"UN Provides Cover for US
Occupation, Sanctions Colonialism ," The Wisdom Fund, May 22, 2003
"Sham 'Sovereignty' Offered: U.S. Tightens Grip On
Iraq's Future," The Wisdom Fund, May 13, 2004
"The Iraq Sovereignty 'Charade'," The
Wisdom Fund, June 2, 2004
[Iyad Allawi, Iraq's new Prime Minister, last night expressed support for
the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil as a security guarantee--Anne
Penketh, "Iraqi government given power to send home troops," Independent, June
5, 2004]
[Two acid tests will determine whether any Iraqi regime is truly sovereign
and independent of US control: the ability to order all US forces out of
Iraq; and reaffirmation of Iraq's active support of the Palestinian
cause.--Eric Margolis, "THE
WHITE HOUSE FIB FACTORY GOES INTO HIGH GEAR," ericmargolis.com, June 7,
2004]
Jonathan Steele and Patrick Wintour, "US
bans cleric from Iraq elections," The Guardian, June 8, 2004
[Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other
explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq--Joel Brinkley,
"Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in
90's Attacks," New York Times, June 9, 2004]
[Kurdish officials were unhappy at the text's failure to endorse explicitly
the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), which guaranteed Kurdish rights
in a federal Iraq.--Mark Turner, Gareth Smyth and Guy Dinmore, "Iraq resolution wins
unanimous UN vote," Financial Times, June 9, 2004]
[. . . the lack of any real definition of a UN role in Iraq, along with
continuing limits on the abilities of a new Iraqi government, mean the US
will remain largely in charge.--Howard LaFranchi, "What UN resolution on
Iraq will accomplish," The Christian Science Monitor, June 9, 2004
[It will be a democracy with controlled elections, a repressive state
security apparatus, and a "free market" economy that favors US interests
and the Iraqi economic elite.--Jim Tarbell and Roger Burbach, "The New Baghdad
Triumvirate: Allawi, Negroponte and the NED," CounterPunch, June 9, 2004]
Patrick Cockburn, "The Iraqi Street
Speaks: New Government Made Up of CIA Pawns," CounterPunch, June 10,
2004
Edward Cody, "Iraqis Put
Contempt For Troops On Display," Washington Post, June 12, 2004
[Brahimi had been frustrated for some weeks, feeling he had been sidelined
by the United States in the process of setting up the Iraqi interim
government.--Shlomo Shamir, "UN sources: Iraq
envoy Brahimi announced his resignation," Haaretz, June 13, 2004]
[A U.S.-sponsored poll shows Iraqis have lost confidence in the occupying
authorities--and that the vast majority of Iraqis want Coalition troops out
of the country 'immediately'--Michael Hirsh, "Grim Numbers,"
Newsweek, June 15, 2004]
[The UN Security Council resolution passed on June 8 requires the new
government to satisfy all outstanding obligations against the Development
Fund for Iraq made before June 30, leaving the new interim Iraqi government
with no choice but to honor the Program Review Board's questionable
expenditures.--"CPA RUSHES TO
GIVE AWAY BILLIONS IN IRAQI OIL REVENUES," Iraq Revenue Watch, June 16, 2004]
[The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing
on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts
for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends
and political power is transferred to an interim Iraqi government,--Robin
Wright, "U.S.
