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From the Washington Times (http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030408-21709219.htm):
Saddam foes set to form council
By Sharon Behn
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Iraqi opposition leaders from inside and outside the country are to meet in southern Iraq later this week to establish a consultative council, the first step toward the creation of a postwar interim government.
U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is expected to fly from Washington for the meeting, where at least some Iraqis expect London-based opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi to be chosen as head of the new council.
That would represent a victory for the Pentagon in a struggle with the State Department and the CIA about the future leadership of Iraq.
The political future of Iraq was also at the top of the agenda for talks last night between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Northern Ireland.
"The meeting [in southern Iraq] will define what the Iraqi interim authority is," said Zaab Sethna, a spokesman for Mr. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, contacted by telephone in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah, where the meeting will be held.
"We would like it to be a provisional government which takes power soon after Saddam [Hussein´s] demise, so that Iraqis can rule Iraq rather than foreigners," the spokesman said.
Participants differed about whether the meeting would be held Thursday or Saturday. One Iraqi close to the process said it was widely expected that Mr. Chalabi would be named to head the new council, which will prepare Iraq for an interim government.
But Mr. Chalabi will face some stiff opposition.
"Mr. Chalabi represents himself. He will not be accepted as leader. That is out of the question for us," said Mohammed Sabir of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two groups that control the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
U.S. forces airlifted Mr. Chalabi to Nasiriyah on Sunday with a contingent of 700 fighters who Mr. Sethna said will confront the remnants of Saddam's forces and help in the delivery of humanitarian aid. They will report to retired Lt. Gen Jay Garner, chief of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
Gen. Garner's team of U.S. civilian experts and Iraqi advisers is expected to preside over Iraq's 23 ministries and agencies until an all-Iraqi interim authority can be established to run the country and prepare for general elections.
The Pentagon and the State Department have been at odds over who should lead that interim authority, with the Defense Department favoring Mr. Chalabi and State supporting Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister.
While denying that he had a personal favorite, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington yesterday that the two departments had resolved the dispute.
"That sort of 'who's going to do what' is taking place, and my understanding is it's pretty well sorted through," he said at a Pentagon briefing. The defense and intelligence ministries, he said, would be the last to be handed over to the Iraqis.
In addition to the Iraqi National Congress and PUK, expected participants in the Nasiriyah meeting include the Iraqi National Accord, the Tehran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Mr. Chalabi met with the leaders of the PUK, KDP and SCIRI on Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city of Dukan to discuss postwar scenarios and how to meld the various opposition groups into a new administration, Mr. Sabir said.
Missing from the list of invitees is an international group of Iraqi exiles who for months have been providing the State Department with detailed proposals on issues including a new constitution and banking reform.
The State group "has been completely sidelined," said one U.S.-based Iraqi exile who has advised the Bush administration on how best to reconstruct the country. The source asked not to be identified.
However, others said Mr. Chalabi's role is unsettled.
"The battle isn't fully over yet [although] the Department of Defense has made some good ground," said one Senate Republican source, who accused the State Department of rejecting Mr. Chalabi out of a desire to cater to the sensitivities of other governments in the region.
"We're talking about ... a battle over whether or not Mr. Bush's vision of pushing democracy in the region will play out. It's ideology being translated into details," the source said.
Mr. Chalabi is admired by his advocates for his combination of Iraqi background and pro-Western consciousness. He comes from a wealthy Baghdad family that fled into exile when the Ba'ath Party took power in 1958. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago before opening a software company in London. He has long been a lobbyist for the overthrow of Saddam.
Detractors say he is an opportunist with little experience in Iraq who will not be respected or accepted by those within the country, particularly if he comes to power with the backing of the U.S. military.
In a classified report distributed last week and obtained by United Press International, the CIA said that Mr. Chalabi would not be an effective leader because he has little popular support among Iraqis on the ground. But the timing of the report led Mr. Chalabi's supporters to question the agency's motives.
The State Department denies that it has anything against Mr. Chalabi personally and says that Iraqis both inside and outside the country should participate in the future government.
"Our view of an Iraqi interim authority is something that's run — chosen by Iraqis, that it should be representative of all the groups in Iraq. It should include members of the exile community who have worked very hard over a number of decades for the liberation of Iraq, for the freedom of the Iraqi people. It should also include people inside Iraq," spokesman Philip Reeker said yesterday.
•Nicholas Kralev contributed to this report.
