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Baghdad ’Governor’ Says Wants to Work with Garner
EFL
Baghdad's self-declared mayor said Friday he wanted to cooperate with the U.S.-led team rebuilding Iraq and would soon meet the retired U.S. general in charge, Jay Garner. U.S. officials have so far snubbed Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, a former Iraqi exile who says he has been chosen by prominent citizens to head an executive council running the city. Zubaidi appealed for cooperation a day after Garner threatened to boot him out if residents rejected him. At a meeting of tribal chiefs and other citizens, Zubaidi said the city would show its support for his council, which Washington does not recognize, on April 27. He did not say how.
Election? Show of hands? CNN/Time poll?
One member of Zubaidi's council said they had taken $260 million off looters who plundered the capital after U.S. troops entered and pledged to use some of it to help pay civil servants' salaries. "Our work does not contradict that of the American forces, the American officials (and) Mr Garner ... We are people who serve their country," said Zubaidi. "We hope they coordinate with us," he said, adding that he expected to meet Garner by Monday. There was no immediate response from Garner -- who heads the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, charged with supervising the rebuilding of Iraq and running a civil administration to prepare for an interim Iraqi government. U.S. officials say Washington does not recognize Zubaidi's authority since he was not chosen democratically.
Do we know where this guy came from or how he was appointed?
Zubaidi has said he was elected by people representing clerics, academics, Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims, Christians, writers and journalists.
And where was this election?
He has also said he was in close contact with the U.S. military, although not appointed by them.
The Republician Guard was in close contact with the US Military, I'm not sure that's a plus.
Undaunted by U.S. snubs, he has appointed 22 committees to function in place of ministries, including health, electricity, oil and industry, and promised to pay salaries this month with a 1,000 percent raise.
My God, it's Al Gore!
Reporters have seen him touring hospitals and water plants and holding meetings at the Palestine hotel, dressed in a dapper Western suit, with an entourage of about a dozen people, including one local sheikh. "We have not imposed ourselves on the people. We are not a gang, and we are not a party. We are a group of faithful Iraqi technocrats who aim to save the people," Zubaidi said.
It is Al Gore!
"There must be a coordination between us and the coalition forces ... We are working to prove to the whole world that we are able to stand on our feet again and restore life back to the city."
Garner said Thursday the process of forming a government run by Iraqis would start by the end of next week. His team of 400 people will try to get 20 ministries up and running. Garner also said that if Baghdad citizens were unhappy with Zubaidi he would ask him to leave and "show him how to leave."
Now that's a "Get out of Dodge" statement if I ever heard one.
Some residents say they have never heard of Zubaidi, or an election for the mayor's office, but so far he appears to have been well received in a city desperate for order, power, food and water. Zubaidi said Friday electricity, water supplies and telecommunications had been restored to parts of the city and a new chief of police -- General Zuhair al-Ni'imi -- had been appointed by U.S.-led forces.
Have we waited too long to get rid of this guy?
Karim Munshial-Assadi, head of the finance and management committee in the executive council, said the council would soon start paying civil servants' salaries. "We are now in control of money that remained in banks," Assadi said. "Besides that we were able to save stolen money." Assadi, once a Finance Ministry director general, said his council had helped to save $260 million from looters, which had been transferred to the central bank along with cash from other Iraqi banks in the capital.
OK, is Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi:
A. Iraqi patriot eager to help his country?
B. Trouble maker trying to hinder U.S. rebuilding efforts?
C. Con artist out to make himself the Mayor Daley of Baghdad?
A or C I can work with. B stumbles into a bomb crater.
Posted by: Steve 2003-04-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=13477