Free Republic

SCENES of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shia Muslims expressing their newfound political power on the streets of Iraq’s cities are causing growing concern in Western and Arab capitals. A fortnight after American and British troops deposed Saddam Hussein’s regime, there is a growing consensus that the only credible force to have emerged in the country is the Shia clergy and its followers, many of whom advocate the creation of an Iranian-style Islamic state. “There is real concern,” a senior British official said. “The Iraqi Shia are the only group to have made any real impact so far. There was...

JAY GARNER, the retired US general appointed to run postwar Iraq, received a hero’s welcome yesterday when he returned to the region where he is fêted for helping to create a save haven for Kurds after the first Gulf War. Crowds of students cheered the 65-year-old head of the Pentagon’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq as he arrived in Sulaimaniyah, providing a stark contrast with his reception in Baghdad a day earlier. But even as Kurds assured General Garner that they wanted autonomy within Iraq, and he in turn praised the 12-year Kurdish experiment with democracy as...

The retired US general charged with forming an interim administration in Iraq has arrived in the north of the country on the second day of a tour around the country. Jay Garner received a rapturous welcome from crowds in Sulaymaniyah - in contrast to a lukewarm reception in Baghdad on Monday. He was sprinkled with flower petals and some people's eyes filled with tears of emotion as he walked through the streets, reports our correspondent in the city, Clare Marshall. Mr Garner is remembered in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq as the man who, 12 years ago, set up a safe haven...

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein is on the run inside Iraq and hunters are less than a day behind him, an opposition leader insisted yesterday. Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress told BBC radio that the former dictator is being tracked by Chalabi's Free Iraqi fighters. "We are aware of his movements. We are aware of the areas that he has been to, and we learn of this within 12 to 24 hours," Chalabi said. "We will work to develop more information about his whereabouts." Chalabi's Free Iraqi forces may not have caught the deposed dictator, but they bagged another...

<p>BAGHDAD — Retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, taking up his duties as Iraq's postwar civil administrator, toured a Baghdad hospital yesterday and said his priority was to restore such basic services as water and electricity supplies.</p> <p>As Gen. Garner became acquainted with the Iraqi capital, thousands of Shi'ite Muslims marched in the heart of the city to protest the reported arrest of a leading cleric by the U.S. military.</p>

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Apr 21, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Retired U.S. General Jay Garner, who is overseeing Iraq's reconstruction after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, arrived in the Iraqi capital Monday. "What better day in your life can you have than to be able to help somebody else, to help other people, and that is what we intend to do," Garner said after arriving at Baghdad airport from Kuwait. Garner said his priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity "as soon as we can," and acknowledged that the job would take intense work....

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 18 — Western officials working on the reconstruction of Iraq agreed Friday that an interim authority in Baghdad could take over most government functions from the U.S. military in only a few weeks.</p> <p>THE OFFICIALS, who are part of the organization put together by the Pentagon’s administrator in Iraq, retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, confirmed statements Friday by Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi that the interim authority would assume power “sooner rather than later, a matter of weeks rather than months.” The officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, would not be more specific, but they said they had no quarrel with the timetable laid out by Chalabi, who said at a news conference that “the Iraqi interim authority will be chosen by Iraqis and will take over the business of government.” Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, the most prominent of a quarrelsome collection of exile groups that formed in opposition to the government of deposed President Saddam Hussein, said the first stage would be “reconstruction of basic services, done by Jay Garner.” “I expect this step to take a few weeks,” he said, with a new constitution and general elections two years down the road. Ultimately, Chalabi said, the U.S. military would have just three functions in Iraq: to eradicate any weapons of mass destruction, to dismantle the ousted regime’s “apparatus of terror” and to disarm the previous regime’s army. “The United States of America does not want to run Iraq,” Chalabi said. “That is the policy of the United States. That’s what President Bush has said, and I believe him.”</p>

<p>The war in Iraq was initially billed as a cakewalk, the aftermath a triumphal celebration, but the Bush administration badly underestimated the difficulties of both war and peace. From Baghdad to Basra, in the past week Iraq's cities have less resembled Paris in 1944 than mayhem, "Lord of the Flies" style.</p>

BAGGING BAGHDAD EDITION Bush Like a rock: he told us so—and never wavered. But the looting chaos looks more than "untidy." Saddam Whatever happened to him, he's riding a big fat down arrow straight to his uncle Satan. Hot enuf for ya? Jay Garner Retired general and Kurd-rebuilding wiz will be Iraq's MacArthur. But Israel biz ties not a crowd pleaser. Chalabi Iraqi expat arrives in homeland for first time in 45 years and wants to run the joint. And it could just happen. Al-Sahaf(Baghdad Bob) Iraqi info chief kept straight face while claiming victory even as our troups rolled...

