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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GST who wrote (120544)	11/27/2003 9:42:11 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hakim said Sistani "didn't find anything that assures Islamic identity" in the agreement. "There should have been a stipulation that prevents legislating anything that contradicts Islam in the new Iraq, in either the interim or permanent phase," Hakim said. Shiite political leaders regard Sistani's reported displeasure as instrumental in persuading Bremer to support changes to his plan. "It's a trump card," one Shiite member of the Governing Council said. "For this process to work, for Shiites to support it, it needs to have Sistani's blessing." Oh please....give us a break Mr Mullah . He shows "deep concern" over loopholes in our plan not meting the "expectations" of the people of Iraq... where was his deep concern when Saddam was in power? What he is concerned with is his royal status as a "Mouth-piece of God". The Mullah Sistani is far better off now than he was months ago and he knows it. Let him make a little noise now when he would have been alot more muted before under Saddam. Wait till a little prosperity and individual freedom begins to unfold there in Iraq, these Mullahs may have to get real jobs ! Although Sistani is past retirement age now @ 72. slate.msn.com ;-)

To: GST who wrote (120544)	11/27/2003 10:57:47 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Bremer's plan calls for caucuses in the country's 18 provinces to choose representatives to serve on a transitional assembly, which would form a provisional government. Participants in the caucuses must be approved by 11 of 15 people on an organizing committee, which will be selected by the Governing Council and U.S.-appointed councils at the city and province level. Hakim and other Shiite leaders, who worry that the organizing committees may exclude religious figures, want assembly members to be directly elected. At the very least, they are demanding that the organizing committees be disbanded and any qualified candidate be allowed to participate in the caucuses. One of Sistani's main objections, Hakim said, "is the absence of any role for the Iraqi people in the transfer of power to Iraqis." Although U.S. officials have argued that holding elections would be too disruptive, time-consuming and complicated in the absence of an electoral law and accurate voter rolls, Hakim insisted elections for the transitional assembly would be possible in 80 percent of Iraq. In other words, Bremer wants a variety of "electoral college" situation (except where the electors aren't elected but are chosen--by whom, I wonder?), where a few [approved] people get to elect an assembly, and Hakim/Sistani want an election where everyone gets a vote, at least in 80 percent of the country. Guess those Muslims just don't get what "democracy" means, they definitely need some training.

To: GST who wrote (120544)	11/28/2003 3:23:46 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Rally of the realists By Jim Lobe Asia Times 11/27/03 atimes.com WASHINGTON - After two years of dominating United States foreign policy, are unilateralist hawks in the administration of President George W Bush losing power to the so-called realists whom they have long disdained? Although internal fights within the administration on issues such as policy towards Syria, Iran and North Korea remain fierce, there are growing indications that the influence of the hawks, neo-conservatives in particular, is on the wane... While Bush himself still deploys the soaring "we're-bringing-democracy-to-the-Arab-world" rhetoric that has been a neo-conservative trademark for the past 15 months - most recently in his trip last week to Britain - the growing consensus here is that the decision to accelerate the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government belies a sharp reduction in those ambitions...

To: GST who wrote (120544)	11/28/2003 3:43:14 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Ayatollah Sistani takes charge: Jalal Talabani, the president of the Iraqi Governing Council, traveled to Najaf to confer with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior Iraqi cleric who had raised objections to the American plan for indirect elections for a new provisional government. Afterward, both sides appeared to be moving toward a possible compromise. Ayatollah Sistani exercises strong influence over Iraq's majority Shiites, and on Wednesday his spokesmen said he was insisting that the election planned for next June must be a direct, popular ballot and not the indirect caucus election called for in the American plan. nytimes.com My comment: We are seeing a rapid shift in power in Iraq, and the abandoning of the NeoCon agenda. The Iraqi "Governing" Council is now answering to Sistani, not to Bremer. The U.S. has suddenly developed the ability to negotiate and compromise. We are now committed to gradually pulling our troops out, although we have not defeated our enemies. It is immensely ironic, that the U.S. had to be forced to reluctantly accept democracy and real elections, by a Shiite cleric.