U.S. Signals Iraq Vote Plan Could Change

Despite continuing attacks against Iraqis and American troops, the United States remains committed to handing over power to an interim Iraqi government by the end of June, the top American civilian administrator in Iraq said Sunday.

“Iraqis all want sovereignty back as soon as it can be done,” L. Paul Bremer III said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “We want to be here as invited guests and no longer as an occupying force.”

In appearances on two Sunday talk shows, he raised the possibility of compromise in the transition to democracy.

The U.S. plan, announced in November, calls for regional caucuses to choose delegates to a national assembly. Those delegates would in turn select the members of an interim government, with direct elections held by the end of 2005. But the influential Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the leading cleric of the nation’s Shiite Muslim majority, has called for direct elections sooner.

A team of United Nations elections experts returning from Iraq indicated Friday that it would be impractical to hold direct elections before the scheduled June 30 transfer, noting that the country does not even have voter rolls.

Bush administration officials are concerned that any perception that the new Iraq government is illegitimate could set back U.S. efforts in the country. The United Nations team is expected to present its findings -- including alternatives to the U.S. plan -- to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan within the next 10 days.

Speaking from Baghdad, Bremer said the United States was eager to see the U.N. proposals.

“It may be different from the caucus plan,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “It may be a modified caucus plan. It may be some form of partial elections. It may be some mechanism of a national conference. There are literally dozens of ideas around.”

The United States would be open to holding elections sooner, he said, perhaps by the end of this year, if it can be done fairly.

“How can Americans be against elections?” Bremer said. “We know how important elections are to a viable, legitimate democracy.... If we can do it sooner and have it be legitimate, and if the U.N. and we agree that that could be done, that’s not a problem.”

Bremer’s comments came as Iraqi police reported the capture of a senior member of the Baath Party who was No. 41 on the Pentagon’s most-wanted list.

Mohammed Zimam Abdul Razzaq Sadun was arrested along with his son in a Sunday afternoon raid on a Baghdad building.

Under Saddam Hussein’s government, Sadun, a northern regional commander in the Baath Party, was known for imposing harsh sentences and running a special security force that arrested innocent people and held them in dog cages, according to Ahmed Ibrahim, head of the Iraqi police.

“He committed crimes against the Iraqi people,” Ibrahim said Sunday.

Iraqi police took particular pride in the capture because it was conducted without the help of U.S. forces.

“It is a distinguished operation which should be a source of joy for Iraqis because they now have police they can depend on,” Ibrahim said.

The arrest came one day after Iraqi police in Fallouja suffered a devastating blow when an armed gang attacked a prison facility, killing 22 officers and one civilian.

Bremer said the attackers appeared to be foreign fighters, perhaps trying to break out -- or kill -- some prisoners held in the jail. As many as 87 prisoners escaped in the attack. Witnesses said Saturday that some of the attackers appeared to be Iranian or Lebanese.

“The motive may have been to release prisoners at the police station, but also to kill prisoners,” Bremer said on ABC. “There were foreigners apparently involved. We’re still looking into that to try to find out what the implications are.”

He predicted that U.S. forces would need to remain in Iraq after the planned June 30 hand-over. “It’s quite clear the Iraqi security forces, brave as they are, and beaten and attacked as they are, are not going to be ready by July 1,” he said on CNN.

“The president has said we will stay until the job is done. The job is to get a democratic, stable, unified Iraq at peace with itself and with its neighbors. And that will take time. It isn’t going to end on June 30.”

Members of Iraq’s Governing Council condemned the Fallouja attack Sunday and said they were working to provide local police departments with more equipment and officers.

“We feel outraged at the onslaught of terror against our people,” said Samir Shakir Mahmoud, a council member on the security committee.

As for Sadun’s capture, investigators said they tracked him down after his son made inquiries on his behalf to obtain weapons and false travel documents. The son was later released.

Ibrahim said Sadun was providing useful information about how he evaded capture, where he traveled and who assisted him. Officials hope to use the information to capture about 10 other former Baath Party officials.

At the top of the list is Hussein’s former lieutenant, Izzat Ibrahim, No. 6 on the Pentagon list and the highest-ranking official still at large.

Meanwhile Sunday, a U.S. military patrol in west Baghdad came under small arms fire about 9 a.m., but no injuries were reported, a military spokesman said. Arab television showed pictures of a burning sport utility vehicle, but the spokesman said the vehicle was not part of the patrol and appeared to have been set on fire after the attack.

The military also reported Sunday that a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division died Saturday from injuries sustained in a vehicle rollover accident near Baghdad on Friday evening. The paratrooper’s name was being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.

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Simon reported from Washington and Sanders from Baghdad.