Zone, Where Iraqis 'Refuse on Principle' to Go, He Says (Green Zone)

[Robbien]

NEWSWEEK: Zone, Where Iraqis 'Refuse on Principle' to Go, He Says; Those Coming to See Him Had to Wait Three Hours to Be Searched
Sunday April 18, 10:57 am ET
With Mortars Exploding at Night, Helicopters Shot Down, 'It's Hard Not to Feel That You Are in Harm's Way'

# NEW YORK, April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After 10 days in Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. envoy, tells Newsweek that the security problems in Baghdad had often kept him confined in the Green Zone, the heavily guarded Coalition headquarters. A lot of Iraqis "refuse on principle to go into the Green Zone," he says in the current issue. Those coming to see him often had to wait three hours to be searched. Brahimi spoke to Newsweek while on a stopover in Paris.

At night, mortars exploded in the zone as Brahimi slept in a makeshift dormitory in one of Saddam's former palaces. His few trips around Iraq were nerve-racking, too. "With these rockets falling all over the place, or when you are in a helicopter and you know a helicopter was shot down the day before, it's hard not to feel that you are in harm's way," he says in the April 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, April 19).

But the obstacles did not stop him from brainstorming with hundreds of Iraqis, and then announcing what he called a "simple formula" for creating a government to which the Americans could transfer sovereignty. "The situation in Iraq is not good," he said at the time, "but there's hope."

According to Brahimi's "sketch" for Iraq's future, the United Nations -- in consultation with Iraqis and Coalition authorities -- would choose a caretaker government. The positions of prime minister, president, two vice presidents and cabinet ministers would be apportioned among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and many of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council members would be dropped. This body would assume Iraqi sovereignty July 1, after which a consultative assembly would be appointed -- until elections could be held next January.

American officials, who practically begged Brahimi to take on the task in the first place, didn't bother to object to the envoy's criticism of what he called U.S. "collective punishment" in the siege of Fallujah. "To say we needed him is an understatement," says a senior U.S. official.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040418/nysu007a_2.html

[bemildred]

1. The dam is busted.

If they can get the Ayatollahs on board and keep their
fucking mouths shut, it might be possible to avoid a complete
debacle.