Iraq is to be ruled by Americans with Iraqi advisors: U.S. plans in secret

LONDON, April 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A disagreement has broken out at a senior level within the Bush administration over a new government that the U.S. is secretly planning in Kuwait to rule Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a leading British newspaper reported.

Under the plan, the government will consist of 23 ministries, each headed by an American. Every ministry will also have four Iraqi advisers appointed by the Americans, the Guardian has learned.

The government will take over Iraq city by city. Areas declared "liberated" by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Tommy Franks will be transferred to the temporary government under the overall control of Jay Garner, the former U.S. general appointed to head a military occupation of Iraq.

In anticipation of the Baghdad regime's fall, members of this interim government have begun arriving in Kuwait.

Decisions on the government's composition appear to be entirely in U.S. hands, particularly those of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

This has annoyed General Garner, who is officially in charge but who, according to sources close to the planning of the government has had to accept a number of controversial Iraqis in advisory roles.

With Suspicion

The most controversial of Wolfowitz's proposed appointees is Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the opposition Iraqi National Congress, together with his close associates, including his nephew.

During his years in exile, Chalabi has cultivated links with Congress to raise funds, and has become the Pentagon's darling among the Iraqi opposition. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is one of his strongest supporters. The state department and the CIA, on the other hand, regard him with deep suspicion.

He has not lived in Iraq since 1956, apart from a short period organizing resistance in the Kurdish north in the 1990s, and is thought to have little support in the country.

Chalabi had envisaged becoming Prime Minister in an interim government, and is disappointed that no such post is included in the U.S. plan. Instead, the former banker will be offered an advisory job at the finance ministry.

A senior INC official was quoted by the Guardian as saying last night that Chalabi would not countenance a purely advisory position.

"It is certainly not the INC's intention to advise any U.S. ministers in Iraq. Our position is that no Americans should run Iraqi ministries. The U.S. is talking about an interim Iraqi authority taking over, but we are calling for a provisional government," said the official.

The revelation about direct rule is likely to cause intense political discomfort for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has been pressing for U.N. and international involvement in Iraq's reconstruction to overcome opposition in Britain as well as heal divisions across Europe, the British paper reported.

The Foreign Office said last night that a "relatively fluid" number of British officials had been seconded to the planning team.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress that immediately after the fall of Saddam's regime, the U.S. military would take control of the Iraqi government.

His only concession was that this would be done with the "full understanding" of the international community and with "the U.N. presence in the form of a special coordinator".