Posted on 06/01/2004 7:57:49 AM PDT by txrangerette
From the Rose Garden, per Fox...
It's on all the stations here in Philly also .. WOW!
He looks like he is trying NOT to smile - wonder what else is really going on.
Iraq Council Disbands; CPA Still in Power
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
After the selection of Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer to the largely ceremonial position, officials announced the entire interim government due to take power on June 30 — and the body moved quickly to begin its work.
The U.S.-picked Governing Council decided to dissolve immediately to make way rather than wait until June 30. The incoming prime minister, Iyad Allawi, said his government would soon negotiate a crucial agreement on the status of U.S.-led international forces that will remain in Iraq.
As word of al-Yawer's appointment was announced, a car bomb blew up outside the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is located just outside the green zone U.S. coalition headquarters in central Baghdad.
At least three people were killed and 20 were injured, the military said. Also, a roadside bomb also exploded near a U.S. base in the northern town of Beiji, killing 11 Iraqis and wounding more than 22 people, including two U.S. soldiers.
Iraq still needs the presence of U.S.-led forces "to help in defeating the enemies of Iraq," Allawi said at a welcoming ceremony for the new government. "We will enter into alliances with our allies to accomplish that."
The U.S.-led occupation authority will continue to run Iraq until June 30, a senior Bush administration official said.
Washington praised the new government and suggested it would help ease the way for winning support for a U.N. resolution that the United States and Britain have submitted on post-occupation Iraq.
"These are not America's puppets," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) told reporters at the White House. "This is a terrific list and really good government and we're very pleased with the names that emerged."
The council and U.S. authorities had been deadlocked over the choice of president — delaying the expected announcement of the government by a day.
The deadlock showed a degree of tension between the Americans — who will retain enormous influence in Iraq after the handover and want a government the supports U.S. interests — and the Iraqis, who want to claim as much power as they can after a year of American rule.
At the welcoming ceremony, al-Yawer pledged to rise "above sectarianism and divisions," build a democratic state free of "totalitarianism and discrimination" and restore Iraq's "civilized face."
He said he would be "a loyal defender of your expectations in restoring the complete sovereignty of our country and establishing a democratic and federal system under which people enjoy a free citizenship in a state of laws and freedom."
A first key move for the new government will be the status of forces agreement. The Iraqis are seeking greater say over the operations of Iraqi security forces as well as the 135,000 American troops and other coalition forces on Iraqi soil.
The administration official said negotiations would begin "fairly soon."
In a nod to U.S. forces, al-Yawer said "we should remember our friends who fell during the battle to liberate Iraq."
The presidency is a symbolic position, but al-Yawer — as the highest Sunni in the government — will likely hold considerable influence.
The more powerful executive post of prime minister is held by Allawi, a U.S.-backed Shiite Muslim with military and CIA (news - web sites) connections.
Allawi, whose appointment was announced Friday, was chosen because he was considered the best candidate to cope with the deteriorating security situation.
The announcement of al-Yawer came after Adnan Pachachi, an elder statesman preferred by the United States, turned down the presidency in the face of opposition from other members of the Governing Council to his selection.
Council members had angrily accused the American governor of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, of trying to install Pachachi, a former foreign minister, over their opposition.
Sources had said the Americans warned that if the members went ahead and voted for al-Yawer, the United States might not recognize the choice.
Al-Yawer, who routinely wears traditional Arab robes and head gear, was sharply critical of the American occupation in a recent television interview, blaming U.S. ineptness for the deterioration in law and order. Al-Yawer also has denounced violence against American and other coalition forces.
Most of the 22-member Governing Council backed al-Yawer, the current Governing Council president. A graduate of the Petroleum and Minerals University in Saudi Arabia and of Georgetown University, he is a prominent member of the Shammar tribe, one of the largest in the Gulf region that includes Shiite clans. He enjoys the support of Shiite and Kurdish council members.
