But the most shocking story was this one regarding Kofi Anan finally discovering he actually has a pair.

quote:
October 3, 2003


THE WORLD
A Critical Annan Urges 'Radical Change' in U.N.'s Iraq Role

By Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer


UNITED NATIONS — In an unusually critical response to a new U.S. draft resolution on Iraq, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued an ultimatum Thursday: Either give the United Nations a leading role in the nation's political transition or the world body won't be involved in Iraq at all.

Steeled by two attacks on the U.N.'s Baghdad headquarters in a month, Annan said that a new resolution must provide "a radical change" that could safeguard the U.N.'s staff and the mission's independence from the U.S.-led occupation, said diplomats and U.N. officials who attended the session. And he said that the changes offered by the Bush administration do neither.

"Obviously, it's not going in the direction I had recommended," he told reporters earlier Thursday.

In a closed-door luncheon with the Security Council after the 15 members discussed the U.S. proposal, the diplomats and officials said the usually soft-spoken Annan delivered a stern message to the group: They should pursue a resolution they all can support, but he was not going to risk his people for a marginal role.

"It was like a cold shower," said Chilean Ambassador Heraldo Munoz. "He was very realistic about how he feels about the U.N. role."

Annan had suggested that to reduce the hostility in Iraq toward the occupying powers and others, such as the U.N. staffers, who were perceived to be helping them, there should be a symbolic shift of sovereignty within a few months to an Iraqi provisional government. Then the U.N. or the U.S.-led administration of Iraq — but not both — could work with the Iraqis on drafting a constitution and setting up elections. The Iraqis would invite a U.S.-led multinational force to stay and help stabilize the country.

"Obviously, that is not what is in the draft," Annan said after the luncheon. "This had been my suggestion in the sense that it may change the dynamics on the ground, in terms of the security situation, and send a message to the Iraqi people and also to the region."

Annan's message chilled the council's reaction to the new draft, which was circulated by the U.S. delegation Wednesday after weeks of consultations with nations who opposed the war and have resisted aiding the occupation. The version offers several concessions, including an expanded but not central role for the U.N., and a multinational force under U.S. command that would make progress reports to the Security Council. It also calls for an accelerated transition to self-rule, directed by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, with help from the world body and the U.S.-led coalition.

But it did not include the significant changes that Annan and many nations were looking for — especially a symbolic end to the occupation.

Annan rejected the idea that both the world body and the occupying authorities could guide the political transition, comparing it to "a horse with two jockeys," a U.N. official said.

Squaring off with the U.S. pains the normally nonconfrontational Annan. But shaken by the attacks on his organization in Iraq, and faced with a revolt within the U.N. staff, he was moved to take a firm stand.

Even before the session with Annan, reaction to the new resolution had been lukewarm. The strongest criticism had come from France and Germany, which complained that none of their joint proposals had been incorporated in the new text.

After the luncheon, diplomats from France, China, Russia, Mexico and Germany said they needed fresh instructions from their capitals because it made no sense to pursue a resolution that Annan found so unsatisfactory.

"This changes the whole thing," said one council diplomat. "It puts everything on hold."

U.S. officials said Thursday that they may seek a vote on the resolution toward the end of next week but at this point still anticipate at least six members choosing to abstain. A resolution needs nine of 15 votes in favor, and no vetoes, to pass, so one more abstention would kill it.

"There's still a lot of work to be done," said an American official who requested anonymity. Discussions will resume Monday.

Despite the resistance, there was no sign of a pullback from Washington on Thursday. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell dismissed the idea of handing even nominal authority to an Iraqi provisional government before a constitution is drafted and elections held. The U.S. assumed the responsibility to administer the country as a result of the conflict, he said, and would hold on to it.

"This isn't an effort at our part to hang on for as long as we can," he told reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington. "We want to move this process along as quickly as possible.

"But I think it's a bit naive to suggest that anytime in the next couple of weeks or months you can simply say, 'Here are 25 people. They seem to be getting along. Let's give them responsibility for the country.' They don't have the ability to exercise responsibility or authority over the whole country yet".

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-un3oct03000436,1,1991451.story?coll=la-news-a_section

On a related note regarding Iraqi self governanace....

quote:
October 3, 2003


THE WORLD
U.S. Tries to Stop a Key Iraqi Official From Embarrassing Bush

The White House reportedly tells Chalabi to halt his calls for a rapid transfer of power.

