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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...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim prime minister issued a decree allowing a controversial newspaper to reopen after it had been closed by U.S. officials in March, setting off months of fighting between U.S. forces and militants loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The weekly Al-Hawza was the mouthpiece of al-Sadr's "Sadrist" movement, routinely carrying his fiery sermons on its front page along with articles sharply critical of the U.S.-led occupation, which formally ended June 28. Iraq's former American governor, L. Paul Bremer, ordered the newspaper closed for two months on March 28 for allegedly inciting...

<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>

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...

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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,...

DRESSED in his trademark combat boots and a dark business suit, Paul Bremer spoke yesterday of the weight lifted off his shoulders after the end of his tenure as US administrator in Iraq. Speaking outside the White House, Mr Bremer said he was relieved to be in the United States after handing over sovereignty on Monday. "It’s like having a rather large weight lifted off my shoulders," he told ABC’s Good Morning America programme. But he said he was sorry not to have brought more stability to Iraq, where insurgents launch daily attacks and the death toll is rising for...

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...

Bremer the 'dictator' of Iraq – UN envoy UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on Wednesday responded to criticism of US involvement in the nomination of the new Iraqi government by stressing Washington was still the dominant force in the country. "I would remind you the Americans are governing the country so their point of view was certainly taken into consideration," he said at a news conference. "He has the money, ..the signature" "I don't think he'd mind my saying this: Bremer is the dictator of Iraq. He has the money, he has the signature," said Brahimi after stressing he had...

WASHINGTON — Have you read the encouraging headlines from Iraq? "Monthly U.S. Combat Deaths Down by Half in May" is one. "Radical Shiite Cleric's Militia Decimated in Holy Cities" is another, and finally: "Iraqi Leaders, Defying U.S. and U.N. Dictates, Choose Prime Minister." No, those were not headlines anybody could see. In Gloomy Gus newsrooms, good news is no news. ***********SNIP************** [C]onsider the possibility, for a change, that on our Memorial Day, we have cause for cautious optimism. Rather than admit this, our dovish defeatists have turned themselves into the hardest of hardliners. **************SNIP************** Of course, if coalition forces were...

Introduction On April 18, 2003, shortly after the start of the occupation of Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) issued order No. 1 to uproot the former ruling Ba'th Party from positions of authority. The order, commonly referred to as the de-Ba'thification of Iraq, was patterned after a similar program, known as the de-Nazificationof Germany, introduced by the allied forces upon the defeat of the Nazis in 1945. In Iraq, de-Ba'thification has meant the dismissal hundred of thousands - of civil servants, teachers, army officers, and other bureaucrats or professionals who served the Saddam Hussein regime. The one enormous difference...

Last August, I participated in a town-hall meeting hosted by the administrative council of Dibis, an ethnically mixed town 22 miles northwest of Kirkuk. Locals complained about everything from sporadic electricity to fertilizer shortages to potholes, and their Iraqi representatives listened attentively. It was an encouraging sight, all the more so because the month before, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) head L. Paul Bremer had proudly announced, in a televised speech, that "all of Iraq's main cities, and dozens of other towns, now have administrative councils." But there was a problem. Soon after his announcement, Bremer--not wanting to complicate planning for...

You have to admire the resilience of the United Nations. In theory, the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food relief program for Iraq, which ran from 1996-2003, is now the subject of at least five investigations into billions worth of alleged fraud and corruption. In practice, however, while U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan dismisses well-founded allegations as "outrageous," and President George W. Bush chalks out a big new role for the U.N. in Iraq, it is the investigators themselves who are now largely stalled, stymied, carefully contained, or even attacked. The attacks have not been limited to the U.S.-led armed raid last Thursday on the...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US overseer in Iraq unveiled a 25 million-dollar fund to compensate thousands of Iraqis victimised by Saddam Hussein, which officials said was inadequate for the flood of likely applicants. "I have created a special task force for compensation of victims of the previous regime. For an initial endowment, I have set aside 25 million dollars," Paul Bremer told a Baghdad news conference. The money will come from the Development Fund for Iraq that includes the oil revenue and foreign assets, and will be controlled by Baghdad's interim government after the US-led coalition relinquishes sovereignty on June...

<p>Thursday's raid by U.S. and Iraqi agents on the home of Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi was troubling - not least because the Coalition Provisional Authority and the White House both insist they weren't involved.</p> <p>After all, shouldn't President Bush, not to mention CPA chief Paul Bremer, have known in advance about such a high-profile mission - particularly if U.S. forces took part?</p>

<p>WHY don't the Americans trust us? Why don't they talk to us? Even before yesterday's raid on the home of Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi Governing Council, more and more Iraqis have been asking such questions.</p> <p>"It is as if we are being scripted out of matters that concern us," says a member of the Committee for Reconstruction and Development in Baghdad. "Several European companies have been enlisted to work out urban development plans that should be decided by us."</p>

May 21, 2004, 8:49 a.m. The Growing Gap Bremer has alienated Iraqis. On May 20, U.S. forces raided the home and office of Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi. At a press conference following the operation, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) spokesman Dan Senor told assembled journalists that U.S. forces did not participate. To be kind, Senor appeared to misspeak. There was a non-Iraqi American citizen in Chalabi's house at the time of the raid. As armed men pointed guns at Chalabi's head, the U.S. citizen demanded to know who was in charge. A number of heavily armed Americans (judging by...

Bremer Hails Slain Leader as 'Constant Source of Strength' By John D. BanusiewiczAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 17, 2004 – A suicide car bomb claimed the lives of the Iraqi Governing Council president and at least four other Iraqis outside the Coalition Provisional headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, today. Ezzidin Salim is the highest-ranking Iraqi official to be assassinated since the country's liberation. Eight people – six Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers – were wounded in the attack, officials said. Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, CPA administrator, called Salim's death "a shocking and tragic loss" and expressed condolences to...