Insisting on Pachachi would have risked a major breach with the Americans' Iraqi allies at a sensitive period as Washington prepares to hand control of a still-unstable, war-ravaged country to an untested leadership.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor insisted the Americans had not shown a preference for Pachachi, a claim that many council members dismissed as untrue.
Pachachi, 81, told reporters he turned down the presidency for "personal reasons." He said the president "must have the support of all levels of the Iraqi people and all quarters."
The dispute over the presidency delayed for a day for the announcement of the new government by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who has been mediating negotiations for weeks.
At the welcoming ceremony, Brahimi acknowledged that negotiations to establish the new government had been "very precise and difficult."
Brahimi said the two vice presidencies went to Ibrahim al-Jaafari, of the Shiite Muslim Dawa party, and Rowsch Shaways, speaker of parliament in the Kurdish autonomous region in Irbil.
In the newly announced Cabinet, Kurd Hoshyar Zebari retained his post as foreign minister, and Kurdish official Barham Saleh, who is close to the Americans, was named deputy prime minister for national security affairs.
Adel Abdel-Mahdi, an official of a powerful Shiite political party, was named finance minister; Hazem Shalan al-Khuzaei became defense minister; and Thamir Ghadbhan took over as oil minister.
With more than 800 U.S. military dead since the Iraq war began in March 2003, Washington is eager to see a government that can tackle the security crisis, including a year-old Sunni revolt in Baghdad and areas north and west of the capital and a Shiite uprising to the south.
This is the President we all remember!
Old hat for our "friends" in the media, IMO.
"He looks like he is trying NOT to smile - wonder what else is really going on."
He needs some sunglasses.
Any specifics yet?
MM, Joe is a proven pee-in-the-Wheaties kinda guy. Very little to add of any value, but that never stops him from passing gas in the middle of the forum.
Media looking for the dark cloud in the silver lining..
Let's see if it was PLANNED then there is "NOTHING like seeing a PLAN come together." If it wasn't planned. Well it is about time for some surprising GOOD NEWS, right?
Watching David Gregory and seeing the flowers in the background behind him, my main thought is: release the bees on these 'reporters'.
What are they saying, Dog? Can you post any of the questions?
Can't say that wasn't expected. :-/
W says he had no input on the no gov't - the Iraqis did.
Good post. And U.S. troops on the ground in Baghdad is the over-riding reality.
Have they asked the President to apologize yet?
Terry Moron...states some people say(Democrats) this is nothing but a puppet government..
Pretty hard to call it a puppet government when the guy in charge was not the one we wanted.
The Iraqi Governing Council, chosen by the US administration in Iraq, is made up of 25 people representing the country's diverse religious and ethnic groupings in broadly proportionate terms.The members as they appear on the group photo are:
1. Samir Shakir Mahmoud (Sunni)
Mr Mahmoud belongs to the al-Sumaidy clan which believes its origins can be traced back to the Prophet Muhammed. He is described as both a writer and an entrepreneur.
2. Sondul Chapouk (Turkmen)
Ms Chapouk is one of just three women on the council. She is a trained engineer and teacher, as well as being a women's activist.
3. Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi National Congress (Shia)
Mr Chalabi is the leading figure in the Pentagon-backed INC, which he founded in 1992. It is thought he is viewed with suspicion by some Iraqis due to his proximity to the US administration and to the fact that he has been absent from Iraq for the best part of 45 years.
4. Naseer al-Chaderchi, National Democratic Party (Sunni)
Leader of the NDP, Naseer al-Chaderchi is also a lawyer who lived in Iraq throughout Saddam's regime.
5. Adnan Pachachi, former foreign minister (Sunni)
Mr Pachachi served as a minister from 1965 to 1967 before Saddam Hussein's Baath Party came to power. He is a nationalist with a secular liberal outlook. He is thought to be particularly favoured by the US Department of State.
6. Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum, cleric from Najaf (Shia)
A highly respected religious scholar viewed as a liberal. He fled Iraq in 1991 after several members of his family were killed by Saddam Hussein's regime.
