IRAQ NEWS, JANUARY 16, 2003
I. OPPOSITION MEETING POSTPONED, NYT, JAN 16
As the NYT reports today, the planned meeting of the Iraqi opposition in
Kurdish-controlled Northern Iraq has been postponed for at least two weeks.
As a knowledgeable source explained to "Iraq News," the US picked up "a
spike" in threats (what else would one expect from Saddam?) and then told
the KDP (which controls the territory where the meeting will be held) that
the US could not provide protection. The KDP took this to mean that the US
wasn't serious.
Danielle Pletka, vice-president of AEI, told the NYT that "the delay
signaled ambivalence among some administration officials about the creation
of a provisional government run by Iraqi dissidents once Mr. Hussein is
ousted. . . . 'Now we see who is really in disarray,' she said, dismissing
frequent criticism of the Iraqi opposition-in-exile."
Other sources suggested to "Iraq News" that there are also other
problems. The White House does not have effective people in charge of
dealing with the Iraqi opposition. That job has fallen to Zalmay Khalilzad,
formerly NSC adviser on the Middle East, aided by Ben Miller, a CIA
detailee, who reflects the Agency's hostility to the opposition and a
democratic future for Iraq.
One administration official described Khalilzad as "clueless," while
the opposition complained he was simply not engaged. The original plans for
the conference were drawn up with Khalilzad last month during the opposition
meeting in London, but no follow-up followed. Only last Friday did
Khalilzad begin working on the issue, with this result.
I. OPPOSITION MEETING POSTPONED
The New York Times
January 16, 2003
THE DISSIDENTS
Hussein's Foes Put Off Talks in North Iraq; Safety Is Issue
By Judith Miller
The Iraqi opposition yesterday postponed for at least two weeks what was
supposed to be the first meeting of dissidents on Iraqi territory in a
decade after Bush administration officials said the United States could not
guarantee security, according to Iraqi dissidents and administration
officials.
About 65 opponents of President Saddam Hussein had been scheduled to meet on
Jan. 22 in Salahuddin, a former resort town 30 miles northeast of Erbil, in
the Kurdish-controlled no-flight zone of northern Iraq. But in meetings with
Kurds and other dissidents this week, Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House
special envoy to the Iraqi opposition, said that the administration would
prefer more time to provide the kind of security that the Kurdish groups in
northern Iraq had requested.
Several dissidents said that the delay - until Feb. 5 - means that if
military conflict erupts before then, the meeting might not take place at
all. They also said that Iran had offered to have the meeting on its
territory if the dissidents wanted to stick to the originally scheduled
date.
But a Kurdish leader and administration officials said that the Kurdish
hosts of the session had decided to postpone the conference for purely
security and logistical reasons, and that they were still determined to meet
on Iraqi soil before a conflict to designate a small group of opposition
figures to help lead a transition to democracy once Mr. Hussein is gone.
"We are determined to have this meeting inside Iraq. That is where the world
and Saddam Hussein will take this seriously," said Hoshayr Zebari, a senior
official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
But several dissidents, surprised and angered by the delay, said the
decision cast into doubt the Bush administration's commitment to having an
independent opposition play a significant role in a post-Hussein Iraq.
Francis Brooke, the Washington-based adviser to the Iraqi National Congress,
the opposition's main umbrella group, said that the White House had known
since the first successful meeting of Iraqi dissidents in London last
December that a second meeting was scheduled to be held inside Iraq in
mid-January. "When the United States publicly commits to support a meeting
at a certain date, and when that commitment is not met, it casts the
commitment into doubt in the minds of the Iraqi opposition," Mr. Brooke
said.
Danielle Pletka, vice president of the American Enterprise Institute, said
the delay signaled ambivalence among some administration officials about the
creation of a provisional government run by Iraqi dissidents once Mr.
Hussein is ousted. She said recent reports indicating that the
administration favored an American military occupation of Iraq and
transitional rule not by Iraqi dissidents, but by United Nations officials,
suggested that the United States was "dreaming of an Iraqi-free zone in
post-Saddam Iraq."
"Now we see who is really in disarray," she said, dismissing frequent
criticism of the Iraqi opposition-in-exile as inept, politically divided,
and unable to map out a coherent political role for itself in a future Iraq.
Mr. Zebari and administration officials rejected such criticism, insisting
that the Kurds had made the decision to postpone the session in northern
Iraq. "The U.S. was, and remains prepared to send a senior delegation to the
meeting in northern Iraq when the Iraqis convene," a senior administration
official said.
He also noted that Washington had provided security for northern Iraq for
over a decade, and remained committed to doing so. "We look forward to
working with the free Iraqis in the struggle against Saddam Hussein," the
official said.
Another administration official noted that there are several reasons for
concern about security. In addition to anxiety about what Mr. Hussein might
do to try to disrupt the meeting or harm participants, the Kurdish part of
Iraq was also the base of Ansar al-Islam, a group of some 600 armed Iraqi
and Arab Islamic militants who the official said are "affiliated with Al
Qaeda" and have been battling Kurdish forces for over a year.
"Iraqi opponents of Saddam will be unable to play any role at all in a
post-Saddam Iraq if they are dead," the official observed. "I think the
Kurds were justifiably nervous about hosting a meeting without adequate
security."
Mr. Zebari dismissed concern about Ansar al-Islam, saying it was no threat
to the meeting.
Some Iraq experts said that the Kurds had only requested additional security
at the beginning of this week. Mr. Khalilzad told Iraqi dissidents at
several meetings in the last three days that extra protection was not
possible now, but might be available in early February.
