Administrator Lands in Chaotic Baghdad

The new civilian administrator of Iraq arrived in this chaos-choked capital Monday, faced with the daunting task of restoring everything from security to electricity, a job many here and in Washington say has not been handled effectively.

As looted buildings burned and gunmen continued to roam freely, L. Paul Bremer III landed at Baghdad’s international airport Monday afternoon to head all political and reconstruction efforts in the country. Bremer will, among other tasks, oversee the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, or ORHA, which has been run by retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner.

Bremer is the first of several officials due in the country in the coming weeks to replace current civilian leaders who have been trying with little success to begin the rebuilding effort.

“It’s a wonderful challenge to help the Iraqi people basically reclaim their country from a despotic regime,” Bremer said after landing at the airport southwest of the city.

Garner has said he will remain for several weeks to help Bremer settle into his new post. Veteran diplomat Barbara Bodine, who under Garner oversaw central Iraq, including Baghdad, also is headed back to Washington.

With U.S. officials acknowledging they did not anticipate the crippling wave of crime that swept the country after Baghdad fell more than a month ago, security is the first item on Bremer’s agenda. In coming days, he will focus on retraining Iraqi police officers and returning them to the street and on bolstering the country’s flagging court system.

Iraqis say he must also open his offices to local officials and residents and make clear his presence and his efforts -- things Garner failed to do, in the view of many Iraqis.

The arrival of a new top official was welcomed by many here, both citizens on the street and would-be leaders in an interim government, many of whom have criticized the U.S. as having planned well for the war but not for its aftermath.

“We hope his arrival will bring a point of focus to this process,” said Zaab Sethna, an advisor at the Iraqi National Congress, one of many opposition groups vying for power since U.S.-led forces toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. “What you had before was three parallel tracks: the military, the reconstruction and the humanitarian side. We hope Mr. Bremer will be able to pull these together.”

With allied forces and civil administrators having failed to restore law and order, as well as most public services, thus far, some Iraqis have begun to believe that the U.S. is abetting the disorder to gain long-term control over the country. In his brief comments at the airport, Bremer sought to reassure the public.

“The coalition forces did not come to colonize Iraq,” he said. “We came to overthrow a despotic regime. That we’ve done. Now our job is to turn and help the Iraqi people regain control of their own destiny, to help the Iraqi society rebuild on the basis of individual liberties, respect for the rule of law and respect for each other.”

After flying from U.S. Central Command headquarters in Doha, Qatar, and then Kuwait on Sunday, Bremer traveled Monday first to the southern city of Basra and then Baghdad, along with Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Garner.

A day before Bremer’s arrival in the capital, the continuing lawlessness included an incident in which a band of car thieves fired guns into a crowd downtown in order to clear an escape route.

With just two courthouses open in this city of 5 million people, most of those captured and accused of crimes other than murder, rape and armed robbery are held at police headquarters for a short time and then let go.

Garner’s critics here have accused him of many shortcomings in his leadership, but top among them has been a failure to maintain a visible profile, leaving Iraqis feeling that their country is not only damaged but rudderless.

“His invisibility was just a mistake,” said a spokesman from one Hussein opposition group, who asked not to be identified. “Iraqis couldn’t even see people from ORHA, and that was by design. People in important positions, people who should have been consulted, were intentionally kept away from [Garner]. We look forward to working with Bremer. Hopefully that will change.”

Bremer went out of his way Monday to thank the embattled Garner, saying he wanted to “pay public tribute to Jay and all of his people for the great job they have done.”

Monday brought some small steps toward stability.

ORHA officials working to retrain Baghdad’s police force began rearming some officers, many of whom had had their guns confiscated by U.S. troops so they would not be mistaken for criminals.

However, none of Baghdad’s 60 police stations are yet operating around the clock, an ORHA official said, and very few officers can been seen on the streets.

“I don’t even have a pistol and the thieves have Kalashnikovs,” one traffic officer said recently. “They don’t have any respect for me.”

Also on Monday, U.S. officials said two senior Iraqi officials had been taken into custody, including a top military officer and a woman nicknamed “Dr. Germ” for her alleged role in producing anthrax and other deadly agents.

Ibrahim Ahmad Abd Sattar Mohammed, Iraqi armed forces chief of staff, was taken into custody Monday, officials said. A member of Hussein’s inner circle, he is the jack of spades in the deck of cards distributed to U.S. forces hunting Hussein regime leaders and No. 11 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

A U.S. official described him as a “Saddam confidant” who was “heavily involved” in a deadly crackdown on Shiite Muslims agitating for Hussein’s overthrow after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The U.S. official also said Mohammed is a potential candidate for war crimes trials.

Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, meanwhile, turned herself in to U.S. authorities in Baghdad “several days ago,” an official said Monday.

Taha is believed to have detailed knowledge of Iraq’s weapons programs dating back more than a decade. But she did not appear in the deck of cards because it was not clear whether she had current knowledge of the programs.

Taha is known as having been fiercely loyal to the Hussein regime. In a radio interview this year, she argued that Iraq was justified in developing biological weapons. “Iraq has been threatened by different enemies, and we are in an area which suffers from regional conflict,” she told the BBC.

She also insisted that Iraq never weaponized anthrax or other deadly bacteria, a claim contradicted by Iraqi defectors and evidence collected in the 1990s. “We never intended to use it,” she said. “We never wanted to cause harm ... anybody.”

Taha studied plant toxins and received a doctorate at the University of East Anglia in Britain. By the early 1990s, she was in charge of three of Iraq’s major biological facilities, officials said.

She is also believed to have helped devise schemes to foil weapons inspectors, possibly including the development of mobile weapons labs.

Taha is married to Lt. Gen. Amir Rashid, who was a key figure in Iraq’s missile program before being named the oil minister. Rashid was taken into custody by U.S. forces April 28.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations on Monday, diplomats peppered U.S. representatives with technical questions on the Bush administration’s draft resolution to end U.N. sanctions against Iraq. France outlined changes it wants in the document.

In interviews with the newspaper Le Monde and RTL radio in Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin called for the U.N. to play a greater role in Iraq’s political process and a “strict, reasonable” deadline for the United States and Britain to end their occupation.

He said the U.N. could “confer international legitimacy” on an Iraqi administration, even if it were provisional, and gradually assume the transition under the aegis of a representative appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

De Villepin also urged that management of Iraq’s oil reserves be placed under “international and uncontested control.”

The proposals France put forth could put it on a collision course with the United States during U.N. Security Council negotiations, which are expected to last several weeks.

“We approach this stage in an open and constructive spirit,” De Villepin said.

Times staff writer John Goldman in New York contributed to this report.