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To: michael97123 who wrote (46986)	5/25/2004 8:31:27 PM
From: michael97123	Respond to of 794011

Shiite scientist likely to be new Iraqi PM Hussain Shahristani opposed Saddam Hussein regime for years By Robin Wright and Rajiv Chandrasekaran Updated: 7:13 p.m. ET May 25, 2004The United Nations is closing in on a slate for the new Iraqi government that is likely to be headed by Hussain Shahristani, a Shiite nuclear scientist who spent years in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison for refusing to participate in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program and is now the leading candidate to become prime minister in the first post-Hussein government, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials. U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and U.S. presidential envoy to Iraq Robert D. Blackwill are still in the final throes of working out the "complicated geometry" of dividing power among Iraq's disparate ethnic and religious factions, a senior administration official in Baghdad said today. But Brahimi has met several times this month with Shahristani, who said in an interview today that he would reluctantly accept the job if asked. "If they consider my participation essential, I'll try to convince them otherwise," said Shahristani, 62, who was educated in London and Toronto. "But if they're not convinced and they ask me to take a role . . . I cannot refuse. I must serve my people." Shahristani has little political experience. Unlike many other Iraqis who lived in exile, he was not active in opposition political parties, choosing instead to focus his energies on humanitarian aid projects. But he does possess an important connection on Iraq's new political scene: He is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's most-powerful Shiite cleric, whose support is essential for the viability of an interim government. Dialogue with Sistani Shahristani, who has described himself as an adviser to Sistani, said he has met with the grand ayatollah several times since the fall of Hussein's government. Shahristani said Sistani has played a "very, very constructive" role in Iraq over the past year. Iraqi officials familiar with Brahimi's mission said Shahristani's lack of political affiliation could be an asset, allowing him to serve as a bridge between various factions that will be jockeying for power in the run-up to elections early next year. Shahristani, who has a doctorate in nuclear chemistry, served as the chief scientific adviser to Iraq's atomic energy commission until 1979, when Hussein took over as president. Hussein ordered Shahristani to shift his focus from nuclear energy to nuclear weaponry. When he refused, the president ordered Shahristani tortured and jailed. 10 years at Abu Ghraib He spent a decade in the Abu Ghraib prison, most of it in solitary confinement. He managed to escape in 1991 and fled with his wife and three children to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. When Hussein's army pushed into Kurdistan, he and his family crossed into neighboring Iran, where he spent three years working with Iraqi refugees. He and his family eventually moved to Britain, where he found work as a visiting university professor. He crossed into Iraq two days before Hussein's government fell to deliver aid to the city of Karbala. Since then, he has divided his time between Karbala and the southern port city of Basra, working on humanitarian projects in both places. "I've been actively working to help the Iraqi people to free themselves from Saddam's tyranny, but I have always concentrated on serving the people and providing them with their basic needs rather than party politics," he said. Iraqi officials familiar with Brahimi's mission said it was an April 29 op-ed piece Shahristani wrote for the Wall Street Journal that piqued the attention of the U.N. envoy. Titled "Election Fever," the piece criticized the U.S. occupation authority for failing to prepare for elections sooner and for promulgating an interim constitution that was drawn up behind closed doors. He called for the government taking power on June 30 to have limited powers aimed at preparing the country for elections — a position advocated by Sistani. "The new provisional government should only be a caretaker government to prepare for elections," he wrote. "It should not indulge in negotiating military, economic or political treaties or agreements that will bind legitimately elected governments in the future." ‘A captain of men’ Although U.S. officials say negotiations have not been concluded, particularly for the cabinet positions, Shahristani has emerged as by far the most attractive candidate for prime minister. "The game has not played out yet, but Shahristani is the candidate to beat," said a senior State Department official. An Iraqi who knows him well called Shahristani "a captain of men," despite his lack of political leadership. Brahimi is now expected to announce the interim government line-up — for prime minister and the three ceremonial positions of president and two vice presidents — by Monday or Tuesday, said the senior administration official in Baghdad. The jobs could be contentious — or dangerous. A new Gallup poll of 3,444 Iraqis showed that nearly 7 in 10 (69 percent) believe their lives or the lives of family members would be in danger if they were viewed as cooperating with the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. In the quest to establish an interim government that will have credibility among both Iraqis and the international community, Brahimi and Blackwill have done a wide sweep of new names. Among the others to emerge for a top job is Sinan Shabibi, governor of the central bank whose father was one of the founders of modern Iraq in the 1920s after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. © 2004 The Washington Post Company msnbc.msn.com