Posted on 06/01/2004 3:22:59 AM PDT by fdsa2
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi leaders got their way over U.S. opposition on Tuesday to have tribal chief Ghazi Yawar appointed president after Washington's choice stepped aside in a face-saving arrangement between occupiers and occupied.
As they met, a massive explosion nearby at the offices of a Kurdish political party just outside the U.S. Green Zone headquarters killed 25 people, police at the scene said.
It was not clear what caused the blast. Widespread violence poses the greatest challenge to the interim government's efforts to organize Iraq's first free elections in the new year.
After two days of bitter confrontation over the largely ceremonial post, Iraqi Governing Council members said Washington's preferred presidential candidate, elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, had turned down the post minutes after being offered it by the United Nations in defiance of the Council.
A further test of strength between Washington and the U.S.-appointed Governing Council lies ahead with the imminent announcement of 26 ministers to serve in an interim cabinet until elections are held in the new year.
"Pachachi was named, then he turned it down and Yawar was named to the position instead. That's it, and everyone is happy," Council member Rajaa Habib Khuzai told Reuters.
U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, the man charged by Washington with naming an interim government, and Pachachi, an 81-year-old former foreign minister, were among those to congratulate Yawar, a civil engineer with ties to Saudi Arabia.
"Dr Adnan Pachachi, who enjoys wide respect and support in Iraq, was offered the Presidential position with the support of Sheikh Ghazi, but declined for personal reasons," Brahimi said in a statement confirming Yawar's appointment.
Pachachi told a news conference he had had the support of the majority of the Iraqi people but withdrew because he was opposed by "certain parties."
Reflecting the balance among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, two vice presidents -- one Shi'ite Muslim, the other a Kurd -- were appointed to serve under the Sunni Muslim president. Prime Minister-designate Iyad Allawi, appointed on Friday, is from the long oppressed Shi'ite majority.
Paul Bremer, the head of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), and Brahimi were also set to announce the names of a cabinet line-up for the interim government that will take over from the occupation administration on June 30. The Governing Council has broadly agreed a list of key cabinet appointees among themselves but aides to Council members said it now appeared that Brahimi and the U.S. officials might disregard that and appoint a different line-up.
Brahimi was brought in by the United States to mediate between Washington and Iraq's various ethnic, religious and political groupings. But the Governing Council had sought to push its own candidates on the U.N. envoy.
The 22-member body, appointed by U.S. officials a year ago, has little clear support among ordinary Iraqis. But its members say they are the legitimate voice of the people following the U.S. invasion that ended Saddam's dictatorship 14 months ago.
U.S. and U.N. officials have said in the past that the Governing Council did not have the right to make appointments on its own. It caught Brahimi off guard on Friday by announcing the appointment of one of their number, Allawi, to the top job of prime minister. Many of the other nominations from the Council have come from among their own ranks.
Despite Brahimi's suggestion some weeks ago that he would prefer to see an interim government of apolitical technocrats, the Council appears set on naming many of its own members to the new administration that will supersede its role this month.
ETHNIC BALANCE
Both Yawar and Pachachi are Council members from the long dominant Sunni Muslim minority.
The vice presidents are Ibrahim Jaafari, head of the Shi'ite Dawa party, and Rowsch Shways, from the Kurdistan Democratic Party. It was the offices of the rival Kurdistan Patriotic Union that were hit by the Baghdad blast.
Yawar, 46, is a U.S.-trained civil engineer from the northern city of Mosul and a chief of one of the biggest tribes in Iraq and beyond its borders. Unlike the besuited Pachachi, he generally appears in traditional Arab robes and headdress.
He enjoys support from Kurds and Shi'ites and worked for many years in Saudi Arabia, where he also retains close ties.
In his home city of Mosul, people gathered at Yawar's father's home to celebrate, some of them firing in the air.
It was unclear why Washington was objecting to Yawar. He has criticized the U.S.-drafted U.N. resolution that sets out the handover plan, complaining it gives Iraqis too little control of the 150,000 mainly American foreign soldiers staying in Iraq.
Hoshiyar Zebari, the foreign minister in the current cabinet appointed by the occupation authority, was heading to the United Nations in New York on Tuesday to press for "full sovereignty," said a senior ministerial official.
He added that Zebari expected to stay on in his post. (Additional reporting by Michael Georgy and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad and Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul)
The Spanish press reports that there were at least 4 explosions in Baghdad, and there was also a suicide car-bomb attack at the US base in Baiji (200 km north of Baghdad) that killed 11 Iraqis and wounded 20.
ISLAM: The default religion of assassins. Psycho killers just seem to gravitate toward it.
Just obeying the Koran when emulating Mohamed's life as an assassin, thief and murderer.
Yep. No way would Mohamed's crazies use a nuke on us if they had one.
Heck, they'd probably even use a nuke on themselves, if they had one. Insane death cult.
BTW, we seem to have gotten better at protecting ourselves from these attacks. So far today, those killed have all been Iraqis - of course, these were probably mostly decent Iraqis who were just going about their business and wanted to have a good, normal life, something that these crazies cannot tolerate. The bizarre thing about them is that they seem to have no true objective except destruction.
Don't you just LOVE the way they roll stories in together ?
Paid by the number of words in the article?
You're thinking of The Nation, the NY Review of Books,etc.
My thought is that this is the only way they know how to "communicate". i.e. if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail.
Pretty primitive and simplistic.
"Just obeying the Koran when emulating Mohamed's life as an assassin, thief and murderer."
Worth repeating.
