revolution in Iraq.