The New York Times: Some Iraqis Press for a Larger Governing Council

[Jack Rabbit]

NOTE: Shortened headline

From The New York Times
Dated Friday February 20

Pending a Vote, Some Iraqis Press for a Larger Governing Council
By Jeffrey Gettleman and Dexter Filkins

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 19 — As prospects for early elections faded, several Iraqi leaders said Thursday that they wanted the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to remain in place after the United States transferred power back to the people on June 30. Plans are already under way to expand the council, they added.
The leaders, including representatives from the major ethnic and religious groups and members of the council, said a consensus had emerged to increase the current council of 25 people to as many as 125, and to keep it in power until United Nations-assisted elections could be held in early 2005.
Several council members said the plan appeared to have cleared a potentially major obstacle: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, indicated that he would accept an enlarged council as long as this was part of the United Nations recommendation. It was the ayatollah's call for early elections that brought the United Nations to Iraq in the first place.
The idea of enlarging the council, which has been in play for weeks, crystallized Thursday after the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said holding elections for an all-new government was impossible before June 30. Mr. Annan said he would not object to the continuation of the council, which emerged from an American-led process over the summer, as long as it was significantly changed.

Read more.

[Barrett808]

1. Seems like this hack is destined to fail

These guys are clueless, making it up as they go.

[flamingpie2500]

2. Caucuses are out--voting is out--what will they do?

Been doing a lot of reading this morning trying to keep up with the mess Bush has created. Sistani had a good point about the caucus:

<<Opposition from Al-Sistani, the country's most prominent Shiite cleric, derailed a U.S. plan to choose the legislators in regional caucuses, which many Shiites feared would allow the Americans to manipulate the process. Most Governing Council members no longer back the caucus formula.

It was the second time that the elderly, Iranian-born al-Sistani has forced the Americans to revise their power transfer plans. Last June, al-Sistani issued a fatwa, or edict, saying the constitution must be drafted by delegates chosen in an election, a process the Americans feared would take too long.>>

http://www.headliner.nl/headliner.php?c=us&id=325737&abbr=ap

Why Bush and Co. don't want free elections--YET
From what I understand, if elections were held and we were told to get out we would have to get out. Good heavens what would happen to Halliburton? From what I have read so far, we intend to stay.

>>The legal basis for U.S. troops operating in any foreign country is normally spelled out in a legal arrangement called a status of forces agreement, which defines legal protections for U.S. troops accused of crimes in that country. Without it, U.S. troops in Iraq would be subject to local Iraqi law, once the U.S. occupation authority is ended and a government is restored. >>

http://www.headliner.nl/headliner.php?c=us&id=325616&abbr=ap