World

Iraq Gov't May Reinstate Saddam Backers

November 7, 2006 / 2:56 PM EST / CBS/AP

A day after Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang, the Shiite-dominated government offered a major concession Monday to his Sunni backers that could see thousands of members of the ousted dictator's Baath party reinstated in their jobs.

With a tight curfew holding down violence after Saddam's guilty verdict and death sentence, the government reached out to disaffected Sunnis in hopes of enticing them away from the insurgency, which has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and is responsible for the vast majority of U.S. casualties.

The U.S. military announced the deaths of five more American troops, two in a helicopter crash north of Baghdad and three in fighting west of the capital. The deaths raised to 18 the number of U.S. forces killed in the first six days of November.

Relentless sectarian killings also persisted despite the extraordinary security precautions. Fifty-nine bodies were discovered Sunday and Monday across Iraq, police said. But with no surge in violence, authorities were gradually lifting the restrictions in Baghdad and two restive Sunni provinces: Pedestrians were allowed back on the capital's streets late Monday afternoon, and the international airport was to reopen Tuesday morning.

Watch RAW video of Iraqis protesting Saddam's sentence.

See photos from inside and outside the courtroom.

Around the country, jubilant Shiites celebrated verdict on Saddam's trialwhile Sunnis held defiant counter-demonstrations.

Shiites and their leaders are anxious to see Saddam executed quickly. His lawyers are appealing but many here expect the government will try to speed up that process, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.

If they succeed, it could be only a few months before Saddam Hussein is led from his prison cell and hanged by the neck.

In other developments:

A Marine pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case of an Iraqi civilian who other servicemen said was kidnapped and killed by members of the squad. Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, 23, was the third serviceman to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for his testimony. A Navy medic and one other Marine previously pleaded guilty to lesser charges and testified about the killing of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad last April in the town of Hamdania.

The families of two British soldiers killed in Iraq are trying to persuade British judges to order a public inquiry into the legality of the war. The families say their sons were sent to Iraq on the basis of flawed legal advice. A judge on Britain's High Court last year dismissed the families' demand for an inquiry, but the Court of Appeal has ruled they can challenge the ruling. The families contend Britain has an implied obligation to hold an independent inquiry under Article Two of the European Convention of Human Rights, which protects the "right to life."

It appears the White House will be looking for a new ambassador to Iraq. A senior Bush administration official says the current ambassador will be quitting soon. Zalmay Khalilzad is expected to take a job either in the academic world or in the private sector. Exactly when he'll leave isn't clear, but the official says he will likely stay through the spring.

Two Marines and one soldier died in fighting in Iraq's restive Anbar province, the military said. The Marines were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and the soldier was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, a brief statement said.

Two more soldiers died in a helicopter crash early Monday in Salahuddin province, which includes Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, another statement said. No gunfire was observed in the area at the time of the crash, which was being investigated, it said. Those soldiers were members of Task Force Lightning, attached to the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, the military said. The deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month to 18.

Still missing was a U.S. soldier kidnapped last month in Baghdad, and the man's Iraqi uncle said Monday he believed his nephew's abductors belong to a "well organized" rogue cell from the Shiite Mahdi Army militia of the anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Entifadh Qanbar, the uncle, said he had received a $250,000-ransom demand from the kidnappers, through an intermediary. He had in turn demanded proof that his nephew was alive and well before entering negotiations.

House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra criticized the Bush administration today for its handling of once-secret documents from Saddam Hussein's covert nuclear program disclosed on a federal Web site. The Republican complained the U.S. intelligence community hadn't properly declassified the documents. He told CNN's "Late Edition" that his committee would review the documents to determine the former Iraqi leader's goals and capabilities before the war.

Iraq's appeals court is expected to rule on an appeal by Saddam's lawyers by the middle of January, the chief prosecutor said Monday, setting in motion a possible execution by mid-February. If the ruling is upheld, The Associated Press has learned that Iraq's three-man presidential council is pledged to allow Saddam's hanging to take place. The execution must be carried out within 30 days of the appeals court's decision.

Sunday's verdict and Monday's opening to the Sunnis were seen as a welcome break for the United States, which had recently called for the Iraqi government to stop purging members of Saddam's Baath party from their jobs. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, however, has balked at U.S. requests to set up an amnesty for insurgents.

The United States dissolved and banned the Baath party in May 2003, a month after toppling Saddam. The U.S. later softened its stance, inviting former high-level officers from the disbanded military to join the security forces.

The former top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, also allowed thousands of teachers who were Baathists to return to work. He conceived of the so-called de-Baathification effort but later found it had gutted key ministries and the military with no replacement personnel among the Iraqi work force and educated elite.

About 1.5 million of Iraq's 27 million people belonged to the Baath party — formally known as the Baath Arab Socialist Party — when Saddam was ousted. Most said they joined for professional, not ideological, reasons.

Career advancement, university enrollment and specialized medical care depended on party membership. However, those who advanced in the party were expected to spy on fellow Iraqis and to join militias that were accused of helping suppress Shiite and Kurdish revolts after the 1991 Gulf War.

Monday's political concession to the Sunnis was detailed by a government organization that had been charged with removing Saddam loyalists from state institutions. Under a draft law, which the Shiite-dominated parliament must approve, the organization now plans to amend its rules to enable thousands of former Baath party members to win back their jobs.

The amendments developed from a 24-point national reconciliation plan that al-Maliki announced in June shortly after taking office.

"Such a move will be in the interest of Iraq because a Baathist, like any Iraqi citizen, has the right to get back his job," said Ammar Wajih, of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni group.

"This decision could move the country toward stability and could be a way to open bridges between the resistance and the Americans," Wajih said, referring to advances the Americans have pursued with insurgent groups in a bid to end the fighting.

Under the former de-Baathification protocols, 10,302 senior party members had been listed for dismissal. The draft law, however, includes the names of just 1,500 Baath party members, said Ali al-Lami, the commission's executive director. Those not reinstated would receive pensions, he told the AP.

The commission was established in January 2004 and has already purged 7,688 party members from government positions.

Many Sunni Arabs claim that that the de-Baathification process was aimed at their sect rather than the Baath party. Until Saddam was ousted, the Sunni minority had ruled Iraq for decades. But al-Lami said more Shiite Baath party members lost their jobs in southern Iraq than Sunnis did in the central heartland.

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