Word: bremer
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...force. In fact, the U.S. has needed the militias: the peshmerga not only effectively police the north but also provide critical intelligence about infiltrators in the border areas. In the south, the Shi'ite militias have controlled restive communities that have grown disaffected with the occupation. By last week, Bremer thought he had coaxed council members to accept a constitutional pledge to blend their militias into the national security force, though the details and timing for disbanding them were among key issues left unsettled...
...dramatic Shi'ite walkout dealt a stinging blow to the Bush Administration's exit strategy and to Bremer, even if the disagreement can soon be smoothed over. Without ever appearing in public or communicating with American officials, Ayatullah Sistani showed just how much power he wields over Iraq's future. During the contentious negotiations to draft the basic law, Shi'ite members would frequently accept a point, then reopen the issue after hearing from Ayatullah Sistani. Now they were playing the same trick in public as a way to gain maximum leverage. But any attempt to revise the disputed clauses...
Late last Thursday night, a tired but content Bremer was proudly telling TIME of the occupation's first solid political accomplishment in 11 months. Three days of tense marathon negotiations in the Iraqi Governing Council had culminated in unanimous approval of a surprisingly liberal draft constitution just before the dawn call to prayers on March 1. Bremer praised the much maligned council for taking a "wonderful" step toward democracy. In a triumphant news conference that morning, Shi'ite council member Muwaffaq al-Rubaie called it "a historic day in the long march toward building a new Iraq...
...single nation and the role of Islam in the new state. Council members ultimately found it less difficult to adopt an unprecedented Western-style bill of rights--guaranteeing freedom of speech, religion, privacy and assembly, and an independent judiciary--than to decide who gets to take power next. But Bremer was full of confidence that the question of how a new government will be formed could be thrashed out in an "annex" within two months...
Ayatullah Sistani first insisted on a speeded-up timetable for elections. Then in December he brushed aside Bremer's scheme to choose interim rulers through a complicated U.S.-run caucus system and demanded immediate elections. Shi'ites, constituting 60% of the population, expect to dominate any vote. After rugged haggling that brought in the U.N. as an intermediary, the U.S. agreed that elections projected for late 2005 would be pushed forward...