January 16, 2004
The New York Times

U.S. Joins Iraqis to Seek UN Role in Interim Rule

by Steven R. Weisman and John H. Cushman Jr.

The Bush administration, trying to rescue its troubled plan to restore sovereignty to Iraq, is joining Iraqi leaders to press the United Nations to play a role in choosing an interim government in Baghdad, administration officials said Thursday.

L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator in Baghdad, and an Iraqi delegation led by Adnan Pachachi, the current chairman of the Iraqi Governing Council, will make an urgent appeal on Monday for greater United Nations involvement, the officials said.

In Iraq on Thursday, tens of thousands of demonstrators put pressure on the United States to change its plans, marching in Basra to support calls by Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, for direct elections.

The new move involved yet another change in strategy for an administration under pressure from shifting events in Iraq. . . .

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Faisal Bodi, "The West, Not Islam, is the Real Enemy of Democracy," The Guardian, January 13, 2003

David Rohde, "Iraqis Were Set to Vote, But U.S. Wielded a Veto," New York Times, June 19, 2003

Enver Masud, "New Constitution a Pretext for Exploiting Iraq," The Wisdom Fund, September 16, 2003

Noah Feldman, "A New Democracy, Enshrined in Faith," New York Times, November 13, 2003

Nicolas Pelham, "UK officials say Iraq elections by June viable," Financial Times, January 19, 2004

Jonathan Steele, "Why the US is running scared of elections in Iraq: Washington's plan to transfer power without a direct vote is a fraud," The Guardian, January 19, 2004

David Lindorff, "Rigged Votes and Puppet Governments," CounterPunch, January 21, 2004

Naomi Klein, "Of course the White House fears free elections in Iraq: Only an appointocracy can be trusted to accept US troops and corporations," The Guardian, January 24, 2004

[A thorough assessment should find that elections are not only possible, but necessary - and one hopes the Bush administration will be persuaded to agree. Otherwise we will be left with a troubling contradiction: President Bush insisting that he has liberated 25 million Iraqis from tyranny, while at the same time denying them the right to self-determination.--Dilip Hiro, "One Iraqi, One Vote?," New York Times, January 27, 2004]

Steven R. Weisman, "Bush Presses U.N. to Mediate Iraqi Clash on Rule," New York Times, February 4, 2004