Immunity In Iraq Will Go Beyond June 30," Washington Post, June 24, 2004]
[If the occupation chief Paul Bremer and his staff were capable of
embarrassment, they might be a little sheepish about having spent only
$3.2bn of the $18.4bn Congress allotted - the reason the reconstruction is
so disastrously behind schedule. At first, Bremer said the money would be
spent by the time Iraq was sovereign, but apparently someone had a better
idea: parcel it out over five years so
Ambassador John Negroponte can use it as leverage. With $15bn
outstanding, how likely are Iraq's politicians to refuse US demands for
military bases and economic "reforms"?--Naomi Klein, "The
multibillion robbery the US calls reconstruction: The shameless
corporate feeding frenzy in Iraq is fuelling the resistance," The Guardian,
June 26, 2004]
[Among the most controversial orders is the enactment of an elections law
that gives a seven-member commission the power to disqualify political
parties and any of the candidates they support.--Rajiv Chandrasekaran and
Walter Pincus, "U.S. Edicts
Curb Power Of Iraq's Leadership," Washington Post, June 27, 2004]
Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Mike Allen, "U
.S. Transfers Political Authority in Iraq," Washington Post, June 28,
2004
Thalif Deen, "Regime Change in Iraq
a Sham, Say Mideast Experts," Inter Press Service, June 28, 2004
Robert Fisk, "The
Pitiful Restoration of "Sovereignty"," Independent, June 29, 2004
Haifa Zangana, "Iraqis
Have Lived This Lie Before," Guardian, June 29, 2004
[This is the war we are losing. And to win this struggle, the United States
needs to do three things that may go against the political interests of both
parties: Stand up for justice for the Palestinians. Remove our imperial
presence. Cease to intervene in their internal affairs.--Patrick J.
Buchanan, "The war we're
losing," World News Daily, June 30, 2004]
Seumas Milne, "The
resistance campaign is Iraq's real war of liberation: The sham of this
week's handover will do nothing to end the uprising," Guardian, July 1,
2004
Rory McCarthy, "US will
override Baghdad in war on terrorism," Guardian, July 1, 2004
Mitch Potter, "Shades of Saddam in Iraq terror laws,"
Toronto Star, July 8, 2004
Paul McGeough, "Allawi
shot inmates in cold blood: witnesses," Sidney Morning Herald, July 17, 2004
[The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is supporting the new service,
which was unveiled by Allawi . . .
the CIA's Baghdad station has become the largest in the agency's history,
bigger even than the station in Saigon during the Vietnam War. The overall
mission in Iraq - originally planned for 85 personnel - presently numbers
500--"Back to the past in Iraq," Jane's Information Group, July 22, 2004]
[Allawi blew the brains out of the chained men at Baghdad's Al-Almariyah
security center.--Chris Floyd, "Hard
Reign," Moscow Times, July 23, 2004]
[It is precisely the political strength of the Shia majority that the
Allawi government and the Bush Administration fear and wish to destroy.
That is why they launched the raid to capture Sadr.--Milan Rai, "Slaughter in Najaf: Bush
Ignited This Insurgency, Not al-Sadr," CounterPunch, August 13, 2004]
Anton La Guardia and David Rennie, "Iraq has its
sovereignty, but America is still running the show," Telegraph,
September 23, 2004
[ . . . it was a total myth, fraud, lie, and outright propaganda for the
Bush Jr. administration to maintain that it was somehow magically
transferring "sovereignty" to its puppet Interim Government of Iraq during
the summer of 2004. Under the laws of war, sovereignty is never transferred
from the defeated sovereign such as Iraq to a belligerent occupant such as
the United States. This is made quite clear by paragraph 353 of U.S. Army
Field Manual 27-10 (1956): "Belligerent occupation in a foreign war, being
based upon the possession of enemy territory, necessarily implies that the
sovereignty of the occupied territory is not vested in the occupying power.
Occupation is essentially provisional."--Francis A. Boyle, "Iraq and
the Laws of War," International Clearing House, October 14, 2005]
["The presence of a massive U.S. embassy - by far the largest in the world -
co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as
an indication of who actually exercises power in their country,"--Charles J.
Hanley, "U.S. Building Massive Embassy in Baghdad," Associated Press, April 14,
2006]
[The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, announced in Egypt that the
construction of a wall around the Sunni district of al-Adhamiyah would stop,
but without effect. An Iraqi army spokesman simply said that the Prime
Minister had been misled. The Iraqi Defence Ministry is largely under
American control - one senior Iraqi army official who obeyed a direct order
from Mr al-Maliki late last year found himself jailed by US forces.--Patrick
Cockburn, "The
Great Wall of Baghdad may be going up, but there's still carnage on the
streets," Independent, May 6, 2007]
[The US Army tried to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr, the widely revered
Shia cleric, after luring him to peace negotiations at a house in the holy
city of Najaf, which it then attacked, according to a senior Iraqi
government official.--Patrick Cockburn, "
Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr," Independent, May 21, 2007]