I am sorry.
No need. I did not take offense. I merely wanted to make sure that credit went where it was due.
Meanwhile, things are "progressing" in Iraq.
Sistani says Iraq constitution a 'dead end'
by Matthew Clark
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has intensified his opposition to the country's interim constitution. Mr. Sistani sent a letter to the UN envoy in Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, saying that flaws in the constitution "will lead to a dead end and bring the country into an unstable situation and perhaps lead to its partition and division."
In the letter, Sistani said he will not participate in meetings with UN officials if the Security Council endorses the US-backed interim constitution, MSNBC reports. The Shiite leader also said he would boycott the UN mission "unless the United Nations takes a clear stance that the constitution does not bind the National Assembly and is not mentioned in any new Security Council resolution concerning Iraq."
Among Sistani's main concerns is the consitution's heavy emphasis on ethnic and religious differences. "This constitution that gives the presidency in Iraq to a three-member council, a Kurd, a Sunni Arab and a Shiite Arab, enshrines sectarianism and ethnicity in the future political system in the country," his letter said.
Currently, the constitution, which was signed by the US-picked Iraqi Governing Council on March 8, is to remain in effect until a permanent constitution replaces it in late 2005.
Mr. Brahimi and other senior UN officials had "privately opposed US plans to adopt a detailed interim constitution, warning that the process was insufficiently inclusive and would fuel resistance among groups not involved in drafting the document," The Washington Post reports.
"It would have been wiser to have a brief statement of principles, not a full-fledged constitution," said one UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We were clear with the Americans. If they had listened to us, they would not have this problem."
When Sistani talks, the US and the UN listen. In January, the cleric demonstrated his considerable clout by quickly rallying tens of thousands of angry supporters to the streets of both Basra and Baghdad to call for elections. He hinted then that such crowds could become violent if their demands were not considered.
These peaceful, yet passionate, demonstrations were large enough to cause Paul Bremer, the head of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority, to ask the UN the following week for a team to assess the feasibility of early elections. Before the massive demonstrations, Sistani's consistent calls for elections, since last June, seemed to fall on deaf ears.
The last time he voiced objection to the interim constitution, the signing ceremony was delayed for three days, MSNBC points out. After it was signed, he issued a fatwa, or religious edict, casting doubts on its legitimacy.
As of yet, it is unclear what effect, if any, Sistani's latest objection will have on the interim constitution. But the letter's threatening tone will no doubt give UN authorities much to think about in the next week. "We warn that any such step will be unacceptable to the majority of Iraqis and will have dangerous consequences," Sistani wrote.
The New York Times reports that the rumor mill in Iraq is a chief obstacle to the US democracy-building effort. After US military leaders realized the word on the street – true or not – was fueling serious security problems, they decided to create a daily intelligence document covering Baghdad gossip. The Baghdad Mosquito is distributed via e-mail to military officers and policy planners and is posted on the military's classified Web server. Here is one rumor collected by the Mosquito:
Less than 24 hours after a bombing in central Baghdad that tore the facade off the Mount Lebanon Hotel, the rumors began circulating in the marketplaces and teahouses: that the hotel was demolished not by a bomb, as the Americans maintained, but by an errant American missile.
Sifting through the wide array of information that forms the opinions of average Baghdadis will be critical to further US efforts to improve security and democracy in Iraq's volatile capital.
csmonitor.com
lurqer |
