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Former viceroy L. Paul Bremer did 14 months of hard service in Iraq, so it is a special shame to see that he is now squandering that legacy by blaming others for what's gone wrong there. All the more so when he doesn't even have the history right. That's our reaction to yesterday's political tempest over quotes from Mr. Bremer faulting the Pentagon and Bush Administration for having too few troops in Iraq. To hear Mr. Bremer's version of it, he arrived in Baghdad on May 6, 2003, to find "horrid" looting and instability, and an "atmosphere of lawlessness" that...

WASHINGTON - The White House staunchly defended its Iraq (news - web sites) policy Tuesday as new questions emerged about President Bush (news - web sites)'s prewar decisions and postwar planning: An impending weapons report undercut the administration's main rationale for the war, and the former head of the American occupation said the United States had too few troops in Iraq after the invasion. Four weeks before Election Day, Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) pounced on the acknowledgment by former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer that the United States had "paid a big price" for insufficient troop levels. Kerry...

WASHINGTON - The United States did not have enough troops in Iraq (news - web sites) after ousting Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and "paid a big price" for it, says the former head of the U.S. occupation there. L. Paul Bremer said Monday that he arrived in Iraq on May 6, 2003 to find "horrid" looting and a very unstable situation. "We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," Bremer said during an address to an insurance group in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. The group released a summary of his...

Paul Bremer says the thought of his new home in Chester, Vermont is what got him through his 14 months in Iraq. "I love it. I've always liked Vermont. What's nice is the contrast. It's green and you don't see a lot of green in Iraq. It's pretty brown and dusty." Bremer and his wife bought their home here a year ago, just two weeks before he was called to Iraq. He was the United States' top representative there, in charge of setting up the new government and rebuilding the country. His post ended on June 28th, when the U.S....

<p>WHEN L. PAUL BREMER, fresh from stepping down as American regent in Iraq, visited the White House on June 30, he was greeted by President Bush with a bear hug. Half-jokingly, Bush insisted a White House photographer take a picture of them and drew attention to the signature soft leather boots Bremer wears with a coat, tie, dress shirt, and cufflinks. As the two walked outside from the Oval Office to the Old Executive Office Building, Bush spotted press photographers and immediately threw his arm around Bremer in a gesture of public support. Later that day, Bremer joined the president for a workout in the presidential gym, just as he had last November during an earlier visit to the White House.</p>

More cases of possible mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners have come to Congress' attention and need investigation by the Pentagon, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., also said that L. Paul Bremer, the former head of the American-led occupation in Iraq, may testify about prison abuse at a congressional hearing next week. "I'm not trying to, you know, drop a little hint here. I'm just saying ... each day that comes along, new incidents that occurred in the past" are revealed and will need to be investigated, Warner said. Despite a number of...

On June 28, Paul Bremer gave a farewell speech as he stepped down as U.S. administrator in Iraq. Some Iraqis, at least, found the talk moving. Ali Fadhil, 34, a resident in pediatrics at a Baghdad hospital, watched it on television with a group in the cafeteria. He said Bremer's words choked up even a onetime supporter of April's Shiite uprising. We have this information about the Bremer speech because Fadhil and his brothers are bloggers who file their own reports on the Internet ( iraqthemodel.blogspot.com). I had never heard of "Iraq the Model," but Margaret Wylie of Newhouse News...

In an article meant to assert outgoing civilian administrator Paul Bremer had a distant relationship with the Iraqi people, the Los Angeles Times falsely claimed he departed without addressing the nation. The paper said Bremer "left without even giving a final speech to the country -- almost as if he were afraid to look in the eye the people he had ruled for more than a year." But Bremer in fact delivered a speech broadcast on Iraqi TV, which was covered by the U.S. media. The Times addressed the error, but did not necessarily correct itself, reported Fox News host...

Media: The U.S. administrator said goodbye to the Iraqis, and at least some were moved by his words. It was the type of story that the prestige press tries to ignore.Actually, two influential dailies, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, did more than ignore Paul Bremer's speech. They simply denied that it occurred. Bremer's remarks aired on Arab-language TV on June 28, the day the U.S. restored Iraqi sovereignty. One Iraqi, a 33-year-old Baghdad physician named Ali who runs the Iraq the Model Web log with his two brothers, reported how a busy hall went quiet when Bremer...

From Wapo's man in Baghdad We have received a message from the Washington Post's man in Baghdad, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, regarding Ambassador Bremer's farewell address. It's a long message, but of sufficient interest and importance that I'm simply posting the message in its entirety below: For those of you who have been interested in the subject of why The Washington Post reported that U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer did not deliver a "farewell address" before departing Iraq on June 28, let me provide some detail and context. I am The Post's bureau chief in Baghdad and the author of the article...

