Nation & World News
Iraqi holdovers could derail Bush’s policy plan
Feud among Iraqi council
members could stymie
President Bush's plan to
institute an Arab democracy
By Tom Lasseter
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
BAGHDAD — A fight brewing
within the U.S.-appointed Iraqi gov
ernment could sabotage the Bush ad
ministration's dream of building a
secular Arab democracy in the heart
of the Middle East.
As the July 1 date to dissolve the
U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing
Council draws nearer, some council
members are pushing to remain in
office even after a new national as
sembly is created to replace
the council.
Under the proposal, which has
been discussed only in private meet
ings, the group might advise the new
government or, some argue, cast de
ciding votes on legislation passed by
the assembly.
"The danger is that the general as
sembly would make a decision and
the governing council would dis
agree,” said Baghdad University po
litical science professor Hamid Shi
had. "There would be political
chaos."
It's not clear how many council
members are behind the push, but a
series of interviews points to a coali
tion of Sunni Muslims, who dominat
ed Iraq under Saddam but are a
minority in the country and on the
council. They're apparently being
joined by Iraqis such as former exile
leader Ahmed Chalabi, a Shi'ite Mus
lim who doesn't have much support
from average Iraqis but remains the
darling of some officials in Vice Presi
dent Cheney's office and civilians in
the Pentagon.
Opponents of the idea say it's a
ploy by council members who fear
they don't stand a chance in local
elections for the assembly. Some
also fear the Bush administration
might quietly support the notion as
a means of maintaining U.S. influ
ence in Iraq.
"They want (the council) to have
some special status and some power,"
said Adnan Pachachi, the governing
council's current president, a rotating
position. "I think it's probably a reluc
tance on the part of some who have
power to let go."
A battle over an attempt by the
council to continue past July could
tear apart a nation already wracked by
violence, said Hajim al Hassani, a
spokesman for council member
Mohsen Abdul Hameed. A series of
bombings in the last few weeks has
killed dozens and wounded hundreds
in apparent turf batdes among sectari
an and political groups.
An unelected senate of people ap
pointed by the American occupation
administration could only exacerbate
the situation, al Hassani said.
"There would be no democracy in
Iraq — that's the danger when you
put yourself into power instead of
the people putting you in," al Has
sanisaid.
While no one has taken responsi
bility for the violence, the motivation
is obvious, said council member Ab
dul Karim al Muhammadawi. Those
who want control, he said, are going
to play on sectarian divisions to lead
Iraq to civil war.
The situation, some say, points to
what average Iraqis have known all
along: In creating the governing
council, the Americans foisted a
group of politicians on a population
that, at the very least, dislikes them.
Many of the council members were
exiles during Saddam Hussein's
reign, and many Iraqis think they
left when times were hard and have
returned to grab a piece of the na
tion's wealth.
In a country where many lack elec
tricity or running water, council mem
bers are carted around in Lexus sport
utility vehicles and Mercedes coupes
with dark windows. They rarely make
public appearances and are surround
ed by armed guards, even behind the
walls of the compounds where many
of them live.
Ali Nasser, a salesman at a down
town Baghdad electronics shop, said
the council is pointless. "They cannot
control the situation in Iraq," Nasser
said. "Saddam is gone, and now we
have 25 Saddams."
The top American civilian in Iraq,
L. Paul Bremer, announced in No
vember that both his Coalition Provi
sional Authority and the council,
which he hand-picked, will cease to
exist on July 1. In their place, he said,
will be a national assembly of some
270 Iraqis chosen through a caucus
like process in the country's 18
provinces. That body will begin set
ting up a new Iraqi government that's
to remain in place until open elec
tions are possible.
After Bremer made the plan pub
lic, many observers took it as a sign
that he'd caved to pressure from a
Bush administration that was eager
to begin withdrawing U.S. troops
from Iraq before November's elec
tions and a religious edict issued ear
lier in the year by Shi'ite Muslim
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. That
edict, or fatwa, proclaimed that the
framers of the Iraqi constitution
should be elected officials.
Bremer's original plan had been to
get a new Iraqi constitution written
before ending the U.S.-led occupa
tion, but when he revealed his inten
tions to a November meeting of the
governing council, several members
came close to walking out, according
to one of the members who was
there. Shortly thereafter, some coun
cil members began talking about
staying past July 1 in small, and then
larger, meetings.
Asked about the implications of the
council staying on, Sheikh Jamal
Nasir al Ta'aee, whose tribal group
numbers around 100,000 in central
Iraq, responded: "If they stay, we will
use politics to ask them to leave. Or,
we will get our guns and fight them."
