It will be interesting to see how this plays out. From "Slate."
According to the NYT, the team of Iraqi exiles, officially known as the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, was personally assembled two months ago by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Yet great pains have been taken to make sure the exiles are not viewed as "agents of America," the story says. Members of the group, which include engineers, civil administrators and other professionals, are employed by a major defense contractor, SAIC, and until recently, they were working out of office space in suburban Virginia, not at the Pentagon. In Baghdad, they will report directly to Jay Garner--the retired U.S. general who is now the top administrator in Iraq--until the formation of an interim Iraqi authority in late May.
It's not clear in the story if any of the exiles will attempt to stay on after the U.S. hands over control of Baghdad. Some worked in the Iraqi ministries during the 1970s and 1980s before fleeing the country, and at least a few are now American or British citizens. Emad Dhia, an engineer who left Iraq more than 20 years ago, is set to be Garner's top Iraqi adviser and is among the few named in the story. Others, Dhia tells the NYT, are afraid to be named because they fear they will be killed.
Another mystery is how the State Department feels about all of this, in light of recent reports that officials there have been at odds with the Pentagon over how to best rebuild the Iraqi leadership. Though the story quotes a lone State Department official on the May deadline of handing over control of Iraq, there's no mention of whether the deal quells Colin Powell & Co.'s worries about inclusiveness and legitimacy when it comes to rebuilding the country. |
