IRAQ NEWS, SUNDAY, JANUARY 12, 2003
I. IRAQI OPPOSITION MEETS BUSH, NYT, JAN 12
The Iraqi opposition has held a series of meetings with US officials
over the past week, culminating in a meeting with Pres. Bush, as described
by the NYT, Jan 12.
As the NYT reported, Bush held an hour-long meeting with three
Iraqi-Americans. They included Kanan Makiya, "a professor at Brandeis
University and a leading Iraqi intellectual," who said that he was "'deeply
reassured' by what he called 'the president's intense commitment to a
genuinely democratic post-Saddam Iraq' and by Mr. Bush's determination to
press forward not only with 'removing Saddam from office, but reconstructing
Iraq after a military conflict.'" Rend Francke, "director of the Iraq
Foundation, a group that promotes democracy for Iraq," was also at the
meeting.
The third person present was Hatem Mukhlis, a physician from upstate
NY. Unfortunately, Mukhlis has little standing within the Iraqi opposition
and his presence was symptomatic of a much bigger problem: the US
bureaucracies that dealt with the Iraqi opposition during the Clinton
years-the State Dept and the CIA-persist in doing what they were doing
before.
In the late 1990s, as Saddam challenged and undermined the weapons
inspectors, the U.S. Congress increasingly passed legislation supporting
Saddam's Iraqi opponents, specifically the Iraqi National Congress (INC).
But Clinton didn't want to take on Saddam, and the bureaucracies sought to
undermine the INC. And they're still doing that!
One way that is done is by saddling the opposition leadership with
ineffectual and/or unwanted figures and otherwise trying to divide and play
off one faction against the other. In 2002, the State Dept encouraged
Mukhlis to form a new group called the "Iraqi National Movement," (even as
the State Dept constantly carps about the fragmentation of the opposition)
The INM was established in July and then began to receive money from the
State Dept (at a time when money was being withheld from the INC). But no
sooner was the INM established, than it split in two, with the majority of
members (ex-Iraqi army officers) joining the side of Mukhlis' rival.
Clearly, this is not the way to go into the war with Iraq.
I. IRAQI OPPOSITION MEETS BUSH
The New York Times
January 12, 2003
Iraqi Dissidents Reassured in a Talk With Bush About the Post-Hussein Era
By Judith Miller
President Bush told Iraqi opposition figures on Friday that he favored a
sweeping transition to democracy in Iraq and a short military occupation
after Saddam Hussein is out of power, according to Iraqis and others who
attended the meeting.
The hourlong session in the Oval Office was Mr. Bush's first extensive
meeting with Iraqi dissidents. Three dissidents attended, two of whom are
closely associated with the Iraqi National Congress, the umbrella opposition
group. Vice President Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, the national security
adviser, and other senior White House aides also took part.
None of the Iraqi participants were willing to discuss precisely what Mr.
Bush said. But Kanan Makiya, a professor at Brandeis University and a
leading Iraqi intellectual, said he was "deeply reassured" by what he called
"the president's intense commitment to a genuinely democratic post-Saddam
Iraq" and by Mr. Bush's determination to press forward not only with
"removing Saddam from office, but reconstructing Iraq after a military
conflict."
"Mr. Bush was clearly aware that Iraq was not Afghanistan, and that it has
the human and financial resources needed to support democracy," Mr. Makiya
said.
Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said Mr. Bush had told the group
that "we haven't reached conclusions" about going to war. Mr. Fleischer said
the session was "a chance to hear the thoughts of some experts and leading
intellectuals" about the prospects for democracy in Iraq. "For the
president, it was a great listening session," he said.
The Iraqi participants all said they had emphasized the importance of
creating an Iraqi political partner for the United States before Mr.
Hussein's ouster. "We argued that it would give the Iraqi people a pole
around which they can rally during liberation," said Rend Francke, director
of the Iraq Foundation, a group that promotes democracy for Iraq, who was
also at the meeting.
Mr. Bush seemed concerned about how American soldiers might be received, a
participant in the meeting said. The dissidents assured him that they would
be greeted "with sweets and flowers," in the words of one of them.
Hatem Mukhlis, an Iraqi-American physician at the meeting, said that while
Mr. Bush gave him the impression that he had not yet decided whether to go
to war, "the president indicated that America's presence in Iraq after a
conflict should not be long."
But it was also clear, two participants said, that the White House has still
not decided what kind of Iraqi partner it wants during a war and after Mr.
Hussein is no longer in power.
One person who attended said Mr. Bush had said more than once that Mr.
Hussein must be disarmed and that the United States would ensure such an
outcome.
Senior administration officials have recently stepped up contacts with the
Iraqi opposition. Barham Salih, the prime minister of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, which controls part of the no-flight zone in northern Iraq, and
Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, have both met with
Zalmay Khalilzad, Mr. Bush's special envoy to the opposition.
Mr. Chalabi said they had all agreed on the need for "close coordination to
efforts to remove Saddam from power." He and Mr. Salih both said that Iraqi
opposition representatives would meet in northern Iraq after Jan. 15 to
designate a small group of opposition figures to help lead a transition to
democracy once Saddam Hussein is gone.
They said the meeting would be held in Salahuddin, a former resort town 30
miles northeast of Erbil.
"This will be an in-your-face-Saddam gathering," Mr. Chalabi said in an
interview. "We're meeting inside Iraq to show we are determined to
participate in the overthrow of Saddam."
Opposition figures also said that Iraqi dissidents would begin receiving
military training in Hungary on Jan. 12, but that precisely how such
training would be financed was still being discussed.