We want an Islamic state, say protesters By Sandra Laville in Nasiriyah (Filed: 16/04/2003) As America gathered its chosen leaders for the new Iraq behind barbed wire checkpoints on an airbase in the desert, the seeds of a new democracy were being scattered on the streets of Nasiriyah yesterday. Chanting "Yes, Yes, Islam, No America, No Saddam", a slogan they never dared to whisper under the old regime, Shia religious leaders led a demonstration of more than 3,000 men to protest against the US-led attempts to build a new government. Watched by hundreds who did not agree with what they...

REBUILDING PLAN AGREED Free Iraqis have drawn up a 13-point plan to rebuild their country following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. The plan was agreed at US-hosted talks at Ur, the birthplace of the biblical prophet Abraham. The delegates also voted to meet again in 10 days' time. In a statement they said a future Iraqi government must be democratic, no leader must be imposed from outside, and the Baath party must be dissolved. As the meeting began, hundreds marched through the streets of nearby Nasiriyah protesting about US involvement in their country's future. They were concerned that the...

This may be a vanity, but I think FR can make an exception. The easiest way to lose the peace in Iraq would be to turn the country over to the UN and the Axis Of Weasels. Alas that is exactly what the anti-America wackos, our friends in the so-called peace movement want to do next. They want to get rid of Jay Garner and the U.S military. Don't let them snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for us. Please give this website a good Freeping. Thanks.

Iraq Interim Head: Nation Could Be The Richest In Region - NYT NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Iraq could be the richest country in the Middle East within a few years after the nation's political and economic structures are remade, the retired U.S. general who will run post-war Iraq for the Bush administration said in an interview published in Tuesday's editions of the New York Times. Oil will be the basis of new wealth in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Jay Garner said. "In the next few years they will be able to double, triple their production of oil. They may become the richest...

April 15, 2003 U.S. Overseer Set to Remake IraqBy JANE PERLEZ UWAIT, April 14 — The retired American general who will run post-war Iraq for the Bush administration flew to Iraq today on a mission to remake the country's politics, a process he predicted would be messy and contentious. But Lt. Gen. Jay Garner insisted that American-style democracy could sprout on the shards of President Saddam Hussein's government. "I don't think they had a love-in when they had Philadelphia" in 1787, he said in an interview here before his departure. "Anytime you start the process it's fraught with dialogue, tensions,...

The biggest Iraqi Shi'ite opposition group says it will boycott a US-hosted meeting of opposition factions on Tuesday. It also says it will not recognise a US-installed interim administration for Iraq. A senior leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, Abdul Aziz Hakim, told a news conference on Monday his group would not be going to the meeting of US officials and Iraqi political parties opposed to ousted President Saddam Hussein in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. "We will not attend the meeting in Nasiriyah because the Iraqi people won't accept preparations for an administration...

THE dramatic toppling of a huge statue of Saddam Hussein in the centre of Baghdad symbolically ushered in Iraq's new era – hopefully with freedom and prosperity ahead. But Iraq has paid a huge price for its freedom from Saddam's brutal regime. It will prove to have been worth the upheaval and the lives lost only if the country is eventually run by a truly democratic government based on the rule of law. Iraq's short and long-term problems are immense. After initial rejoicing, Baghdad descended into lawlessness and chaos. No functioning government exists. Hospitals packed with wounded are in an...

<p>KUWAIT CITY — Retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, chosen to lead Iraq's postwar reconstruction, yesterday promised a "big tent" for Iraqis of all persuasions at a crucial meeting in Nasiriyah Tuesday to begin building a democracy.</p> <p>About 100 people have been invited to the meeting by Gen. Tommy Franks, the Central Command chief. About one-third will be Iraqis who have been living abroad and two-thirds from inside Iraq.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it would convene a meeting of Iraqis in the southern city of Nassiriya on Tuesday to discuss the future of Iraq (news - web sites) and an eventual interim authority to govern the country. The meeting, which a U.S. official said was to be chaired by U.S. presidential envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, was expected to be the first in a series Washington aims to organize leading to a Baghdad conference to choose an Iraqi governing authority. It was expected to include Iraqis from inside and outside the country, including opposition figures and...

(Excerpts from the Washington Post) A few months ago, Jay Garner was leading a quiet and very comfortable life in an upscale Orlando suburb not far from Disney World. Today, the retired three-star general has one of the most high-profile jobs in the world: launching the U.S. attempt to rebuild Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Named by the Pentagon to head reconstruction efforts in Iraq, the former military troubleshooter won high marks for running a very successful humanitarian relief operation in northern Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But he has also stirred controversy, particularly in the...

CAIRO (AFP) - US plans to set up a provisional administration in Iraq headed by retired army general Jay Garner, known to have close ties with Israel, have drawn criticism from across the Arab world. Arab heavyweights Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria in unison called for allowing the Iraqi people chose its government as quickly as possible. "Iraqi citizens should be left free to form their own government; it should not be imposed by a foreign country or because of foreign presence in Iraq," said Arab League chief Amr Mussa. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said here Thursday he agreed...