By Robin Wright and Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — After supporting Ahmad Chalabi for years, the United States has grown disenchanted and made a serious effort during the past two weeks to rein in the former Iraqi exile leader, pressing him specifically to stop embarrassing President Bush with calls for a speedy handover of power in Baghdad, according to senior U.S. officials.

Administration officials are questioning his credibility and growing increasingly concerned about the positions he is taking on Iraq's future.

National security advisor Condoleezza Rice confronted Chalabi in a meeting last week in New York with him and two other members of the Iraqi Governing Council, and again Tuesday in Washington, on recent statements calling for greater Iraqi control over both political power and the economic reconstruction, the sources said.

"She was instructed to tell him to behave. She stressed how unhelpful it was for Iraqis to be enunciating positions that were personally embarrassing for the president, who was the strongest advocate of a new regime in Baghdad," said a senior U.S. official. "She was blunt."

The Bush administration's pressure on Chalabi, a Shiite Muslim, comes as he increasingly emerges on the world stage as the face of the new Iraq, speaking at length before the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday on behalf of the 24-member Governing Council.

Until recently, Chalabi, who had not lived in Iraq since 1958, had been the political favorite of many in the Bush administration, with top Pentagon policy-makers backing him to lead postwar Iraq. Chalabi, born in 1945 to a wealthy banking family, was airlifted by U.S. military forces into southern Iraq in early April and was eventually selected to serve on the Governing Council, whose members were appointed in July after weeks of discussions with the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

In a crucial meeting of Cabinet-level officials shortly before the president spoke at the United Nations on Sept. 23, even Pentagon officials conceded that Chalabi had gone too far and was endangering American efforts, U.S. officials said.

In recent talks with Middle East leaders, Bush has expressed anger — in tough language — at Chalabi and his political lieutenants for undermining the U.S. effort to return stability to Iraq, according to Arab and U.S. officials.

L. Paul Bremer III, the American civilian administrator of Iraq, has also become increasingly frustrated with the U.S.-educated former banker, senior U.S. officials say.

The White House was particularly angered by Chalabi's position on Iraq's future because it in effect supported France's call to hand over power to a provisional Iraqi government within weeks and hold national elections as soon as December — a timetable that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has repeatedly called "unrealistic."

The Bush administration instead wants Iraq to write a new constitution that outlines a power-sharing arrangement to avoid friction among Iraq's ethnic and religious factions when full sovereignty is eventually returned by the U.S.-led coalition.

Some U.S. officials have suggested Chalabi's call for greater immediate control by the Governing Council is a bid to ensure that he gains the top leadership position, since he has emerged as the dominant figure on the council but so far has not rallied enough national support to gain position through elections.

The State Department and CIA have long had doubts about Chalabi, stemming in part from accountability problems with U.S. funds provided to the Iraqi National Congress, which he founded and long controlled. That disillusionment has grown in other sectors of the administration in the postwar period because information he supplied on politics and weaponry proved either faulty or unrealistic.

"Chalabi has a very serious credibility problem. And the failure to find weapons of mass destruction hasn't helped," said an administration official.

Added Henri J. Barkey, a former State Department policy planning staffer who worked with Chalabi, "He didn't deliver. Once we got into Iraq, intelligence provided — whether on weapons of mass destruction or other issues — could be tested. We began to realize that all these things he was telling us were not exactly correct." [whaaaa!] [whaaaa!] [AAAHHHH!!!]

Since the meetings with Rice, Chalabi has backed down somewhat, not speaking out on the sovereignty issue in public or in meetings in Washington this week, say both U.S. and Iraqi officials involved in the discussions. But administration officials worry his current position on Iraq's future may not last.

With characteristic ambition, Chalabi took a major step Thursday toward the goal of leading Iraq by quietly wrangling a place on the U.N. stage as the country's representative. Speeches to the General Assembly are usually reserved for a nation's highest-ranking official. Not only is Chalabi not the president of Iraq, he is no longer even the president of the Governing Council — his one-month term ended Tuesday.

But absent an organized opposition, he staked his claim to be the face of Iraq, much in the same way, diplomats say, as he is trying to wrest control of Iraq's acting government.

Chalabi delivered an extended speech outlining the new Iraq. Although there are deep differences within the Governing Council about what kind of federal system Iraq should have and the role of Islam in the government and society, he declared that the country will have a representative democracy, with no ethnic or religious quotas.

He emphasized Iraq's unity, implying there will be no separate Kurdish entity. And he said that religion cannot be separated from the state.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-chalabi3oct03,1,6192893.story?coll=la-news-a_section