The tranfer of authority will be unqualified:
Iraq: Bremer raises the possibility of a US departure
The US civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has clearly raised Friday the possibility of an American retreat from the country
"If the interim government (which will be in charge of Iraq after the transfer of power at the end of June) aks us to leave, we will leave, but I don't think it will come to that", declared Mr. Bremer.
Combat took place Friday on the periphery of the Holy Shi'ite City of Najaf, where strong explosions were heard.
The American Administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, spoke of an eventual American disengagement before a bringing together of Iraqi governors.
"Evidently, it is not possible to remain in a country where we are not welcome", he declared.
Some 300 detainees of the prison of Abou Ghraib, near Baghdad, were freed the same day, the day after a surprise visit of the American Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, in that prison which found itself at the center of a scandal of American soldiers torturing Iraqi detainees.
Donald Rumsfeld received a rather hostile reception Thursday at Abou Ghraib. He made a tour of the detention center on board an armored vehicle under the gaze of hundreds of detainees who showed him their hostility, behind a security perimeter surrounded by barbells. Certain among them extended their fists, giving him a thumbs down, others brandishing the torn Iraqi flag.
" We are concerned to see that the detainees are well- treated, to see that our soldiers are comporting themselves correctly, and we want tht chain of command to function well", declared the Secretary before this visit.
Mr. Rumsfeld carried off this surprise visit to Baghdad with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Meyers, at a time when the scandal of abuses inflicted by soldiers on detainees in Abou Ghraib continues
to embarrass the American administration. The Secretary of Defense finds himself on the front line facing torment.
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