Excerpts from previous political updates, by subject:

February 03, 2004

Creating the Iraqi Governing Council

U.S. President George W. Bush named career diplomat L. Paul Bremer III as his presidential envoy to Iraq on May 6, making Bremer the senior civilian in charge of reconstruction efforts. Bremer reports directly to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Since his arrival in Baghdad on May 12, Bremer has tried to improve security in Iraq, to rebuild the police force and to eliminate the influence of former Ba'ath party officials in the Iraqi government. Due to continuing security problems, Bremer initially announced that the selection of an interim Iraqi administration, promised by the previous administrator, would be delayed. But after Iraq's main political groups voiced opposition to the delay, and following several weeks spent negotiating differences with these groups, Bremer announced a compromise plan: the creation of an Iraqi governing council rather than the less powerful political council originally planned.

The Council, which has a rotating presidency, reflects the ethnic and religious make-up of the country, with 13 Shiite Muslims, five Kurds, five Sunni Muslims, one Assyrian Christian and one Turkoman. It has the power to name and dismiss interim ministers, draft the budget, appoint chargés d'affaires to foreign capitals, and organize the drafting of Iraq's new constitution. The council's first official acts included abolishing all Hussein-era holidays and establishing a war crimes court to try former high-level officials of Saddam's regime. Though the Council remained deadlocked on most issues throughout the summer, it finally named a 25-member cabinet on September 2, which is expected to take over some responsibility for the day-to-day governing of Iraq. Its creation is considered an important step in the ongoing process of shifting authority from the coalition authority to Iraqis.

A period of relentless attacks

As the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began in late October, a series of deadly bombings rocked Baghdad, bringing into question the ability of the U.S.-led coalition to provide basic security. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz was in the al-Rashid Hotel, a heavily fortified shelter for American personnel, when it was attacked by a barrage of rockets on October 26. In another incident, a coordinated series of suicide car bombs exploded outside the local headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross and also destroyed three Baghdad police stations, killing 34 persons and wounding 224. In November, four American helicopters were downed in two weeks, killing 39 according to initial estimates. And on November 12, insurgents bombed an Italian military police headquarters in the southern town of Nasiriyah, killing 33 persons in the single deadliest attack since President Bush declared the end of major combat operations on May 1. This unrelenting succession of assaults was preceded by devastating attacks on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, as well as the assassination of Iraqi Governing Council member Akila Hashimi in September.

A shift in policy and motivation

Amidst the tumult of increasingly deadly attacks against U.S.-led troops in Iraq, L.Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, was summoned to Washington to discuss a decisive shift in Iraq policy. Despite its initial insistence that the transfer of power to Iraqis be gradual, the Bush administration decided to cede Iraq sovereignty by the end of June, before the country could adopt a constitution or hold national elections. The plan is contingent upon the adoption of a set of basic governing principles by the Iraqi Governing Council and the creation of a national assembly and provisional government. A constitution and national elections would be completed by 2006.

The acceleration of the power transfer was accompanied by a shift in America's declared goals. According to recent statements by President Bush, the new U.S. mission in Iraq is to bring freedom and democracy to the country, rather than locate Saddam Hussein's possible arsenal of forbidden arms. And despite having found no stockpiles of illicit weapons in Iraq, President Bush declared in his 2004 State of the Union address: "Had we failed to act [in Iraq], the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day."