[A-List] US imperialism: Woolsey to run Iraq?

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Iraqis fear Americans may run country after war
By Roula Khalaf in London and James Harding in Washington
Financial Times: April 3 2003

The suggestion that prominent American figures will take part in the running
of postwar Iraq has alarmed many Iraqi exiles, as well as European and Arab
officials.

Among the more bizarre elements of US plans is the suggestion that James
Woolsey, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, should be
considered for the top job in the administration of Iraq.

Although the White House has apparently overruled a Pentagon suggestion that
Mr Woolsey be assigned to the ministry of information, he is said to still
be under consideration for other posts.

Randy Scheunemann, executive director of the committee for the liberation of
Iraq - a powerful Washington group in which Mr Woolsey is a member of the
advisory board - says the former head of the CIA is being looked at for a
number of positions. "Jim would be a huge asset in many areas. He has a very
clear vision of how to build a democratic society in the aftermath," says Mr
Scheunemann.

Notwithstanding the talents of Mr Woolsey, the concern is that appointing US
figures to oversee the post-Saddam Hussein government will reinforce
perceptions of a neo-colonial American attitude and further undermine the US
stated aim of "liberating" Iraqis.

"It makes no sense for the US to involve itself in details," argues Adnan
Pachachi, the former Iraqi foreign minister who has been lobbying for the UN
to oversee the postwar transition. "It's not what Iraqis want and what the
international community wants, it's not even what the US's allies want."

Within the administration, there is a wider argument raging over the shape
of a future Iraqi government.

US plans call for a military administration headed by General Tommy Franks,
head of the US Central Command, or a deputy, and a form of civil
administration directed by Jay Garner, a retired general who is now head of
the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian assistance.

The expectation is that Mr Garner will oversee the civilian administration
and attach US officials to various ministries, then gradually pass over
control to an Iraqi administration.

Imad Dia, an exiled Iraqi from Michigan, is now running the Iraq
Reconstruction and Development Council, which comes under Mr Garner's
authority. This entity has been recruiting Iraqis and training them to
assist in a future administration.

But disagreements have emerged between the State Department and the
Pentagon, stretching from the minutiae of personnel appointments in postwar
plans to the defining question of the Bush administration's approach to
multilateralism and the role of the United Nations.

One of the most serious differences between the Pentagon and the State
Department is over the role of the exiled opposition, particularly the Iraqi
National Congress, headed by Ahmad Chalabi, an ex-banker.

People familiar with the debate say the Pentagon sees a far greater role for
the INC than the State Department, which views Mr Chalabi with suspicion and
questions whether he has any backing inside Iraq.

Some experts and former US officials blame the INC for raising expectations
in Washington that Iraqis, particularly the southern Shia population, would
celebrate the arrival of US troops - a jubilation yet to be seen.

"It's the INC that has always told the US that there would not be any
significant resistance and that people would greet the US with flowers,"
says Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the UK's University of Warwick.

Mr Chalabi has appeared to distance himself from the US by forging closer
ties with Iran in recent months. He has also criticised the US failure to
involve opposition groups in the military campaign, blaming this for the
ambivalent reaction seen by Iraqis in the south. But diplomats say the INC
remains the Pentagon's favourite group to help run Iraq.

The other main groups are the two Kurdish parties based in northern Iraq and
Sciri, the Iranian-backed shia group.

"It would not surprise me if minions at the State Department were trying to
block everybody close to the Iraqi democrats from playing a role in
post-Saddam Iraq because many don't support democracy in Iraq," charges Mr
Scheunemann, whose committee supports the INC. "The enemies of the INC are
truly shameless in their argument."

The emerging difference of opinion between the State Department and the
Pentagon over the Iraqi appointees - not to mention the proposed US names -
for the next Iraqi administration is being echoed in a debate inside the
White House.

Administration officials have recently tempered their public enthusiasm for
Iraqi exiles, emphasising the role that Iraqis in the country will play in
constructing the next government.

The White House has been stressing that the next leadership will come from
inside Iraq: "The interim Iraqi authority is to be a group made up both of
external opposition, people who have worked on behalf of the Iraqi people on
the outside, but also with heavy representation of people who are on the
ground in the country."