<< The presence of Mr. Chalabi and 15 other former exiles on the council is seen as a triumph for the Pentagon and a considerable defeat for the State Department in their ongoing struggle over Iraq policy. The State Department was working overtime to sideline the former exiles, sources said. >>
The New York Sun July 14, 2003 Chalabi and INC Emerging In the New Iraqi Council FIRST BABIES, NOW 'THE BIRTH OF A NEW COUNTRY' By ADAM DAIFALLAH Staff Reporter of the Sun WASHINGTON - A majority of members of Iraq's new governing council, announced yesterday, are or have been affiliated with the Iraqi National Congress, the main umbrella organization of opposition groups to Saddam Hussein that was founded in 1992. The naming of a 25-member "governing council" by L. Paul Bremer, the American civil administrator, is the first step toward self-government in Iraq and represents a major victory for formerly exiled political leaders, like the INC's Ahmad Chalabi, who fought Saddam from abroad. The presence of Mr. Chalabi and 15 other former exiles on the council is seen as a triumph for the Pentagon and a considerable defeat for the State Department in their ongoing struggle over Iraq policy. The State Department was working overtime to sideline the former exiles, sources said. The council, which will have limited authority under Mr. Bremer, is a colorful mix of personalities representing a broad range of ideologies, backgrounds, and political experience. Other than Mr. Chalabi of the INC, members include a deputy of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has strong backing from Tehran, Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim; the leader of the Iraqi National Accord, a group mainly of former Baathists, Ayad Allawi, and the leaders of the two main Kurdish factions, Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. An 80-year-old former Iraqi foreign minister who has strong backing from the Arab Gulf states, Adnan Pachachi, is also on the council, as is a member of the Iraqi Communist Party, Hamid Majid Moussa. The council held its first meeting yesterday and is expected to select leaders today. Three council members are women. Missing from the council is the formerly exiled Sharif Ali bin Al-Hussein, the head of the Constitutional Monarchy Movement and Iraq's would-be king. The first order of business for the council was to abolish the national holidays established by Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and declaring April 9 - the day Saddam fell from power - as a new national holiday. A spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, Entifadh Qanbar, said in an interview from Baghdad that his group is pleased with the composition of the council. "I thought the meeting today was excellent. Considering it was 25 people, some of them have never met before,you would think some chaos would happen, but it didn't," Mr. Qanbar said. The council has 13 Shiites Muslims - members of the majority religious sect in Iraqi - five Kurds, five Sunnis, one Christian and one Turkoman.The Shiite majority is significant because of the oppression they suffered under Saddam's rule. "I think this is a very positive step forward," Mr. Qanbar, himself a Sunni, said. Iraqi opposition leaders were originally pushing for a national conference of Iraqis this summer to select a sovereign interim government, but Mr. Bremer nixed that idea, saying he would appoint a consultative group of Iraqis to advise him instead. The creation of the appointed but still power-wielding governing council suggests Mr. Bremer met the Iraqi opposition halfway. Mr. Qanbar said that although the governing council has "sufficient authority," it would work to get more and eventually all authority into the hands of Iraqis "as soon as possible." The council will have the power to name ministers and approve the 2004 budget, but final control of Iraq still rests with Mr. Bremer. Yet to be seen is whether the council can convince the Iraqi people that it represents them, although they never had a chance to vote on its members. The Americans ruling Iraq say a national election there is not yet practical. The council members, some dressed in traditional robes, others in Islamic clerical garb and some in business suits, sat in a semicircle of chairs on a stage at a downtown Baghdad convention center. Mr. Bremer and other dignitaries watched from the front row. "I helped deliver thousands of Iraqi babies, and now I am taking part in the birth of a new country and a new rule based on women's rights, humanity, unity and freedom," Raja Habib Al-Khuzaai, one of the female members and the director of a maternity hospital in southern Iraq, said. Many of the council members were vehemently pro-American in comments made during the news conference, and several criticized Arabic television channels and the British Broadcasting Corporation for coverage they saw as pro-Saddam. Mr. Chalabi condemned continuing attacks on American forces in the country. "The Iraqi people consider" the American troops "forces of liberation and they don't consider these attacks as acts of 'resistance,'" Mr. Chalabi said. The panel is meant to be the forerunner of a larger constitutional assembly that will have about a year to draft a new constitution. By mid- to late- September, the 200- to- 250-strong Constitutional Convention is expected to take office and begin deliberations. The convention is expected to take nine months to a year to produce a draft constitution, after which Iraqis will hold a referendum to vote on the document. Free elections to pick a government are expected to follow.
