NY Times: US plans to rule Iraq
Iraq-USA, Politics, 10/12/2002

Just few hours after the US Bush administration received the authorization of the Congress to use force anyway the President sees fit to preserve national security, a report was issued in the US on Friday, that was denied by the Bush administration, stating that the US forces will directly assume power in Iraq for fears that disorder and internal fighting will erupt between the various Iraqi forces.

The New York Times quoted officials in the Bush administration saying that the White House is placing a plan to install a military government under an American leadership in Iraq if the US will topple the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The paper indicated that the plan calls for trying the war criminals and also speaks of a provisional phase that may last for months or years before forming an elected government in Iraq.

The paper said that in the first phase, Iraq will be ruled by an American military leader that might be Gen. Tommy Francs, the commander of the American forces in the Gulf or one of his aides. This is, however, a repetition to the role played by General Douglas McArther in Japan after its surrender by the end of World War II. The paper added that this perception appeared following talks between the US president and his senior aides on the debated alternatives. But the paper said that a high ranking official and others stressed that there is so far no official approval on the plan, and it is not clear whether it was discussed with the US allies.

The plan, however, embodies the first American disclosure of what will take place in Iraq in the days and weeks which will follow the American invasion, and how the US will preserve Iraq's unity while its forces are inspecting for the Iraqi weapons in order to destroy them.

A high ranking American source said that the oil-for-food program which is currently in force will be expanded to cover ensuring necessary foodstuffs in order to ensure Iraq's stability and its rebuilding.

The idea to giving up giving the authority to a provisional government from the Iraqi opposition came as a result of the difficulties which are facing the current government in Afghanistan, and as the CIA and the state department opposed the idea.

Disclosing the American plan over the future of Iraq coincided with statements by American officials and analysts that the American forces might be ready to launch a war against Iraq in a very near time.

Previous Stories:
  A new raid on al- Basra airport   (10/11/2002)
  Talibani: US will topple Saddam beginning of 2003, within one week   (10/10/2002)
  Washington opposes a provisional government in Iraq   (10/7/2002)

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