7. Massoud Barzani, Kurdistan Democratic Party (Sunni Kurd)
Mr Barzani has led the KDP through decades of conflict with the Iraqi central government and with local rivals, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (see below). He commands tens of thousands of armed militia fighters, known as peshmerga, and controls a large area of north-western Iraq.
8. Jalal Talabani, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (Sunni Kurd)
The veteran Kurdish leader is a lawyer by training. He split from the KDP in 1975 to form the PUK, which controls the south-east of northern Iraq.
9. Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (Shia)
Number two in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), the sheikh is the brother of the council's leader Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim, who wants an Islamic regime in Iraq. He has returned to Iraq after 20 years in exile.
10. Ahmed al-Barak, human rights activist (Shia)
Mr al-Barak is the head of the union of lawyers and human rights league in the central city of Babylon.
11. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Daawa Islamic Party (Shia)
Mr al-Jaafari is the spokesman for Daawa, one the oldest of the Shia Islamist movements. The party was banned in 1980 and he fled the country.
12. Raja Habib al-Khuzaai, southern tribal leader (Shia)
Ms al-Khuazaai is in charge of a maternity hospital in southern Iraq. She studied and lived in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s, before retuning to Iraq in 1977. Little is known about her political allegiances.
13. Aqila al-Hashimi, foreign affairs expert (Shia)
Ms Hashimi is a former diplomat who worked in the foreign ministry under Saddam Hussein. She holds a doctorate in French literature.
14. Younadem Kana, Assyrian Democratic Movement (Assyrian Christian)
Mr Kana is an engineer who served as an official for transport in the first Kurdish regional assembly and then as a trade minister in the regional government established in Erbil.
15. Salaheddine Bahaaeddin, Kurdistan Islamic Union (Sunni Kurd)
Mr Bahaaeddin founded the union in 1991 and became its secretary general three years later. It is the third most powerful force in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq.
16. Mahmoud Othman (Sunni Kurd)
Mr Othman held various posts in the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the 1960s before moving to London. There he founded the Kurdish Socialist Party.
17. Hamid Majid Mousa, Communist Party (Shia)
Mr Mousa has been the secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party since 1993. An economist by training, he lived for several years in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.
18. Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, northern tribal figure (Sunni)
Mr al-Yawer is a civil engineer who spent 15 years based in Saudi Arabia. He is a close relative of Sheikh Mohsen Adil al-Yawar, head of the powerful Shamar tribe, which comprises both Sunnis and Shia.
19. Ezzedine Salim, Daawa Islamic Party (Shia)
Mr Salim is the head of the Daawa Islamic Party, and is based in Basra.
20. Mohsen Abdel Hamid, Iraqi Islamic Party (Sunni)
A prolific author on the Koran, Mr Hamid is the secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party - the Iraqi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
21. Iyad Allawi, Iraqi National Accord (Shia)
Mr Alawi set up the Iraqi National Accord in 1990. His group consists mainly of military and security defectors and for many years supported the idea that the US should try to foster a coup from within the Iraqi army. Its failure to engender this meant it became overshadowed by Mr Chalabi's INC.
22. Wael Abdul Latif, Basra governor (Shia)
Mr Latif has served as judge since the early 1980s and is currently deputy head of the Basra court. He was imprisoned for one year under the regime.
23. Mouwafak al-Rabii (Shia)
A British-educated doctor who lived for many years in London. He is also the author of a book on Iraqi Shia and a human rights activist.
24. Dara Noor Alzin, judge
A judge who was condemned to three years in jail under Saddam Hussein for ruling that one of his edicts on confiscating land was unconstitutional. He served eight months of his sentence before being released under general amnesty in October 2002.
25. Abdel-Karim Mahoud al-Mohammedawi, Hezbollah from Amara (Shia)
Mr al-Mohammedawi has spent much of his life leading a resistance movement against Saddam Hussein in the southern marshes. He spent six years in jail under the regime.
Yeah, couldn't see that one coming a mile away.< /sarcasm>
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