Iraqis Submit Timetable to End U.S. Occupation

BAGHDAD/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraq's interim authority has submitted a timetable for self-rule and asked the U.N. Security Council for a new resolution that would end the U.S.-led occupation in June.

Security on the ground in Iraq was intense as troops went on alert for attacks marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan after the grisly weekend killings of U.S. soldiers.

In a letter to the Security Council on Monday, Jalal Talabani, president of the Iraqi Governing Council, promised to establish the "principle of civilian control over the Iraqi armed and security forces."

The U.S.-appointed council said it would select a "provisional legislative body" no later than May 31, 2004, which would elect a provisional government by the end of June.

Then "the Coalition Provisional Authority will be dissolved and the occupation...will end," Talabani's letter said.

The future of their country was on the minds of Iraqis as thousands of Muslims gathered at Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque, one of Sunni Islam's holiest shrines, to pray and participate in the Eid al-Fitr, the celebration that marks the end of a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting.

"I don't think of this as Eid. If the Americans left and there was a new government, with law and order, then every day would be Eid," said Abdel Wadoud Doukhi as he left the mosque.

U.S. military helicopters clattered low overhead, keeping watch following several small explosions earlier in the day and after three U.S. soldiers were killed in two attacks on Sunday.

Since Washington declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1, 185 soldiers have died in action. Washington blames the attacks on insurgents loyal to toppled leader Saddam Hussein.

President Bush met families of some of the fallen soldiers during a visit to a Colorado army base and vowed to answer the attacks with more force.

"We're sending a clear message: Anyone who seeks to harm our soldiers can know that our great soldiers are hunting for them," Bush told troops and families at Fort Carson on Monday.

On Sunday, witnesses said two U.S. soldiers were shot in the northern city of Mosul, before being dragged from their car in broad daylight and beaten and stabbed by an angry crowd.

Another soldier was killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb near the town of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

The Governing Council's timetable, worked out with U.S. and British officials, had been due on December 15 but arrived three weeks early. It was requested in an October Security Council resolution, which created the multinational force in Iraq.

"...it has become appropriate for the Security Council to adopt a new resolution taking into consideration the new circumstances," Talabani wrote.

The United States and Britain are considering a new resolution that would welcome or endorse the accelerated timetable, which Washington had opposed in October.

But faced with the mounting death toll, the Bush administration switched positions this month and decided to speed up a transfer of power.

A new Iraqi constitution would be drafted by March 15, 2005, and then presented to Iraqis in a referendum, after which a general election for a new government would take place before December 31, 2005, Talabani's letter said.

His letter did not mention continued deployment of U.S. and other foreign troops. But it is assumed that a new provisional government in June will request that they stay.

In a U.S.-backed move, the Governing Council also announced on Monday it was taking legal action against Arabic news channel Al Arabiya, accusing it of inciting violence, and sent police to its Baghdad bureau to shut it down.

Al Arabiya has broadcast several audio tapes purportedly from Saddam, calling on Iraqis to attack and drive out U.S.-led forces. The Dubai-based channel denied the charges and said punishing the media was no solution to violence.

Underscoring the grave security situation, aid group CARE Australia became the latest international non-government organization to pull out its foreign staff from Iraq after a rocket attack on its headquarters on Friday and death threats.

Washington to France's Chirac: US plan for Iraq "realistic"

Mon Nov 24, 9:41 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States re-affirmed that its plan to transfer power to Iraqis was "realistic," after French President Jacques Chirac called it "insufficient and incomplete."

"We think it's a realistic timetable put down by the Iraqi people themselves, worked out with the governing council, and we need to rely on them in part to decide what they can," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We have worked out with them a process that will give the Iraqis a firm basis for future government as well as a firm basis for representative government as they go forward," Boucher said, referring to previous statements by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The plan calls for a transitional government in Iraq by mid-2004, elections to a constitutional assembly in March 2005 and seating a government by the end of 2005.

The French president said, after a Franco-British summit in London Monday, "the new plan our American friends seem to have adopted over the transfer of sovereignty and responsibility to the Iraqi people seems good in every respect."

"Nevertheless, it seems to have taken too long and seems to me relatively incomplete," Chirac argued.

"We are heading in the right direction but it is insufficient and incomplete."

Thanks for the ping, Kat.

Actually, Talibani supports our efforts and is a courageous man. If the press gave him the same coverage they gave our enemies, the world would have a different perspective of the situation on the ground in Iraq.

8 The Way Forward ~ We Iraqis must bear the brunt of the fighting. ~ Opinion Journal | 11/23/03 | JALAL TALABANI

We managed to save the pic null and void posted at the OIF war thread after US News pulled it off the web last summer. In case Reuters/AP/UN/DNC/EU convinces anyone that the Iraqi people want the UN as overseers once again:

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