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I realize the following is

UNNEWSWORTHY AS EXTENDED NEWS;

Talks about a Moslem Cleric in Iraq who reportedly DOOMED OUR TRANSITION PLANS IN IRAQ so the following should be avoided at all costs by the 'allergic to God/religion talk' folks;

Talks about why our Bremer plan etc. stalled in local terms so it's of absolutely no interest to anyone but rabidly idiotic and dumb religionists freaks.

AND

was taken from a Christian website; titled: ON WATCH IN WASHINGTON so it's obviously from loonies, by loonies for loonies.

So, read at your own risk oh brilliant, lofty, intellectually superior FREEPERS. I wouldn't want to be responsible for contaminating any superior minds so grandly free of such humble, 'irrational,' 'mean,' 'idiotic' sensibilities and perceptions as my own.

Perhaps the allergic to 'religious'/God related issues and aspects of life need to stop first and be sure they've taken their allergy meds before reading further.

. . . etc.

from:

http://www.ifapray.org/OnWatch/OnWatch2003Archive/onwatch-Nov_26_2003.asp

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IRAQI CLERIC DOOMED U.S. PLAN FOR TRANSITION IN IRAQ - The unraveling of the Bush administration's script for political transition in Iraq began with a fatwa. The religious edict, handed down in June by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric, called for general elections to select the drafters of a new constitution. He dismissed U.S. plans to appoint the authors as "fundamentally unacceptable."

His pronouncement, underestimated at first by the Bush administration, doomed an elaborate transition plan crafted by U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer that would have kept Iraq under occupation until a constitution was written, according to American and Iraqi officials involved in the process.

While Bremer feared that electing a constitutional assembly would take too long and be too disruptive, there was a strong desire on his own handpicked Governing Council to obey Sistani's order. With no way to get around the fatwa, and with escalating American casualties creating pressure on President Bush for an earlier end to the occupation, Bremer recently dumped his original plan in favor of an arrangement that would bestow sovereignty on a provisional government before a constitution is drafted.

Bremer's unwillingness to heed the fatwa until just a few weeks ago may have delayed the country's political transition and exacerbated popular anger at the occupation, Iraqi political leaders said. "We waited four months, thanks to Bremer," said one council member, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We could have organized this [transition] by now had we started when Sistani issued his fatwa. But the Americans were in denial."