BUSH MISLEADS ABOUT TRANSFER OF POWER IN IRAQ
Speaking at the NATO conference in Turkey yesterday, President Bush said, "15
months after the liberation of Iraq...the world witnessed the arrival of a
free and sovereign Iraqi government." [1] The reality, however, is much
different.
The same day that U.S. administrator Paul Bremer officially ended the
occupation, U.S. prosecutors refused to abide by an Iraqi judge's order
acquitting Iraqi citizen Iyad Akmush Kanum of attempted murder of coalition
troops. [2] Instead, the prosecutors returned Kanum to the infamous Abu
Ghraib prison, claiming that "they were not bound by Iraqi law."
In the days leading up to his departure, Bremer "issued a raft of edicts" in
an effort to "exert U.S. control over the country after the transfer of
political authority."[3] Specifically, Bremer empowered a seven-member
appointed commission "to disqualify political parties and any of the
candidates they support." Bremer also "appointed Iraqis handpicked by his
aides to influential positions in the interim government" with multi-year
terms to "promote his concepts of governance" after the handover.
Iraq remains plagued by violence and "the primary military responsibility for
fighting the insurgency remains as much in American hands as it did
yesterday."[4] As a result, the New York Times concludes it is "ludicrous for
administration officials to suggest that America's occupation of Iraq has now
somehow ended."
SOURCES:
1. "Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair," Whitehouse.gov,
6/28/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=42686.
2. "Prisoner 27075 learns limits of sovereignty, Financial Times, 6/29/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=42687
3. "U.S. Edicts Curb Power Of Iraq's Leadership," Washington Post, 6/27/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=42688"
4. "A Secretive Transfer in Iraq," New York Times, 6/29/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=2103488&l=42689
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