If the Bush administration did not want this guy then the lying crooked liberals will quickly move in to seduce him. Seems the person that is least like by the Bush administration will be the one that is most acceptable to the voice of the terrorists, our own liberals and their media whores.
In case you don't know: The Koran and Hadith command the faithful Muslim to copy the "exemplary" life of Muhammad. Very serious stuff and this accounts for their remorseless murders. Just copying Muhammad. Just following orders like robots.
BECAUSE at root Jihadism is anarchism and murder. With the end goal being a super repressive Islamic government where all those who oppose will be hammered down and at worst killed and with families liquidated. They have the advantage in remorseless murder. We have a conscience.
Islamic psycho killers will go for the soft target. So if Americans in Iraq are too well protected they will murder their fellow Muslims in order to create chaos and anarchy. Chaos and anarchy are the friends of the devil and the friends of the Jihadist thrill killers.
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22thrill+killers%22+islam&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=4052f1f3%40dnews.tpgi.com.au&rnum=1
You are wrong - the more a Moslem nation engages in jihad, the more miserable and poor it becomes. The best off Moslem nations (when one makes due allowance for natural advantanges) are the most secularised Moslem nations.
Moslems are in a sorry state, because their religion fosters violence, lack of human rights, poverty, slavery, ignorance, and oppression of women. Moslems have nobody to blame but themselves. The only reason they're no worse off, is because of oil that non-Moslems discovered, developed, and bought, while moslems passively rake in the proceeds. Nearly all the foreign aid going to non-oil exporting moslem countires comes from Christian countries.
> "So fight in the Path of Allah- you will be held accountable only for > yourself
This is truer than you think. Moslems will go to hell.
> Surely, Allah will subdue the might of the Disbelievers, and Allah is > mightier in power and severer in exemplary punishment."
Allah = Satan. Satan will lose
> We then are calling upon the Muslims and urging them to proceed to > fight, for many reasons,
The main reason, is that you enjoy killing.
> 1. In order that the Disbelievers do not dominate.
Almost every war fought by Islam for the last 1,000 years has been lost.
> 2. Due to the scarcity of men.
Moslem countries have high birth rates and exceptionally high infant mortality and maternal mortality rates.
> 3. Fear of Hell-fire.
If you fear hell-fire, renounce Islam.
> 4. Fulfilling the duty of Jihad, and responding to the call of the > Lord.
Your Lord Satan, otherwise known as "Allah"
> 5. Following in the footsteps of the Pious Predecessors.
There is a long line of thrill killers, going all the way back to the thrill killer Mohammad.
> 6. Establishing a solid foundation as a base for Islam.
Islam will not adapt to the modern world, and will eventually die. The "solid base" consists mainly of the world's poorest nations.
> 7. Protecting those who are oppressed in the land.
Islam is the world's greatest oppressor. Moslem countries are overwhelmingly where the oppressed live.
> 8. Hoping for martyrdom.
And in the process killing as many bystanders as you can, for the pleasure of killing.
> 9. A shield for the Ummah, and a means for lifting disgrace off them
Every person who kills for Islam brings more disgrace on Islam.
> 10. Protecting the dignity of the Ummah, and repelling the conspiracy > of its enemies
No - Islam will lose. Every murder a Moslem commits hastens its doom.
> 11. Preservation of the earth, and protection from corruption
Moslem societies are notorious for their corruption. Nobody does anything without a bribe.
> 12. Security of Islamic places of worship
Moslems kill many, many more of each other than the number of kafir they kill.
> 13. Protection of the Ummah from punishment, disfiguration
Hussein, a Moslem, cut off the tongues of Moslems who criticised him. Moslems are now fighting Jihads to try to re-install him. Moslem countries cut off the hands of petty offenders.
> and displacement.
Moslem countries produce nearly all the world's refugees.
> 14. Prosperity of the Ummah, and surplus of its resources
Islam is the leading cause of world poverty.
> 15. Jihad is the highest peak of Islam.
Yes. Thrill killing is the best it has to offer.
> 16. Jihad is the most excellent form of worship, and by means of it
Yes, because you worship Satan. So Jihad is devil worship par excellence. Thrill killing - what could be more Satanic than that?
> the Muslim can reach the highest of ranks.
Yes, you can get into the hottest hell.
> Praise be to Allah Whom we praise, and from Whom we seek help and > forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our selves and > from our bad deeds.
No - you kill for pleasure in Allah's name.
> Whomever Allah guides none can lead astray,
Yes - you're sure to find your way to hell.
> whomever He leaves to stray, none can guide him aright. I bear witness > that there is none worthy of worship but Allah alone, Who has no > partners,
Allah has no partners - nobody is as evil
> and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and > Messenger.
To his eternal shame.
> Oh Allah! There is nothing easy except that which You make > easy, and you make difficult things easy when You will.
It is easy to be evil, hard to be good.
Prime Minister- Iyad Allawi – Shi’ite
President Ghazi Yawar – Sunni Tribal Chief –Arab garb. 46 years old. U.S.-trained civil engineer
Almost President - Adnan Pachachi – Sunni – Lost out to Yawar
Vice President #1 - Ibrahim Jaafari - head of the Shi'ite Dawa party.
Vice President #2 - Rowsch Shways - Kurdistan Democratic Party.
26 Cabinet Ministers remain to be named
Good insight! Hereafter, "Glorgau's First Law."
Yes, you can get into the hottest hell.
Lol. But their highest rank would still be below whale sperm.
the Muslim can reach the highest of ranks.
Yes, you can get into the hottest hell.
Lol. But their highest rank would still be below whale sperm.
Yeah, I especially like the dual headline. Apparently Reuters felt the need to "balance" this bit of good news with some bad news.
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