Those who favor the idea say
they're just trying to ensure a peaceful
transition to the new assembly.
"There is a practical reality that
there will be some time before the na
tional assembly can (put together) a
government," said Entifadh Qanbar,
spokesman for governing council
member Chalabi. "A continuity must
be there between the governing coun
cil and this new period."
Others go further.
"We should not hand all of what
we've done to people we don't
know, to people who have goals we
don't know," said council member
Naseer Chaderji.
An American spokesman said that
as far as the coalition is concerned, the
council will be dissolved on Nov. 15.
Qanbar's face darkened slightly
when he heard that.
"The Americans are not part of this
discussion; it is a conversation
amongst governing council mem
bers," he said, sitting at a table in a
Baghdad country club, his pinstripe
suit neatly pressed and his hair slicked
back. Two young men holding AK-47
rifles flanked him.
The future, Qanbar said, belongs
to Iraqis and to those willing to
lead them.
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Bush to aim NASA agenda at flights to moon, Mars
The President's program will
emphasize exploration
by cutting funding in other
areas of NASA’s budget
By Gwyneth K. Shaw
The Orlando Sentinel (KRT)
WASHINGTON — President
Bush will announce his much-an
ticipated new vision for the Ameri
can space program Wednesday af
ternoon, outlining a revamping of
NASA aimed at sending people
back to the moon and, eventually,
on to Mars.
While many of the long-term de
tails will be filled in later, the propos
al's main purpose is to refocus the
agency on the exploration of space
with humans and robots.
Sources say the plan includes retir
ing the aging space shuttle fleet by
2010 — if not sooner — and effec
tively ending American participation
in the International Space Station
Project by 2013. The first manned
lunar missions could happen as
soon as the middle of that decade,
with Mars being the ultimate goal
many years later.
It is the clearest agenda for the Na
tional Aeronautics and Space Ad
ministration since President John F.
Kennedy's 1961 speech promising to
put a man on the moon by the end
of that decade. It is also expected to
be a tonic for the agency, battered by
the Feb. 1, 2003 loss of the space
shuttle Columbia and its seven
member crew.
The president will also call for rela
tively modest budget increases for
NASA, although firm details are un
likely to be revealed before Bush's
2005 budget proposal is released Feb.
2. The majority of the money for the
new initiatives, however, will come
from within NASA's existing budget,
which is supposed to be roughly
$15.5 billion for 2004.
Mothballing the shuttle fleet will
free up roughly $4 billion each year,
and scaling back NASA's role in the
station project will release at least an
additional $1.5 billion annually.
But there will have to be cuts in
other programs, and some difficult
choices, said Howard McCurdy, a
professor at American University
and the author of several books on
the space program.
"I think now we're going to find
out how much people in NASA and
the space community really want to
go to Mars," McCurdy said. "Do they
really want to go to Mars to the extent
they transform the space program,
and stop doing a lot of things that are
very nice to do?"
During a news conference Tues
day at the Summit of the Americas
meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, Bush
was asked whether the U.S. can af
ford a major shift in the space
program.
"Yes, I'll be saying that tomorrow,"
Bush answered. "I really don't want to
give you the details because I want
you to pay attention to what I have to
say. But I will tell you that the spirit is
going to be one of continued
exploration...
In fact, the president has already
been criticized by lawmakers and
budget hawks for proposing such an
ambitious program at a time when
the nation is facing the fiscal repercus
sions of the Iraq invasion, a growing
deficit and the prospect of funding a
new prescription drug benefit for
Medicare recipients.
But one key lawmaker — U.S. Sen.
Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and
a staunch supporter of the space pro
gram — repeated Tuesday his mantra
that space exploration can't be done
on the cheap.
"It's unrealistic to think we're going
to be back on the moon with 5 per
cent-a-year increases," said Nelson,
who flew on board the shuttle Co
lumbia in 1986 while serving as a U.S.
representative. "But that's where lead
ership is called for."
McCurdy said that with the mon
ey from the shuttle and station pro
grams, going back to the moon is
achievable from a financial per
spective. But it will take more than
money to make the program work,
he said.
"It calls for a massive concentration
of both technical and organizational
skill," he said. "Both were necessary to
get to the moon the first time, and
both will be necessary, in different
ways, to get there again."
For Nelson, who has consistently
called on the White House to weigh
in with its ideas before Congress
tackles NASA's future, the president's
will to make his vision a reality is
the key ingredient.
"There was a major initiative pro
posed in 1961, and it was successful
because it had the full and consistent
support of the president," Nelson
said. "The next major, bold initiative
was by (President) Bush the first, and
it fizzled because it did not have the
full support and consistent support of
the president."
(c) 2004, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
2004
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