Global Policy Forum

By Patrick E. Tyler

America's new civilian administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, arrived in Baghdad today as several members of the team of his predecessor, retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, and General Garner himself prepared to leave over the coming weeks in a sudden overhaul that has rattled Iraqi political leaders. Massoud Barzani, who will play a crucial role in the formation of the interim government in Iraq, said in an interview today that the United States risked squandering its victory over Saddam Hussein by allowing chaos and anarchy to run unchecked in the country.

Mr. Barzani said he had been close to General Garner ever since they worked together a decade ago when Iraq's minority Kurds fled by the hundreds of thousands to the Turkish border region to escape the wrath of Mr. Hussein after an unsuccessful uprising following the Persian Gulf war in 1991. "His departure will have a very negative effect," Mr. Barzani said. "The rapid change of officials is not very helpful because we need focus."

He said he was concerned that the ideological clashes in Washington over the American role in postwar Iraq were hampering policy here. "We are paying the price for the political conflicts in Washington," he said. "Time is of the essence, speed is of the essence — we must get some form of government." General Garner has yet to inform him of any plans to leave, Mr. Barzani said. He also expressed concern about Mr. Bremer's longtime association with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, whom the Kurds blame for their betrayal in the intelligence wars between Iran and Iraq three decades ago.

Neither General Garner nor Mr. Bremer, in remarks at the airport here, addressed the causes of the personnel changes reported by Bush administration officials over the weekend. One of General Garner's deputies, Barbara K. Bodine, was relieved of her duties on short notice, and the officials said General Garner himself would also depart in a few weeks. Several members of General Garner's staff, detailed to Iraq from diplomatic or other government jobs, are also returning to those posts over the next month. Mr. Bremer is bringing a large contingent of new administrators, but today he gave no detailed assessment of the situation in Iraq or how he planned to reverse the deterioration in security.

"We will be in the process of discussing with appropriate people in Iraq a transition to an Iraqi government at a timeline that still has to be determined," Mr. Bremer said. Mr. Garner had set a timeline for a new government to emerge by the end of the month. "We are not here as a colonial power," Mr. Bremer said. "We are here to turn over" power to the Iraqi people "as quickly as possible." Sounding a frustrated tone, Mr. Barzani said it was "very disappointing" to hear that General Garner was going. Nevertheless, Mr. Barzani said "major mistakes have been made" under General Garner in the military and civilian management of postwar Iraq "and if we continue in this confusion, this wonderful victory we have achieved will turn into a quagmire."

These concerns now radiate far beyond the immediate region. Today in London, the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said, "The situation in Baghdad is not satisfactory," and acknowledged that it was the responsibility of the United States and its partners "to ensure that it becomes satisfactory very quickly." He spoke after meeting with the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saudi al-Faisal, who conveyed an even stronger sense of alarm. "In the majority of the country there is instability which threatens the territorial integrity and the unity of Iraq, which is of extreme concern to the countries of the region," Prince Saudi said.

He added that the ongoing violence, including almost hourly eruptions of gunfire in Baghdad, would undermine the distribution of aid "and it threatens a breakdown in order altogether." The aid organization CARE said today that two of its vehicles were hijacked at gunpoint over the weekend. On Sunday night, the group's warehouse in Baghdad was attacked and a security guard was shot in the leg. "There isn't any security," Margaret Hassan, the group's director in Iraq, said in a statement. "The insecurity is restricting the life of the people in Baghdad and their ability to provide for their families. Even as schools open, most families are not allowing their children to attend classes, especially girls." Anything can happen, she said, "from gunfire, to unexploded ordnance going off." The group called on the coalition to "meet their obligations under the Geneva Convention to restore order and security to Baghdad."

The United States military reported that it had captured two major figures from Saddam Hussein's government. The first was the British-trained microbiologist Rihab Rashid Taha al-Azzawi al-Tikriti, who was known as "Dr. Germ" for her role in marshaling Iraq's biological warfare program. American officials said they had also taken into custody the former chief of staff of the Iraqi armed forces, Ibrahim Ahmad Abde al-Sattaf Muhammad al-Tikriti.

No progress has been reported on the hunt for Mr. Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay, but Ahmad Chalabi, the onetime exile leader now pressing for the early appointment of an interim government, cited unidentified intelligence sources as saying that they believe Mr. Hussein and his sons are hiding in an arc of territory from Ramadi, west of the capital, to the northern Baghdad suburbs and to Diyala on the eastern side of the city. "He is not traveling with Uday or Qusay," Mr. Chalabi said in a recent interview. Rather, he said, the former Iraqi leader is traveling with the presidential secretary, Abd Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti. An aide to Mr. Chalabi said there were credible intelligence reports that Mr. Hussein has been sighted since the fall of Baghdad. Like almost every official or political leader, Mr. Barzani cited the breakdown of police authority as the critical issue that precedes all others. Today, Iraqi army officers demonstrated outside the gates of the Republican Palace, demanding salaries, pensions and some role in the new Iraqi army, which does not yet exist.

Mr. Barzani said he believed that it was "urgent" that a strong governor or mayor be appointed to run Baghdad, the largest Iraqi city and the geographical linchpin that unites the Kurdish minority of the north with the Sunni and Shiite Muslim populations of central and southern Iraq. He also endorsed an offer first made public by Jalal Talabani, the other major Kurdish chief, to send as many as 10,000 city police officers from northern cities to help police the streets of Baghdad.

General Garner asserted last week that about 50 percent of Iraqi policemen in Baghdad were reporting to work, but an official in his administration elaborated today by saying that "it would not be accurate to say they are working." "The confiscation of weapons by the Iraqi police doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless they have secure bases to which to take the weapons, which they don't," one coalition administrator said. Most policemen do not have weapons, and many are afraid to stay away from home. Others simply feel that the Iraqi people will not have respect for officers who served in Mr. Hussein's police. "The police lack confidence," the official said. Given the scale of breakdown, he added, "Personally, I don't think blaming Jay Garner makes a lot of sense."

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