I see Iraq is still on schedule and going to the neo-con plan.
Iraq Interim Constitution Signing Delayed
By MATT MOORE
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)--The signing of Iraq's interim constitution was delayed indefinitely Friday after five Shiite members of the Governing Council--at the last minute--rejected the makeup of the presidency and concessions to Kurds.
The council had agreed to the accord unanimously Monday. But Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, rejected provisions put into the text at the Kurds' request, said a source in the council, speaking on condition of anonymity.
``The marja'iya (al-Sistani's office) will not accept it,'' the source said.
The Shiites' move threw Friday's planned signing ceremony into disarray. Officials were left waiting in front of a stage set up in Baghdad's convention center, 25 fountain pens laid out on an antique desk. It was not immediately known when the signing would take place.
``There are some reservations. We are trying to sort the problems out now,'' said Hamed al-Bayati, an adviser in the Shiite Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the parties that refused to sign the charter.
Al-Bayati said the Shiites' concerns focused on clauses in the deal that the Kurds wanted to ensure that the eventual permanent constitution, to be put to a national referendum, does not encroach on their self-rule zone in the north.
The clauses say that if two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces reject the permanent charter, it will not got into effect. The Kurd self-rule region includes three provinces in the north.
``Some of these provinces have only 400,000 or 500,000 people. We cannot have that number of people rejecting a constitution for 25 million people,'' al-Bayati said.
Another cause of dispute was the makeup of the presidency. The draft that the Governing Council--including the Shiite parties _ agreed to set up a single president with two deputies.
The council members that refused to sign were Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council, Ibrahim al-Jaafari of the Dawa party and the current council president Shiite cleric Muhammad Bahr al-Ulloom.
Hours earlier, militants fired mortar rounds at the airport and two roadside bombs exploded, but no injuries were reported.
The ceremony had been delayed for nearly a week--first by tough negotiations among the Governing Council that went beyond a Feb. 28 deadline, then by a three-day mourning period following two suicide attacks Tuesday that killed scores of Shiite pilgrims on the holy day of Ashoura.
Top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and chief British representative Jeremy Greenstock mediated with council members in a marathon session that sealed the deal around dawn Monday. Compromises were struck on some of the toughest issues, particularly the role of Islam and federalism.
The draft recognizes Islam as a source of legislation. In a concession to religious conservatives who wanted Islam to be the main source, it also states that no law will be passed that violates the tenets of the Muslim religion.
It also accepts the principle of federalism but leaves it to a future elected national assembly to decide on self-rule for Iraq's Kurdish minority.
Delegates hammered out a system that would allow any of Iraq's 18 provinces to form federal regions--a provision opening the door for Shiites to form a region of self-rule in the south, similar to the Kurds' region in the north.
The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch criticized the document Friday, saying it does not do enough to protect women's rights, particularly in the area of family law.
The charter also came under fire from Shiite clergy at Baghdad's Kazimiya shrine, one of the targets hit by suicide bombers in Tuesday's attacks.
The shrine's top imam, Sheik Jawad al-Khalisi, dismissed the charter, saying it was created by an unelected body under U.S. domination. ``It lacks legitimacy,'' he told the Al-Arabiya television station.
``I call upon the honest people in the Governing Council to demand that the constitution should be written on the basis of Islam 100 percent,'' another cleric, Sheik Hazim al-Aaraji, told worshippers at his Friday prayer service at Kazimiya. Many of the clergy at Kazimiya are followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical anti-U.S. cleric.
In a sermon in Najaf, however, an imam linked to a Shiite party on the council praised the document as ``a success.'' It ``has positive items such as considering Islam as the state religion and a source for legislation and ... provides a fair solution for the Kurdish people,'' Sheik Sadr-Aldin al-Qubanji said.
The United States will transfer sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30--though it has yet to be decided how to pick the government that will take power. U.S. troops, however, will only gradually transfer security duties to Iraqi police and civil defense.
In the northern city of Tikrit, American troops arrested seven Iraqis after a roadside bomb attack injured one soldier, the military said Friday. The 4th Infantry Division soldier was wounded Thursday when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by a homemade bomb in Hadid, a town just north of Baqouba.
Tuesday's bombings of Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala raised the specter of sectarian war. The Governing Council said 271 people were killed in the attacks, while the U.S. coalition said 181 people were killed and another 573 were wounded.
Outraged Shiites have mainly blamed foreign terrorists for the attacks--but have also turned their anger on the Americans for failing to keep security in the country.
``The occupation forces bear the responsibility of the bloodshed in Karbala and Kazimiya,'' Sheik Abdul Mehdi al-Karbalai said his sermon at Karbala's Imam Hussein shrine, one of the targeted sites.
U.S. officials pointed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with al-Qaida links, as the prime suspect in the bombings. But some officials said the role of foreign militants in the attacks was still unclear.
Bremer said Thursday it was ``increasingly apparent'' terrorism was coming from outside Iraq, but some American generals were far less certain about the extent of foreigners' roles.
Al-Zarqawi's role is ``a very educated guess,'' said Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, which controls Baghdad. But he called the idea that foreign fighters were flooding Iraq ``a misconception.''
In Najaf, meanwhile, police Maj. Mohammed Dayekh said Thursday an Iraqi member of al-Zarqawi's network had confessed he and four other Iraqis were involved in the Karbala bombing. The U.S. military command said it was unaware of the purported confession by Mohammed Hanoun Hmood al-Mozani.
The U.S. military official in Baghdad said the case for foreigners having planned the attacks was bolstered by the capture of five ``suspected foreign fighters'' near Karbala just 10 hours before the blasts.
The military has not determined the identities or nationalities of the five, nor has it concluded whether they were linked to al-Zarqawi. The five were planning an attack on pilgrimages for Ashoura, which climaxed Tuesday.
Fifteen other suspects--including five Farsi speakers, believed to be Iranian--were being questioned.
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