Saddam foes set to form council
By Sharon Behn
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Iraqi opposition leaders from inside and outside the country are to meet in southern Iraq later this week to establish a consultative council, the first step toward the creation of a postwar interim government.
U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is expected to fly from Washington for the meeting, where at least some Iraqis expect London-based opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi to be chosen as head of the new council.
That would represent a victory for the Pentagon in a struggle with the State Department and the CIA about the future leadership of Iraq.
The political future of Iraq was also at the top of the agenda for talks last night between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Northern Ireland.
"The meeting [in southern Iraq] will define what the Iraqi interim authority is," said Zaab Sethna, a spokesman for Mr. Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, contacted by telephone in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah, where the meeting will be held.
"We would like it to be a provisional government which takes power soon after Saddam [Hussein´s] demise, so that Iraqis can rule Iraq rather than foreigners," the spokesman said.
Participants differed about whether the meeting would be held Thursday or Saturday. One Iraqi close to the process said it was widely expected that Mr. Chalabi would be named to head the new council, which will prepare Iraq for an interim government.
But Mr. Chalabi will face some stiff opposition.
"Mr. Chalabi represents himself. He will not be accepted as leader. That is out of the question for us," said Mohammed Sabir of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two groups that control the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
U.S. forces airlifted Mr. Chalabi to Nasiriyah on Sunday with a contingent of 700 fighters who Mr. Sethna said will confront the remnants of Saddam's forces and help in the delivery of humanitarian aid. They will report to retired Lt. Gen Jay Garner, chief of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
Gen. Garner's team of U.S. civilian experts and Iraqi advisers is expected to preside over Iraq's 23 ministries and agencies until an all-Iraqi interim authority can be established to run the country and prepare for general elections.
The Pentagon and the State Department have been at odds over who should lead that interim authority, with the Defense Department favoring Mr. Chalabi and State supporting Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister.
While denying that he had a personal favorite, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington yesterday that the two departments had resolved the dispute.
"That sort of 'who's going to do what' is taking place, and my understanding is it's pretty well sorted through," he said at a Pentagon briefing. The defense and intelligence ministries, he said, would be the last to be handed over to the Iraqis.
In addition to the Iraqi National Congress and PUK, expected participants in the Nasiriyah meeting include the Iraqi National Accord, the Tehran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Mr. Chalabi met with the leaders of the PUK, KDP and SCIRI on Wednesday in the northern Iraqi city of Dukan to discuss postwar scenarios and how to meld the various opposition groups into a new administration, Mr. Sabir said.
Missing from the list of invitees is an international group of Iraqi exiles who for months have been providing the State Department with detailed proposals on issues including a new constitution and banking reform.
The State group "has been completely sidelined," said one U.S.-based Iraqi exile who has advised the Bush administration on how best to reconstruct the country. The source asked not to be identified.
However, others said Mr. Chalabi's role is unsettled.
"The battle isn't fully over yet [although] the Department of Defense has made some good ground," said one Senate Republican source, who accused the State Department of rejecting Mr. Chalabi out of a desire to cater to the sensitivities of other governments in the region.
"We're talking about ... a battle over whether or not Mr. Bush's vision of pushing democracy in the region will play out. It's ideology being translated into details," the source said.
Mr. Chalabi is admired by his advocates for his combination of Iraqi background and pro-Western consciousness. He comes from a wealthy Baghdad family that fled into exile when the Ba'ath Party took power in 1958. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago before opening a software company in London. He has long been a lobbyist for the overthrow of Saddam.
Detractors say he is an opportunist with little experience in Iraq who will not be respected or accepted by those within the country, particularly if he comes to power with the backing of the U.S. military.
In a classified report distributed last week and obtained by United Press International, the CIA said that Mr. Chalabi would not be an effective leader because he has little popular support among Iraqis on the ground. But the timing of the report led Mr. Chalabi's supporters to question the agency's motives.
The State Department denies that it has anything against Mr. Chalabi personally and says that Iraqis both inside and outside the country should participate in the future government.
"Our view of an Iraqi interim authority is something that's run — chosen by Iraqis, that it should be representative of all the groups in Iraq. It should include members of the exile community who have worked very hard over a number of decades for the liberation of Iraq, for the freedom of the Iraqi people. It should also include people inside Iraq," spokesman Philip Reeker said yesterday.
•Nicholas Kralev contributed to this report.
