ANALYSIS-U.S.-backed Iraqi council faces credibility test

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B33533.htm

BAGHDAD, July 14 (Reuters) - Iraq's new U.S.-backed Governing Council faces the daunting task of convincing sceptical Iraqis it can improve their lives and speed the transition to a sovereign government.

Shi'ite Muslims, long oppressed by Saddam Hussein, have been allotted 13 seats on the 25-member council, in recognition that Iraq's biggest community must be given due political weight for the first time in the country's modern history.

The council, which held its inaugural meeting on Sunday, must overcome the suspicions of many Iraqis who look askance at a body appointed by U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer after consultations with various Iraqi groups.

The United States and Britain, as occupying powers, retain ultimate authority in Iraq, but they have given the new council more than the purely advisory role they initially envisaged.

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[CWebster]

1. Chalibi's council?

"The makeup of the council, which will have broad executive powers during the postwar occupation, is a significant victory for political groups that had opposed Hussein's government from exile. But it is a reversal for the authority, whose leaders had planned to give Iraqis who lived under Hussein a majority on the council. U.S. and British officials here have been concerned that granting former exiles and ethnic Kurds a majority could weaken support for the council among the many Iraqis who view the former exiles with suspicion.

Although top U.S. and British officials here had initially sought to keep former exiles and Kurds in the minority, the U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and other senior officials agreed to revise their formula after lobbying by political leaders who had been in exile. The Iraqi leaders argued that placing more people with political skills on the council, even if they had lived outside the country, would give the group the best chance of success..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48788-2003Jul12.html

Right. That's gonna work.