Los Angeles Times Reporter Defends the Indefensible This is a follow-up to my post yesterday, in which I noted that the Los Angeles Times had falsely claimed on its front page that Paul Bremer had failed to give a farewell speech to Iraq -- and implied that this alleged failure was due to cowardice: L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator for Iraq, left without even giving a final speech to the country — almost as if he were afraid to look in the eye the people he had ruled for more than a year.Although I rarely write the Reader's...

WASHINGTON — The former top U.S. administrator in Iraq said Sunday that the country's new democracy would be "sloppy and messy" as the interim government confronts a continuing insurgency. L. Paul Bremer (search) said he would give Iraq's interim government high marks so far for its approach to insurgents.

On Sept. 8, 2003, Bush administration officials awoke to find that Paul Bremer III had written an op-ed piece in The Washington Post laying out a seven-step plan for the democratization of Iraq. Bremer hadn't cleared the piece with his higher-ups in the Pentagon or the White House, and here he was describing a drawn-out American occupation. Iraqis would take their time writing a constitution, and would eventually have elections and take control of their country. For some Bush officials, this was the lowest period of the entire Iraq project. They knew they couldn't sustain an occupation for that long,...

Former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer said yesterday's televised images of Saddam Hussein arraigned before an Iraqi judge in a Baghdad courtroom marked a milestone for the fledgling government.     "It's hard if you haven't been there to realize the emotions that surround Saddam among Iraqis," Mr. Bremer told editors and reporters of The Washington Times in an hourlong interview conducted at the Old Executive Office Building.     "It's an extremely emotional thing for Iraqis to see Saddam as they saw him today, facing a justice that he denied his own people."     As the trial progresses and the new government finds its...

A London-based Arabic-language newspaper says Paul Bremer's speedy departure from Iraq the same day as the turnover of power to the new Baghdad government is because he left a 35-year-old Iraqi lover behind. Bremer, 63, is married with two children. He spent a year in Iraq as the U.S. administrator overseeing the transition to autonomy, which came two days before yesterday's deadline set by President Bush. Bremer did surprise many, including most of his staff, by leaving the same day for the United States. According to the report in Al-Hayat, the unnamed woman worked in the presidential protocol office during...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The new government of Iraq faces daunting obstacles in restoring security and tranquility, but Prime Minister Iyad Illawi is "a tough guy" and can do the job, the former U.S. administrator said Wednesday. Standing on the North Lawn of the White House for appearances on several morning network news shows, L. Paul Bremer III voiced confidence that the new Iraqi government will surmount violence and stabilize conditions on the ground. "The most important priority of this new government is, of course, security," he said on CBS's "The Early Show." "They must get security down to the level...

President Bush met with the former U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, after they both met with Iraq-Americans regarding the current situation in Iraq. Sudan: The Bush Administration called on all parties to the conflict in Darfur to adhere to the ceasefire, to respect the rights of civilians, to allow the free movement of humanitarian workers and relief supplies, and to work in good faith toward a negotiated settlement. President Directs Powell To Travel to Sudan Short on pictures today but there are a few newcomers from the NATO summit. Enjoy your visit to the Dose @ Sanity...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 28 — In a surprise, secret ceremony that was hastily convened to decrease the chances of more violence, United States officials today handed over sovereignty to Iraqi leaders, formally ending the American occupation two days earlier than scheduled. In a tightly guarded room behind high walls, L. Paul Bremer III, the top United States administrator, presented a formal letter recognizing Iraq's sovereignty to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Just 30 or so people were present for what Dr. Allawi described as the "historic" handover. A few hours later, Mr. Bremer flew off on a military plane, leaving...

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi (C) smiles as US civil administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer (R) shakes hand with the head of the Iraqi Supreme Court Midhat Mahmoud after handing over legal documents of Iraq's sovereignty during a simple ceremony in Baghdad. Iraq received its sovereignty from the US-led coalition after 14 months of occupation(AFP/Saeed Khan) U.S. Administrator L. Paul Bremer, right, shows a document to Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, center, and Iraqi Chief Justice Midhat al-Mahmoudi, left, transfering national sovereignty to Iraq at a ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq Monday, June 28, 2004.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)  

GLIMMERS OF hope can be found amid the chaos preceding Wednesday's formal transfer of sovereignty in Iraq. Iraqi officials are already in charge of all 25 government ministries, running -- with the help of about 200 U.S. and British consultants -- a bureaucracy of more than a million workers. Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister taking over from occupation leader L. Paul Bremer III, is presenting to his nation a face of amazing courage, refusing to be intimidated by the price on his head and the brutal violence around him. Most important, there is a palpable yearning among the Iraqi...