World War Three 2003 **NEWS*** 13/11/3


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Topic: Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus
User: "Mrs Crokets yummy creamy pasta salad"
Date: 13 Nov 2003 02:51:22 AM
Object: World War Three 2003 **NEWS*** 13/11/3
www.endtime.com
================
Wednesday November 12, 8:46 PM
Bremer holds urgent White House talks on Iraq

The US civilian coordinator for Iraq, Paul Bremer was expected to meet
with President George W. Bush and his top aides to discuss the pace of
normalizing the war-ravaged nation, reports said.
Bremer, who arrived here unexpectedly Tuesday, and top US officials
are considering changing the US-annointed Iraqi Governing Council and
the timing of Iraq's transition to self-governance, the Washington
Post said.
One of various proposals was to hold elections in four to six months
to select a new body that would write a constitution and an executive
to assume sovereign powers, following a model similar to postwar
Afghanistan, said the daily.
Bremer hopes to return to Baghdad later this week with a designated
plan to discuss with the Iraqi council, US officials told the daily.
With the death toll among US troops in Iraq growing, there have been
growing signs in Washington and Baghdad of US impatience with the
Governing Council that it appointed to prepare the handover of power.
"The White House wants to go faster because of the increasing
violence," ABC said also quoting administration officials.
"The goal is to get a constitutional process going, and find the best
way to transfer more and more authority to Iraqi leaders who are
recognized as legitimate in the eyes of the Iraqi people," a senior
official with the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority told the
Post.
Another senior US official described the White House's determination
to quicken the pace of the transition as a "sane and rational change
of course."
Bremer, who already met with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice, issued a warning to the council on Sunday that it had to meet a
December 15 deadline to set out a timetable for drawing up a new
constitution and holding national elections.
"I think the Governing Council does face some very important decisions
in the weeks ahead," Bremer told a press conference Sunday.
The US civilian coordinator had summoned prominent council members
Thursday to encourage them to make faster progress, a coalition
official said.
Council members and officials have insisted that the Washington-set
deadlines will be met.
But hours before Bremer's departure from Iraq late Monday, a source in
Baghdad close to the coalition told AFP "there is a steadily mounting
frustration. What we find is things don't start to happen. There seems
to be a level of non-engagement."
More than half of the 389 US soldiers killed in combat in Iraq since
the March invasion have fallen since Bush declared on May 1 that
"major combat" was over.
The daily attacks in Iraq have grown in intensity in recent weeks and
included late Monday mortars fired at Bremer's coalition headquarters
in Baghdad.
At least 14 people including Italian Carabinieri police officers were
killed Wednesday in a truck bomb attack against an Italian police base
in Nasiriya, southern Iraq, ANSA news agency reported, and a US
soldier died in an explosion north of Baghdad late Tuesday.
The US administration has become more concerned as polls have shown
American public support for the war effort is falling. The Defence
Department has already announced plans for a significant reduction in
the number of US troops in Iraq by May.
Bremer set out a seven-step plan for Iraqi sovereignty in September.
A UN resolution passed last month, which gave a new legitimacy to the
US occupation after the international divisions caused by the March 20
invasion, also lays down the December 15 deadline.
"There's serious frustration about the way it's worked so far," said a
senior US official quoted by the Post. "The council has not
demonstrated the ability to have a seriousness of purpose or
single-mindedness about its work."
One of the obstacles to the constitution work has been a demand by
Iraq's Shiite majority to hold elections to a constitutional
conference that would draft a new legal charter.
Failure to do so could alienate the Shiite community, which until now
has gone along with the US presence in Iraq.
Interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said Sunday that Iraq would
meet the looming deadlines.
"The ball lands in our court and we must deliver," he said, but
warned: "A great deal will depend on the security situation in the
country."
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