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Submitted by: 15th MEU Story Identification Number: 200342534427 Story by Cpl. Anthony R. Blanco AN NASIRIYAH, Iraq(April 25, 2003) -- Marines and Sailors of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) are working together with local law enforcements to restore law and order in an area where it has been absent since the start of the war. Some of the first steps in re-establishing the legal system is to clean up the courthouse, institute a police force and start a penal system to help Iraqi's transition from a United States military presence to a local one. To kick things...

WASHINGTON, April 25 — The Pentagon has begun sending a team of Iraqi exiles to Baghdad to be part of a temporary American-led government there, senior administration officials said today. The exiles, most of whom are said by officials to have a background in administration, are supposed to take up positions at each of 23 Iraqi ministries, where they will work closely with American and British officials under Jay Garner, the retired lieutenant general who is serving as Iraq's day-to-day administrator.The group of technocrats was assembled two months ago and has been working from an office in suburban Virginia. From...

Defense, State differ on how to handle Shi'ites By Jonathan Wright WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - While U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rules out Shi'ite clerical rule in Iraq, U.S. diplomats are calmly sounding out opinions in southern Iraq among the very Shi'ites who might see neighboring Iran as an example to follow, U.S. officials say. The different approaches illustrate the continuing divide between the U.S. military and the diplomats over how to handle the internal politics of Iraq, where the collapse of three decades of Baathist rule has left a gaping power vacuum. Ideally, the two branches of the...

Burger-cola treat at Saddam palace Baghdad |Reuters | 25-04-2003 Print friendly format | Email to Friend Hamburgers, hot dogs and Coca Cola came to the backyard of Saddam Hussain's palace yesterday as the new man in charge staked out his territory with an American-style barbecue. Retired U.S. general Jay Garner enjoyed a relaxing lunch in the once-gracious palace grounds as giant sculptures of Saddam's head looked on. Garner and his entourage, winding up a damage-assessment tour of Baghdad and the Kurdish-controlled north, munched on food cooked on two oversize grills set up among the rose gardens and orange orchards where...

The United States will next week appoint a former head of Shell Oil to run Iraq's oil industry, it was reported today. "The US Government is setting up Iraq's oil industry to run much like an American corporation, with a chief executive and management team vetted by US officials who would answer to a multinational board of advisers," the Wall Street Journal Europe reported.The advisory board would be chaired by Philip J Carroll, a former chief executive of Shell Oil, the US unit of the Dutch-British oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell, the newspaper reported.Mr Carroll would work closely with an Iraqi...

<p>According to his critics, Jay Garner is already Tommy Franks. No, I don't mean the Gen. Franks of April 2003, but the Gen. Franks of March 2003 and — for that matter — of October 2001.</p> <p>Gen. Garner's reconstruction effort is already in trouble with media fingerwaggers. Never mind that gunfire continues to sputter. Why, Gen. Garner lacks sufficient personnel, there's infighting at the Pentagon — shucks, his plan is flawed.</p>

<p>BAGHDAD — U.S. military officials yesterday said Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister in Saddam Hussein's deposed regime, had surrendered in Baghdad. He is the most widely known member of the regime yet captured.</p> <p>America's top civilian official in Iraq, meanwhile, distanced the United States from returned exile leader Ahmed Chalabi while promising that Iraqi government ministries would begin to reopen next week.</p>

The "governmental process" in Iraq will be up and running by the end of next week and all ministries will have Iraqi officials at the helm as soon as possible, the retired American general in charge of rebuilding the country said today. Retired Lt.-Gen. Jay Garner spoke at a news conference after meeting with scores of Iraqi technocrats and academics on efforts to bring democracy and stability to this leaderless country. "You will begin to see the governmental process begin by the end of next week," he said. "It is very important that people start back to work, especially those...

<p>GENEVA -U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Thursday on the U.S.-led coalition to respect international law as the "occupying power" in Iraq, drawing immediate ire from U.S. officials.</p> <p>"I hope the coalition will set an example by making clear that they intend to act strictly within the rules" governing occupations, Annan told the U.N. Human Rights Commission.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - The retired U.S. general overseeing Iraq's reconstruction promised Thursday to remove Baghdad's self-proclaimed mayor if residents of the capital rejected him. But Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, who declared himself the city's new administrator earlier this month, met aides he has appointed to run Baghdad's public services and toured hospitals and water plants, undaunted by the threat from the general, Jay Garner. Zubaidi has appointed 22 committees to function in place of ministries, including health, education, water, electricity, oil and industry. Garner, put in charge of rebuilding Iraq by the United States after the three-week war that ousted...

