Of course many jails will also be still under US control including Abu Ghraib. The interim govt. itself was chosen by the UN and vetted by US. The government is not to make laws but to be a caretaker. The laws are those passed by the occupation authorities including a recent law that gives US troops and contractors immunity from Iraq law, although there is dispute about how wide the exclusion will extend. Final say on security issues rests with US commanded multinational fig-leaf forces. The CPA is rushing to award all sorts of contracts that will bind new govt. once "sovereignty" is handed over to Iraqis.TheUS and its minions will continue to be kings of Saddam's castle. The US just recently noted that the new Iraq govt. will not be able to impose martial law.Only the US multinational force has authority to do that.
Cheers, Ken Hanly Iraq's air and sea ports to stay under foreign control By Nicolas Pelham Published: June 24 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: June 24 2004 5:00 Iraq's air and sea ports will remain under foreign security control despite a formal transfer of sovereignty on June 30 to the interim government, according to coalition officials and security companies. In the dying weeks of its rule, the occupation administration says it is issuing contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to British security contractors in an effort to prolong foreign oversight of strategic ports that are vital to the US-led reconstruction effort. "We hired a private contractor to train Iraqis and train themselves out of a job," says one of 16 coalition advisers at the transport ministry who will remain after June 30. Responsibility for security at the sea port of Umm Qasr has been awarded to the British company Olive. The coalition administration has also awarded Stevedoring Services of America a three-month contract to handle the administration and collection of revenue at the port, says SSA's John Walsh. An American company, Skylink, will continue to oversee air-traffic control at Baghdad airport at least until the end of September. Last-minute manoeuvring to keep a tight rein on security illustrates the coalition's nervousness at the transfer of power over strategic assets to Iraqis. Iraqi officials who had hoped the airport would return to Iraqi hands have voiced frustration at this month's United Nations resolution binding them to uphold the contracts awarded from the Development Fund of Iraq, the deposit for Iraq's oil revenues which the US-led administration is using to pay contractors. "I prefer my people to secure the airport. It's a matter of sovereignty," says Louay al-Erris, Iraq's newly appointed transport minister. "I don't think foreigners are more capable than Iraqi police and security." Iraqi officials have repeatedly alleged that military use of Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), has hampered its opening to commercial passenger traffic. Pent-up demand for travel in a country isolated by 25 years of sanctions and war is intense. While 500 aircraft land at BIAP daily, all but 50 are military craft. Coalition officials respond that they have gone out of their way to prepare BIAP for the handover. BIAP has been the largest American base in Iraq during the 16-month occupation, and the relocation of 15,000 troops to two adjacent camps, say US officials, amounts to a big concession. "The coalition is making a sacrifice to give that airport back to Iraq," says the transport adviser, who adds that he has persuaded US military commanders they would still have access to Iraq's 160 other airfields. According to his plan, the ministry of transport would regain control of BIAP's eastern runway and terminals on July 1 and the western military runway by mid-August. He said he foresaw security contractors and Iraqi police working side by side. It remained unclear, he said, who would decide whether to lift the ban on Iraqi taxis entering the airport perimeter, for fear they were booby-trapped. But the security contractor at BIAP, Custerbattles, says its word on access to the airport remains final. "We have the final say and the legal liability and that will carry over into the next contract," says Don Ritchie, programme manager for Custerbattles. But he added: "If I was the Iraqi general in charge, I'd be upset because there's a security company doing things I think I should be doing." Iraqi officials also resent the contractors' recourse to foreign guards, viewing the presence of Nepalese, South African and British private security forces as an extension of the occupation. Bahnam Boulos, Iraq's former transport minister, who was replaced with the appointment of a new government on June 1, is sceptical of American US assurances that the security contracts will be short term. * A strike by US forces that destroyed a house in the Iraqi city of Falluja overnight killed about 20 foreign fighters, a senior military official said on Wednesday.Reuters reports from Baghdad. The US military says the strike targeted a safe house used by militants loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, accused of links to al-Qaeda. Iraqis said the attack had killed four Falluja residents. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373231181
