Likely Leaders Emerge in Iraq

U.S. officials gave the first details Monday of their plan for an interim Iraqi government, saying it will be headed by a council of as many as nine leaders and suggesting that the majority would be drawn from Iraqi exile groups that have yet to demonstrate much popular support here.

Although a new transitional government will not be chosen until the end of the month, the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq, retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, said five men had already begun meeting and would probably be part of the council. “By the middle of the month you’ll really see a beginning of a nucleus of an Iraqi government, with an Iraqi face on it, that is dealing with the coalition,” Garner said before leaving Baghdad for a two-day visit to the southern city of Basra.

Garner identified the five Iraqi leaders as Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, Massoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Iyad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord and Abdelaziz Hakim of the Iran-based Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Garner’s announcement came amid growing criticism that the U.S.-led effort to rebuild the country was languishing. The much-anticipated return of police to the streets of Baghdad was limited Monday to a few traffic officers, most of whom were working without guns in a city echoing with gunfire and who were still awaiting their promised $20 emergency stipend.

Although 135,000 allied troops occupy the country, neither they nor Garner’s Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance govern it.

The vacuum left after the swift collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime can be felt in cities and villages throughout Iraq, with clan leaders reclaiming long-lost power and Shiite religious leaders asserting authority over municipal services in several cities. One notable exception to the ongoing political chaos is Mosul, which Monday became the country’s first major city to establish an elected government. The 24-man interim city council was chosen by 150 delegates at a convention of religious, ethnic and tribal leaders.

Though Garner did not spell out the selection process for the five men who are already meeting on a nascent national council, they are well-known leaders of some of the largest exile opposition groups to emerge over the last decade -- groups that have received U.S. support. The two Kurdish leaders have been living in northern Iraq, which has essentially functioned as a separate country since 1991. The other three men have been out of the country for many years, because Hussein had squelched all internal rivals to the ruling Baath Party.

Representatives of Sunni Muslims and Iraqi Christians might be added to the leadership group, Garner said. Chalabi, Hakim and Allawi are Shiite Muslims, though few Shiites claim Chalabi as their leader and Allawi heads a Sunni-dominated, though secular-leaning, organization. Garner gave no hint that more Shiites, who make up 60% of the population, might be included.

Though leaders of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq have said they do not favor an Iran-style regime for Iraq, several fundamentalist Shiite parties do want Iraq to become a religion-based Islamic republic, a construction strongly opposed by the Bush administration.

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Criticism From Imam

In carefully worded criticism of the plan, Sheik Khamal Jawad Chochachi, imam at Baghdad’s sprawling Khadamia Mosque, said “it would be better if there would be three or four more” Shiites on the council. “That would be more fair,” he said.

The interim government is officially to be chosen by Iraqi delegates at a meeting late this month, and a spokesman for Chalabi emphasized that the leadership choices were “not set in stone.” But with opposition groups now clearly driving the process, it would seem natural that the five men leading the top opposition groups be selected, said the spokesman, Zaab Sethna.

In his statement, Garner indicated that the U.S. recognized that its failure to get essential public services back in operation was costing it the goodwill of many Iraqis and that it is serious about installing a transitional government quickly.

“The month of May is a key month” for getting all the public services up and running “and getting the law enforcement system back,” he told reporters.

For the few Iraqis who know his name, Garner had become a primary target of complaint. Bush administration officials disclosed plans last week to place a former State Department official over Garner.

L. Paul Bremer III, a former ambassador and head of the State Department’s counter-terrorism office who is expected to arrive in Iraq by next week, will oversee all political and reconstruction efforts.

On Monday, Garner said his job was intended to be temporary and that Bremer’s position had long been planned. He also acknowledged two failures on the part of his office: not yet having a television station up and running and failing to predict or address the lawlessness that has crippled the county.

“We didn’t anticipate the looting that occurred to the degree it did,” he said in Basra.

Also Monday, officials announced the appointment of Ole Wohlers Olsen, a Danish diplomat, as southeast Iraq regional coordinator for the U.S. reconstruction office. “We have now a very serious job in front of us in the most mistreated part of Iraq,” Olsen said in Basra.

The chaos unleashed by days of looting after the fall of Hussein still plagues Iraq nearly a month later.

Many shops remain shuttered because of gunfire, and others close early so employees can get home before dark. Phone systems are so damaged that many people believe cellular services will have to replace land lines. And with power and water still out in many parts of the country, many Iraqis believe the U.S. planned much better for the war than for its aftermath.

As Garner spoke, five traffic-control officers directed cars through a busy intersection in the Mansour neighborhood and hoped for the best. They had a single, well-worn revolver among them. Their uniform: blue trousers and a white dress shirt.

“Most officers remain in their houses because they have no guns, while the thieves have rifles. They have no uniforms,” said one officer, who asked not to be named. “The Americans took officers’ badges from them, right in front of people on the streets. You think anyone will respect us after that?”

Many parts of the country, including Baghdad, continue to seem on the brink of anarchy, with the presence of coalition troops providing limited comfort.

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Paid but Not Working

On Monday, a gunman fired at a journalist’s car as it passed two men staggering along a residential street in blood-soaked clothing, apparently victims of gunshot wounds.

The day before, hundreds of looters streamed in and out of one of Hussein’s palaces -- a palace that had been looted previously and that U.S. Army troops had guarded until two days earlier.

They had been called to perform other duties, apparently because commanders believed there was nothing left in the palace worth protecting. But upon learning of the looting, the soldiers roared back, and 20 minutes of gunfire ensued as they shot out the tires of looters’ cars and fired over the heads of those who tried to flee.

It was unclear if any looters fired on the soldiers or if all the gunfire came from the U.S. side, but the troops confiscated many weapons.

At Baghdad police headquarters, one police officer pulled four crisp $5 bills from his wallet. He had been paid the emergency stipend to come back to work, he said, but hadn’t been allowed to do his job.

U.S. soldiers “don’t control the streets and they don’t allow us to control them,” the officer complained. “Thousands of us want to work. We know where the guns are, where the thieves are.”

Several men came into the room, asking for an investigation into the death of a friend. “You’ll have to bring the body in here,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified. “We can’t go out.”

Another officer at the station, Jabar Okaili, rolled up his shirt sleeve to reveal a bandaged stab wound. “We were working before the Americans said to,” Okaili said. “We captured some thieves. Then they opened fire and they cut me. When we ran away, the Americans caught us and put handcuffs on us.”

Still trying to train and vet officers -- some of whom were close to Hussein’s regime and moonlighted as spies or muscle -- U.S. forces are being cautious and deliberate in returning them to work.

“They’ll be back,” one U.S. officer said. “But many aren’t ready yet.”

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Times staff writers Alissa J. Rubin and Michael Slackman in Baghdad contributed to this report, as did Reuters.