KARBALA, Iraq (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims flocked to Iraq's holiest city of Karbala in a pilgrimage banned under Saddam Hussein as the United States rebuffed a diplomatic olive branch from France. But the second and last day of the Shiite ceremony, outlawed for nearly quarter of a century under Saddam, failed to ignite large anti-US demonstrations despite appeals by clerics for mass shows of anti-Americanism. Iraq's US civil administrator, retired general Jay Garner, acknowledged Washington was facing "some staged demonstrations" against its rule but insisted most Iraqis "are glad we are here." Garner continued a tour...

An Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite leader said he was ready to work with the United States and the international community to improve the conditions of Iraqis and establish security and stability in his war-torn homeland. But Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer Al Hakim, one of the most powerful voices among Iraq's majority Shiites, said fervent demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the holy shrine of Karbala showed Iraqis were able to govern themselves. "There is no doubt we are going to cooperate with all sides and forces that have relations with the Iraqi issue," Hakim said in an interview. "Among these...

In war's wake: Is the Middle East bound for resurgence of radical Islam?By Peter Grier, Staff writer of The Christian Science MonitorWASHINGTON - The startling explosion of Shiite passion in Iraq is forcing US officials to contemplate the possibility that by toppling Saddam Hussein they have made the region safe for theocracy rather than democracy. There are many reasons to believe that Iraq will not end up as a mullah-controlled state - the next Iran. Shiites, while a majority in Iraq, must still strike some governing arrangement with sizable Sunni Muslim and Kurdish minorities. Iraqi Shiites are themselves split over...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -The "governmental process" in Iraq will be up and running by the end of next week and all ministries will have Iraqi officials at the helm as soon as possible, the American general in charge of rebuilding the country said Thursday. Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner spoke at a news conference after meeting with scores of Iraqi technocrats and academics on efforts to bring democracy and stability to this leaderless country. "You will begin to see the governmental process begin by the end of next week," he said. "It is very important that people start back to work,...

WASHINGTON--An old baseball joke: A manager says his team needs just two more players to become a pennant contender. But, he says, ``The players are Ruth and Gehrig.'' Iraq needs only four people to achieve post-Saddam success. Unfortunately they are George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Marshall. Since the Second World War, which culminated in many regime changes, the United States has had at least a hand in shaping regimes in many places beyond Japan and Germany, as in Italy, where the CIA helped the democratic parties turn back the Communist challenge in the 1948 elections. U.S. actions...

<p>American forces in Iraq have captured a former spymaster believed to know about Iraqi espionage in the United States. In Baghdad, U.S. officials warned the self-proclaimed "mayor" not to arm his followers and conferred Thursday with civic leaders on how to restore order.</p>

USAID expects to award many subcontracts to regional firms The United States so far has spent nearly $600 million on humanitarian assistance and reconstruction efforts for Iraq, says US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Andrew Natsios. More than $500 million of that amount has gone to United Nations agencies—such as the World Food Program (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)—for emergency relief, he added. Speaking to reporters April 21 at the State Department's Foreign Press Center, Natsios said internationally recognized nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) so far have received approximately $25 million in USAID funding for...

US businessman to lead Iraq agriculture reconstruction efforts The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has named a Washington-based agribusinessman to head the department's agriculture reconstruction efforts in Iraq. In an April 21 press release, USAID said that Dan Amstutz will serve as senior ministry advisor for agriculture in the rebuilding effort and will coordinate the US Government activities in the sector. USDA is one of several US federal agencies sending officials to the region agencies to assist efforts to rebuild Iraq's political system, the release noted. Others include the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Interior, Treasury, Justice,...

Shiites Emerge as Iraq's Key Players Wooing the Shiite clerics, however, is a daunting task for General Jay Garner, the U.S. administrator for post-Saddam Iraq. Shiite religious-political groups are far from united, and their divisions are potentially violent, as the fatal stabbing two weeks of a prominent pro-Western cleric at Najaf demonstrated. Ayatollah Abdel Majid al-Khoei was murdered by supporters of a young cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who seek an Iran-style Islamic state in Iraq and are innately hostile towards cooperation with the U.S. But the supreme clerical authority in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Najaf, has been more cautious. And...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -Baghdad's self-proclaimed rulers said Wednesday they will use Iraqi government funds to pay all state employees their salaries this month - with a 1,000-percent raise - and took credit for advances in getting power, water and hospitals back up and running. They also claimed that the U.S. Army recognizes their authority, meets with them daily and even drove them from Kuwait to Baghdad on American military vehicles. The United States said it doesn't know who they are.Amid the power vacuum left by three decades of one-man dictatorship, it remained unclear who was running Iraq, or if anyone was...