[Marxism] US, UN seek new Iraq "leaders" -- Baathist veterans gain, Chalabi on skids

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The US now seems to be seeking aid from former Saddamist officials
against the struggle for national independence and real sovereignty.
After all, noone in Iraq has the decades of experience and considerable
success in policing and suppressing the Sunnis and Shia of Iraq that the
Baathist officials have had -- certainly not the United States, as
events have shown.  So it may turn out to be the US occupation, not the
Iraqi fighters against it, that ends up restoring a partially "Baathist"
(in reality, Baathists turned employees of US imperialism) regime in
Iraq.
Fred Feldman

WashingtonPost.com
U.S., U.N. Seek New Leaders For Iraq
Chalabi and Others Coalition Relied on May Be Left Out
By Robin Wright and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 24, 2004; Page A01



The United States and the top U.N. envoy to Iraq have decided to exclude
the majority of the Iraqi politicians the U.S.-led coalition has relied
on over the past year when they select an Iraqi government to assume
power on June 30, U.S. and U.N. officials said yesterday.

The latest shift in policy comes as the U.S.-led coalition has to
resolve some contentious and long-standing issues before the transfer
takes place. Earlier this week, the coalition moved to allow former
Baath Party members and military officers to return to government jobs.

At the top of the list of those likely to be jettisoned is Ahmed
Chalabi, a Shiite politician who for years was a favorite of the
Pentagon and the office of Vice President Cheney, and who was once
expected to assume a powerful role after the ouster of Saddam Hussein,
U.S. officials acknowledged.

Chalabi has increasingly alienated the Bush administration, including
President Bush, in recent months, U.S. officials said. He generated
anger in Washington yesterday when he said a new U.S. plan to allow some
former officials of Hussein's ruling Baath Party and military to return
to office is the equivalent of returning Nazis to power in Germany after
World War II.

Chalabi has headed the committee in charge of removing former Baathist
officials. In a nationwide address yesterday designed to promote
national reconciliation, U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer said
complaints that the program is "unevenly and unjustly" administered are
"legitimate" and that the overall program has been "poorly implemented."


That criticism may curtail Chalabi's influence over the removal of
former officials -- and his power over the employment and income
prospects of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Washington is also seriously considering cutting off the $340,000
monthly stipend to Chalabi's party, the Iraqi National Congress,
according to a senior administration official familiar with the
discussions. This would be a major change, because the INC has received
millions of dollars in U.S. aid over the past decade as the primary
vehicle for supporting the Iraqi opposition.

Chalabi is part of a wider problem, however. Polls indicate that most of
the 25 members of the Iraqi Governing Council have little public support
nine months after they were appointed. The lack of popular backing is
the main reason the United States and United Nations are seeking a new
body to govern Iraq before national elections are held in January 2005,
U.S. and U.N. officials said.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is in charge of picking the new
government in consultation with the U.S.-led coalition, made clear
yesterday that the council should disband. "They have said twice, not
once, in official documents they signed, that our term will end on the
30th of June," he said in an interview on ABC's "This Week With George
Stephanopoulos" to be aired Sunday.

"All opinion polls, and a lot are taken in Iraq, say that people want
something different" than expansion of the council because they fear
council members "will clone themselves. And why do you want to have
that?" Brahimi asked.

U.S. and U.N. officials generally fear that the continued involvement of
too many council members will contaminate efforts to create a credible
Iraqi government, they said.

Under a new U.N. proposal, Brahimi is expected to return to Baghdad
around May 1 to finish discussions and then select Iraqis for 29
positions -- a prime minister to head the government, a ceremonial
president and two vice presidents, plus 25 cabinet officers, U.S.
officials said.

In his most specific language to date, Brahimi told ABC that these
positions should be filled by "mainly technocrats" who are "widely
representative" of Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious communities.

Rather than excluding Chalabi or any other Governing Council member by
name from the new government, he said that "people who have political
parties and are leaders of their parties should get ready to win the
election . . . and stay out of the interim government."

Some council members might be retained, but more likely in cabinet posts
rather than in the top four jobs, U.S. officials said. Others could be
tapped to participate in a national consultative assembly, which Brahimi
has proposed should advise the provisional government.

All council members will then be free to test their political appeal in
the January elections to see how they would fare without U.S. support,
U.S. officials added.

With only nine weeks left until the handover, the United Nations, the
coalition and Iraqis are scrambling to come up with lists of candidates
for the top jobs, which Brahimi will compare when he returns to Iraq,
U.S. officials said.

But the political battles are not yet over, U.S. and U.N. officials
warned. Chalabi, who went into exile in 1958, is still pressing for the
council to be retained in some form; he also has been a leading critic
of Brahimi, a Sunni Muslim and former Algerian foreign minister, and his
proposals for Iraq.

Acknowledging that Chalabi has challenged him as biased against the
Shiites, Brahimi said any such suggestion is "silly." Without referring
to Chalabi, he said those who are "sniping" against him on the religious
issue "have agendas that have nothing to do with the fact that I am a
Sunni."

But he said opponents of his new plan for Iraq's transition "may very
well succeed in derailing what we are trying to do. But I think if they
succeed, it will not be very good for Iraq or for the international
community."


C 2004 The Washington Post Company








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